Feast with Us!

Join Stonewall Youth at our monthly intergenerational Community Potluck on Saturday, January at 6 - 9pm at the CoLab (317 4th Ave E in downtown Olympia)

LGBTQ+ folks and respectful allies of all ages are welcome.

Stonewall Youth will provide some yummy main course dishes as well as a few sides, and you’re encouraged to bring something tasty to share. This is a great time to show off that amazing dish you make, or to experiment with cooking fabulous new recipes!

AND don’t stress if you’re not able to bring anything or only have time to sprint into the store to pick up chips & dip or some non-alcoholic beverages to share! The important thing is that you show up and feast in community with us. No alcohol, please.We’ll be asking for donations to cover our costs. We’re counting on folks with financial resources to help cover the costs of providing food to youth and other folks in our community who are struggling financially. Any additional income will be applied to the costs of providing our many regular programs for LGBTQ+ youth.We'll have some conversation starters, board games and playing cards available for those who like such things.This month's potluck is sponsored by our friends at Danger Room Comics. Thanks for making Olympia a better and more comic-filled place, Danger Room!

Stonewall Youth is committed to making these monthly potlucks a safer place for all in our community, particularly youth, LGBTQ+ folks, people of color, low-income folks, and elders. Bring your respect!  See after the break for our Safer Space guidelines.

Our SAFER SPACE GUIDELINES for the Community Potlucks and other activities aligns with our mission to work to empower LGBTQQIA youth, support each other, and educate our communities. Our intention is to create an event that is a welcoming and supportive environment free of oppressive action, behaviors, and language. We urge you to consider how actions, language, and behavior can impact other folks.WHAT IS A SAFER SPACE?A safer space is a supportive, non-threatening environment that encourages open-mindedness, respect, a willingness to learn from others, as well as physical and mental safety. It is a space that is critical of the power structures that affect our everyday lives, and where power dynamics, backgrounds, and the effects of our behavior on others are prioritized. It’s a space that strives to respect and understand peoples’ specific needs, whether that’s around survivorship, ability, etc.Everyone who enters a safer space has a responsibility to uphold the values of the space.We say ‘safer’ realizing that not everyone experiences spaces in the same way as others, so any one set of guidelines established to create safety may not meet the requirements of everyone and there may be complications or lapses in fulfilling those guidelines in practice.While this may create conflict, it’s also an opportunity for transformation, and to do/be better.The following guidelines will help Community Feasts be a safer space:• Respect peoples’ physical and emotional boundaries.• Always get explicit verbal consent before touching someone or crossing boundaries.• Respect peoples’ opinions, beliefs, differing states of being and differing points of view, and use conflicts as opportunities for dialogue, if possible.• Be responsible for your actions, and aware that they may have an effect on others regardless of original intent.The following actions and forms of discrimination and abuse will not be tolerated:• Racism, sexism, classism, ableism, homophobia, adultism, agism, transphobia, and all other forms of discrimination• Sexual harassment, inappropriate/unwelcome comments and abusive behaviors• Causing a participant or attendee to feel distressed or unsafeShould an issue arise with a participant or attendee during the fest, Stonewall Youth staff and volunteers will be available to mediate on-site and attempt to find a solution. Stonewall Youth reserves the right to ask any attendees who are violating the safer space policy to change or address their unsafe behavior or language, or leave the event if needed. Let us know if you'd like to work with us to be an on-site mediator!There are a range of solutions to safer spaces policy concerns, and banning is the very last option on that list. Stonewall Youth will not always make public statements regarding safer spaces decisions, but any policy-related action taken by Stonewall Youth organizers has taken into account continuous conversations and feedback from multiple voices in our community. No safer spaces decision is made hastily or lightly.*These guidelines were adapted from these sources:• Coalition for Safer Spaces: https://saferspacesnyc.wordpress.com/• Chicago Zine Fest: http://chicagozinefest.org/?page_id=90And big thanks to our former Program Co-Director Amira Caluya for their work on these guidelines!Poster made by Masa and Olivia ^.^