teresa nguyen

Review of Q Center - Portland, OR

When I was searching for a sense of community that...

When I was searching for a sense of community that represented LGBTQ youth of color voices, I had friends in social justice circles repeatedly heralding QI as the place to go to meet the people I needed in my life. My initial intent was to meet with the Director purely as a volunteer for future events. What instead happened was a 2 - 3 hour long coffee meetup covering everything from lived experiences to chronologically going over our professional work in organizing to me somehow landing a role as a Lead Education and Advocacy organizer.

This experience in conjunction with fellow youth coordinators around town (doing MORE organizing just within the past 3 months!) is an experience I would have never dreamed could be possible when I was in high school, newly out, and completely isolated. As a queer person of color in one of the whitest cities in the US, finding space and solidarity where systemic, historical, and just plain blatant oppression runs rampant is not only important, but necessary.

I've learned through organizing with folks of color that community isn't just based on who you're partnered with and what name you can stamp next to your own org to boost the signal. The key word here, **Community**, starts from home, the corner table of a coffee shop, a potluck, and sharing stories with folks who *get it* and understand what Lived Experience actually means. Before you can hit the streets, you find your friends and family who will rally with you and help create a movement that pushes forward to a bigger place than you thought would ever happen in your life time. I feel like that's where QI is taking me, and I feel like that's where we can take folks who are invested in seeing this org grow.