This fall, it will be 10 years since Questioning Youth Center ( QYC ) first opened its doors to suburban LGBTQ youth, offering a much-needed safe zone to numerous kids.
Since QYC opened its first drop-in center, a lot has changed for the suburban organization, but sadly, not much in terms of what it is like for queer and questioning youth outside of the Chicago area. However, despite neighborhoods, cities and counties that are slow to change and a tiny budget, QYC has managed to help an estimated 1,500 LGBTQ youth since it first opened its doors.
Nancy Mullen. Photo courtesy of Mullen
It all began in 1996, when a group of individuals started meeting with a mission to discussion the issue of LGBTQ youth in the suburbs. At the time, the only available services were in Chicago or Oak Park, which was quite a trek for those living in areas such as DeKalb. So, the early steering committee decided that it was in the best interest of suburban youth to offer a convenient drop-in service.
The first drop-in center, located in Hinsdale, opened in 1998. It would not be the last, but at the time, opening just one suburban center was a large feat.
'I think the early board had modest aspirations, opening just one drop-in center in DuPage County,' Executive Director Nancy Mullen said.
According to Mullen, the Hinsdale community wasn't completely aware that QYC was operating. In fact, over the past 10 years, this is how QYC has operated.
'For the past 10 years, QYC has chosen to fly below the radar, because we know we might not be in an area where we are as accepted as if we were located in Chicago or Cook County,' Mullen said. The organization, partially because of its tight budget, doesn't rely on fancy media campaigns or advertisements, but word of mouth. The organization, however, hopes to increase its visibility.
Shortly after Hinsdale began operations, QYC was approached to open a center in Aurora. They went ahead with the idea, and opened the center within six months of opening the Hinsdale location. QYC wanted to continue to grow the agency, so it opened a Naperville location in the spring of 1999.
Following the opening of the Naperville location, the organization opened a center in Woodstock. Soon after, in 2001, centers were also opened in Glen Ellyn, DeKalb and Crystal Lake.
The Crystal Lake center was eventually cut, because queer youth in McHenry County were really coming to the Woodstock location. Eventually, kids were shifted from the Hinsdale program to the Glen Ellyn program, because youth that lived or went to school in the Hinsdale area told them that they weren't that comfortable coming to a drop-in center in their own neighborhood.
In the beginning of 2007, QYC transitioned away from a state grant that it had, and had to let go of the Glen Ellyn and Woodstock sites. Currently, QYC has three drop-in centers in Naperville, Aurora and DeKalb.
'However, even though we haven't increased the number of sites, we have increased the number of services,' Mullen said. The programming—social, educational and recreational—offered at each of the locations has grown over the years. Programs include youth leadership development, feminist programming, transgender programming and more.
'We have the flexibility to change programming, as youth express an interest to open up a night or collapse it down into one that's currently running,' Mullen said.
For the organization, funding remains one of its largest bumps in the road. According to Mullen, QYC is located in an 'awkward' geographic location—too far from the city to draw upon Chicago money, and not rural enough to draw upon money meant for areas lacking significant sources of funding.
'It really puts us in a bind,' Mullen said. 'We have to rely on smaller foundations, progressive foundations who are willing to fund the kind of work that we do.'
To not draw upon funding available to rural areas because QYC's location is considered to be too close to metropolitan Chicago is frustrating to the organization.
'This is not Chicago,' Mullen said. 'This is a far cry from Chicago.'
Mullen said that when she tells people from Chicago-based organizations what goes on inside the schools QYC youth attend. 'Sometimes I feel like they look at me like I have six heads,' she said, laughing.
'I'm talking to them about something that is foreign to what they are dealing with in the city where it does tend to be more progressive, and people at least have the conversations. We still have difficulty just getting word into schools that our services exist—and here's a mind-blower for you—that you could have gay kids enrolled in your school!
'It's another world out here,' Mullen added.
The culture in the suburbs is starting to improve, but is still very slow to change. Youth utilizing QYC programming deal with a gamut of issues, such as fear of coming out to families, reluctance to come out at school and more. The issues, Mullen said, haven't changed as much as one would hope in the past decade.
'Some of our youth tell us that they can be sure to be themselves when they come to us, but they certainly can't be themselves when they go home to their neighborhood, or their families won't be accepting,' Mullen said.
QYC still relies heavily on word of mouth. The organization, even though it knows some schools throw it away, mails information to local schools and tries to get listed in the school newspapers.
'That's hit or miss,' Mullen said.
In more progressive areas such as Naperville, schools' gay-straight alliances ( GSAs ) also help direct youth to QYC programming as well, becoming, in some instances, a direct pipeline to the organization. However, in more rural areas like DeKalb, most schools haven't taken the step to create a GSA, so QYC doesn't have that access.
But as QYC prepares to reflect on 10 years of suburban drop-in centers, it is gearing up for some changes that will help it get word out to youth who live in an age of text messaging, social networking and instant messaging.
Some interesting changes are ahead for QYC, which will celebrate 10 years in the fall. At its upcoming Oct. 10 anniversary gala 'Dare to Dream,' QYC will unveil a name change two years in the making. The organization will also unveil a new Web site that will offer chat and social-networking capabilities—a new way to reach out to queer youth and connect them to each other, no matter what county they live in.
They are also working with their youth on other ideas, such as ways to utilize text messaging and YouTube in order to reach out to area youth. QYC is trying to stay on top of things, Mullen said, because its youths don't read the papers.
As for the upcoming gala, Mullen said the organization is excited.
'I think the evening is going to be wonderful, and a very long time in coming,' Mullen said.
For more information, or to find ways of helping QYC, such as volunteering, see www.questioningyouth.org .
