Help Lucie's Place on #ArkansasGives Day! Lucie's Place is participating in #ArkansasGives Day and we need your help! WHAT IS ARKANSASGIVES?
On April 2nd, 2015 Between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., all supporters of Arkansan charities can make donations to the participating charity of their choice. During this one-day event, each donation you give will help your favorite nonprofit organizations qualify for additional bonus dollars from Arkansas Community Foundation. All participating nonprofits will receive a portion of a $250,000 bonus pool; the more a nonprofit raises, the more of the bonus dollars it will receive. Prizes will also be given to the non-profit who receives the largest number of donations! This means that every donation, no matter how small, helps Lucie's Place! WHY GIVE ON ARKANSASGIVES DAY? You can get more bang for your charitable buck on ArkansasGives Day. During this one-day event, each dollar you give will help Lucie's Place to qualify for additional bonus dollars from Arkansas Community Foundation. Participating nonprofits will receive a portion of a $250,000 match pool; the more we raise from donors like you, the more bonus dollars we'll receive. HOW DOES IT WORK?
 Friday night’s event at White Water Tavern for Lucie’s Place was a huge success. For a $5 donation at the door, you walked into a warm friendly place where you could order an adult beverage or a phenomenal cheeeseburger. I got both. Our silent auction was held upstairs in the pool room. We had about 40 items, ranging from handmade jewelry to beautiful paintings, all donated from local artists. Hamid Ebrahimifar, also a local artist, donated his time and talent to paint miniature on-the-spot portraits for some of our attendees. All of this wonderfulness was put together by Michael Inscoe and Meggie Green. Meggie set up the entire auction with a little help from her friends, and Michael and his band, the Sea Nanners, performed afterwards. Thank you to Matt White, owner of White Water Tavern, for letting us have this event in your space. I love the atmosphere and the relaxed, friendly vibe. I will be back. Thank you, Meggie and Michael, for taking care of everything, from gathering the auction items to promoting the event. You made it embarrassingly easy for me to be lazy. You both have some amazing energy, and I can’t wait to see what you come up with next. Finally, thank you to everyone who came out and supported Lucie’s Place. Thank you for helping us help others. We love you guys. We couldn’t do what we do without you. Karen  MLK Day of Service in Little Rock
Join Us to Help LGBT Homeless Youth in Little Rock Partners: Human Rights Campaign & Lucie's Place Let's come together as a community to serve LGBT homeless youth on MLK Day of Service. Taking place in January, MLK Day of Service is a "day on, not a day off." It is a way to transform Dr. King's life and teachings into community action to help bring together people, strengthen communities, and meet national challenges. One such challenge is homelessness among LGBT youth, who make up to 40% of homeless and at-risk youth. HRC and Lucie’s Place invite you to partner with us on a service project benefiting LGBT homeless youth in our Little Rock community. As an HRC supporter, you have seen first-hand how we can make an impact when we join together and take action. How can YOU make a difference? By donating items and volunteering your time. Donate Items or Organize a Donation Drive Between January 21 and January 24, please help us collect the following items, which are urgently needed by LGBT homeless youth Please consider organizing a donation drive at your work, school, or place of worship. If you are interested, please contact Kendra Johnson, HRC Arkansas MLK Day of Service Project Manager, at kendra.johnson@hrc.org. Please personally donate these items. Please label them "MLK DOS" and drop them off at any of the following location between January 21 and January 24: LA Corp 401 A Maple St. North Little Rock, AR 72114 Monday – Friday | 12:00 – 5:00 p.m. Please purchase these items through the following Wish Lists and ship them to the Gift Registry Addresses in these lists: Volunteer On Saturday, January 24, please volunteer with us to assemble “move-in kits” for LGBTQ young adults moving into their first apartments. Saturday, January 24 8:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. LA Corp 401 A Maple St. North Little Rock, AR 72114 For more information, please contact Kendra Johnson, HRC Arkansas MLK Day of Service Project Manager, at kendra.johnson@hrc.org. For more information about MLK Day of Service, please visit hrc.org/mlkdayofservice. Another year has come and gone and I wanted to take this time to reflect with you on where Lucie’s Place has been over the past year, what progress we have made and where we plan to go in 2014.
First, I am excited to announce that starting with the new year, we will open the doors to our free counseling program! In this program, LGBT young adults who are currently homeless, at high risk of becoming homeless or those with a history of homelessness will be able to receive free counseling services from a counselor who has agreed to volunteer their time. Our first counselor is Jean Speegle, LCSW, MSW, who has been practicing in Little Rock for 33 years and a large number of her clients have been LGBT. She is now semi-retired and has agreed to assist Lucie's Place and see our homeless LGBT young adults in need of counseling services. As the program grows, we will add more counselors who have agreed to offer their services, free of charge, to this vulnerable population. We have been working on the specifics of this program for almost a year now and it feels wonderful to add another level of assistance we are able to offer to our clients. In 2013, we worked with and assisted 25 young adults in the area, who needed help in a variety of ways. Some needed cell phones, bus passes, food, toiletries or advice on which shelters/agencies in the area they should attempt to visit. Some of these clients simply needed someone to talk to, who wouldn’t judge them for their gender identity and/or sexual orientation. Through 2014, as Lucie’s Place grows and we move closer to opening our Transitional Living Program (TLP), we expect these numbers to rise. We are working hard to secure the money we need to open the doors of our TLP in the coming year. Several grant requests are currently being drafted and will be submitted in January and we have two fundraisers scheduled for 2014, so mark your calendars now! March 18th, we will be hosting a dinner with the Arkansas author Brock Thompson, who wrote The Un-Natural State: Arkansas and the Queer South. On October 10th, we will be having our second annual “Hair Affair”, which is a celebration & competition of large, fabulous local hair. The third piece of our fundraising puzzle involves donations from our own community members; that is to say, you! In the past, we have put our efforts towards searching for larger, one-time donations. This leads to us seeing spikes of donations at very specific times of the year and then those numbers decline drastically, leaving us with very sporadic income. We also recognize that asking for smaller amounts more often places less of a financial burden on our community members, who we are relying on to operate our programs. This year, we have set a different goal for community donations. Instead of focusing on a specific monetary amount, our goal is to secure 100 donations each month, regardless of their size. Starting today, you can sign up to have any amount you choose, big or small, automatically donated each month through Paypal We hope that you will take this time to sign up to give monthly to Lucie’s Place and will encourage your network of friends to do the same! Please click here to visit the subscription form. 2013 was a year of exponential growth for Lucie's Place. With your help, 2014 will be just as successful! The board of directors & myself are excited to see where Lucie’s Place goes in 2014 and we hope that we will be able to meet our goal of opening the TLP by the end of 2014. Sincerely, Penelope Poppers Executive Director Lucie's Place announces free counseling programWe are excited to announce that with the new year, we will be opening our free counseling program! In this program, LGBT homeless young adults (18-25) will be able to meet with LGBT friendly counselors, to discuss issues with housing, family, friends, sexuality, gender identity, etc.
Many (if not most) of the young adults we work with have dealt with a lot of abuse in their lives, be it physical or mental abuse from their families, friends, church, society as a whole, etc. Dealing with this on your own can be really difficult, especially when you do not have stable housing available. This program hopes to help address these specific needs of the LGBT homeless young adults we work with. We are excited to be finally able to announce the opening of this program. Please click here for more information on the program. Our next meeting for homeless LGBT folks will be Oct. 18th from 4-5:30 at canvascommunity church, located at 1111 W. 7th St. For now we would like to keep these meetings for LGBT people who are currently homeless, or have a history of homelessness. Once we get the group off the ground we will begin conversations about inviting others to come. Thanks for your support and understanding! 
We are beginning monthly meetings for LGBT individuals who are currently homeless, have a history of homelessness or are at risk of becoming homeless. This is an all ages group. Our first meeting will be the 20th of Sept. and as a group we will develop a solid of what we all want the group to be. Please spread the word if you know anyone who might be interested, or send them our way.
Great news! We just received word from the IRS that our application for non-profit status was granted to Lucie's Place! That means that we can now begin applying for foundation support, a large piece of the puzzle that was missing. Also, the donations you make to Lucie's Place are now tax deductible! For now, you can donate through Paypal, although we are working on a better donation system. We hope to have that soon! We would like to welcome Greg Fry onto the board of Lucie's Place! Greg is a priest for the Episcopal Church and has a lot of past non-profit board experience. In Sarasota, FL, Greg serviced on the board of Noel House, which offers programs for homeless, unwed mothers and their infants with medical services and temporary/transitional housing. Greg has served as a case manager in a halfway house and has been a chemical dependency counselor at Talbert House in Cincinnati, Ohio. We are very excited to have Greg and all of these amazing skills and experiences brought to the board of Lucie's Place!
Lucie's Place has secured our very own toll free number. You can now call us at any time, from any phone, even if it does not have minutes. The number is 1-855-LuciesPlace
|
NewsKeep up to date with Lucie's Place through this news blog! Archives
March 2015
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed
|
Follow Us On Social Media!
|
Assisting homeless LGBTQ young adults in Central Arkansas
(501) 508-5005 | 307 West 7th street, Little Rock, AR 72201
(501) 508-5005 | 307 West 7th street, Little Rock, AR 72201
Lucie's Place is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization | EIN: 45-3671770
Copyright © 2012-2021 | Lucie's Place