OutYouth broke ground on Blue Bungalow

Today, Austin is on your side. Last week, Out Youth broke ground on its new Blue Bungalow, a space that has served Austin's LGBTQIA plus community since 1998. Now the nonprofit, they're asking for the community to help raise the final $1.3 million of its very large renovation budget, but very much needed. And joining me this morning is Jaron Holbrook, Janeway Executive Director of Out Youth, to talk about the project, to talk about what y'all offer and everything. So good morning. Thank you so much for coming on. Thanks for inviting us. Of course, so tell me a little bit about Out Youth at first, and then we'll dive into the Blue Bungalow. Sure, so Out Youth was founded in 1990 for LGBTQ youth and their families. And over the last 36 years, we've done a lot of things. Yeah. But we've always been a place where they're loved, acknowledged, and accepted exactly as they are. And I think that is extremely important to have. You guys have this beautiful space that you're creating. Tell me about the Blue Bungalow. So the Little Blue Bungalow, we moved in in 1998 when we lost her in 24 she was well over a century old wow but the new blue bungalow takes us up to 4 500 square feet which will allow us to serve over 5 000 youth by 2030. that is amazing and you're doing this kind of Coming Home dream campaign, tell me about that and how people can help you guys out. Absolutely so the Dream Campaign is the overall campaign to not only rebuild the Blue Bungalow but expand across Central Texas and give us an endowment to make sure that we can stay in place for decades to come. Yes, the public phase is called Coming Home which is where we've invited folks to join us in bringing our youth back to the little Blue Bungalow. Amazing and I kind of forgot to ask where is this new home? So it's off 49th and a half street and airport. Yeah, always fun. Yes, that's going to be fun to like write letters to and stuff like that with the address i love it though It's quirky. Tell me a little bit about what you guys also offer if people are not familiar with Out Youth. Yeah, so Out Youth offers both programs like our drop-in center, our media arts program, which teaches youth how to tell their own stories with all the new fancy media technology that exists now. This Jerry Strickland Jr. and Steve Kubeka Memorial Library has almost 2000 different articles of media and literature. Wow. And over on the clinical side, free or low cost individual group or family counseling. I love that, so important. You guys need donations, you need some help. We do, we are trying to- How can we help you? Donating. Yes, how can people- At outyouth.org slash dream, you can learn all about Out Youth and the Dream Campaign, as well as join us in raising that last 1.3. Yeah, and when is it expected to be finished like when can we get all in for it right now the hope is that it will open around this time next year oh my gosh okay we can do it i'll be back okay you'll be back to tell me all about it because i need to know or i need to come both well it's a date we'll schedule it anything else about our youth or the Blue Bungalow in general that we should know you know it's always been a place that our youth could find time to just set everything down and breathe and it It will mean the world to me, having been involved for 21 years, longer than most of our youth have been alive. To be able to bring them back home is gonna be very special. At the end of the day, it's just a safe space, a safe environment and that's how everywhere should feel. But sometimes more places feel better than others. So I'm excited that you guys are bringing this home here in Austin. Me too. Yes. Okay, well, thank you so much for joining me and make sure you stay with us because We are going to be right back with more news, weather, and we're going to take a look at what's trending.