A local grassroots organization is in the midst of a month-long, online fundraising drive to raise $25,000 for a transitional home for LGBT youth on the South or West Sides.
Project Fierce Chicago, which formed in 2013, hopes to have the home purchased by September of 2014, and gat it ready for its residents by January 2015.
"Local organizations have been doing a fantastic job, but a shelter is in no way the same thing as being able to lay your head down in the same place every night," said Jacqueline Boyd, one of Project Fierce's co-founders.
Boyd said that one of the most important goals of the facility will be to be able to give residents both resources and life skills. Residents will be encouraged to help the facility be as self-sustaining as possible, with a community garden and workshops so that they can help create daily living items.
"It's going to be small, with room for about 5-ten residents, depending on the house," she added, noting that the goal is for each resident to have their own room. "They will be the ones establishing the culture there."
Cassandra Avenatti founded Project Fierce along with Boyd, Andre Perez, Katrina Sanford and Cassandra Warren. Boyd said the organization has essentially been in a "transitional state" since its inception last year. It has an all-volunteer staff, and she estimated that each member contributed about 10 hours a week. Project Fierce will not seek funding from government sources, so as not to deprive other community organizations from work they are doing already.
Last year, the organization raised $10,000 through an Indiegogo campaign, and used that money to set up an organizational infrastructure and get its 501c3 status.
"We're probably not going to have an office until we are able to move into a home," Boyd noted, adding that the office would likely be partitioned from the rest of the house so the residents would not be engaging with office staff.
She was excited that the home would likely be on either the South or West Sides, and not necessarily in Lakeview. "You can have something like this in any part of the city."
The current Indiegogo campaign runs from through April 25th and can be found at www.indiegogo.com/projects/project-fierce-chicago-get-us-home . Get Us Home, a campaign wrap party, will be held April 24 at Nisei Lounge, 3439 N. Sheffield Ave., from 7-10 p.m. For more information, visit www.projectfiercechicago.org .