FLoatarama 2022 Grants:

SunServe has provided vital mental health & wellbeing services to LGBTQ+ Youth for over 20 years, serving some of the most vulnerable members of our local community.

Rising anti-LGBTQ rhetoric in Florida is directly increasing demand for their services & case management, to the point where they now have a significant waitlist.

This grant will allow SunServe to:

·  Hire additional staff to address their growing waitlist.

·  Provide safe spaces & group sessions, triggered by Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill.

·  Help parents of LGBTQ youth who are looking to better support their children. 

For 40 years, Pridelines has provided essential services to support, educate, and empower South Florida's most in-need and at-risk youth and community, in safe and diverse spaces.

This award will fully fund Pridelines' CampOUT initiative: a 3-day youth development camp at Hugh Taylor Birch State Park, here in Broward County.

CampOUT will provide respite from hostility & harassment for ~50 LGBTQ+ youth who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, and will equip them with long-lasting knowledge of essential life skills and well-being.

The YES Institute has been serving South Florida for 26 years, with a mission to prevent suicide, violence, and discrimination, and ensure the healthy development of all youth through education on gender & orientation.

The grant will be used to facilitate 10 educational sessions, reaching a minimum of 400 professionals, in the Systems of Care, right here in Broward County.

This program will reduce the stigma of young people perceived as gay or transgender, equipping professionals to better handle situations regarding gender and orientation, and increasing their willingness to speak up when someone is bullied.

In 1986, a tiny marching band was formed in Miami as part of the lesbian & gay music movement. 36 years later, this band has grown into the 70-piece South Florida Pride Wind Ensemble.

And for the last 12 years, they’ve produced the Youth Pride Band, an annual honor band styled program that brings around 90 LGBTQ high school students and their allies together from all over South Florida.

This grant will support their youth program, and create a new Scholarship for the winner of the inaugural FLoatarama Youth Pride Band Soloist Competition, who will also perform with the full Pride Wind Ensemble at their concert in May.