June 2019: Happy Pride!

*|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|*

Happy Summer Y'all! It's pride month, the sun is out, and the 2019 STAY Summer Institute is less than a month away! We know June is the designated pride month but the STAY Project celebrates the beautiful and complex lives of queer youth in these hills, hoods, and hollers all year around. Be proud and gay every dang day y'all! The STAY Project steering committee kicked off the summer season by gathering in Knoxville, TN  for our quarterly meeting. The meeting opened with a youth hip-hop/ poetry open mic at the Phyllis Wheatley Center YWCA -the showcase was so much fun AND we were able to raise $200 for the Black Appalachian Young and Rising Gathering! Thank you so much to the Phyllis Wheatley Center for letting us use their space and our performers Kam, Geonovah! and Black Atticus for sharing their music with us! The steering committee then spent the rest of the weekend working together to plan out the upcoming 2019 Summer Institute! We worked hard, cooked and shared meals together, laughed a lot, and emerged from the weekend with a truly beautiful agenda and theme for this year's institute- STAY Project 2019 Summer Institute: Challenging Power by Building Our Power! We chose this theme because as young people, we don't always feel like we have power to make change but we do -especially when we work together to flex our collective muscle. We are so excited to be joined by our peers to build a shared understanding of the issues young people in our region face and a shared vision and plan for the future we want in Appalachia. We are excited for the skills y'all are going to bring, we are excited for the fun we are going to have, and we are definitely excited about the talent show!!! Register before July 12th to be a part of the 2019 STAY Summer Institute! kinship & solidarity, The STAY Project staff & steering committee It's Here!! We are excited to announce the 2019 annual STAY Summer Institute July 18th-21st at Hungry Mother Lutheran Retreat Center in Marion, VA! We hope you can join us for what promises to be a weekend full of fun, friendship, collective learning and growth. Registration will close Monday, July 8th,. The STAY Summer Institute (SSI) is STAY's largest gathering and is designed by youth for youth. This event is an autonomous space for 14-30 year old's from Central Appalachia (includes Eastern Kentucky, East Tennessee, West Virginia, Southwest Virginia, and Western North Carolina). If you are not eligible to attend and still want to support this event, we are asking you to make a donation here to sponsor a young person to attend the STAY Summer Institute! No one is turned away from the summer institute for not having the money to attend. The STAY Project provides food, lodging, scholarships, and transportation assistance to all who need it and your donations make that happen! Learn more or Register for SSI Here! A Gathering for led by and for Black Appalachian Youth coming this November 2019! Click here to find out more about this gathering! There is a $10,000 goal to cover the event and to pay the Black youth who are doing the work to make it happen. STAY is asking you to invest in this important work by making a donation today.  Donate to support Black Futures in Appalachia Did y'all hear that STAY is now offering financial support to members who are organizing projects/events in their communities? We are able to offer up to $200 to support members’ projects that align with our mission and core beliefs. Specifically, we are hoping to support projects/events that further STAY’s work of providing space for young Appalachians to gather, learn with/from, create, and work together. To learn more and to request support, fill out this form! Regional Happenings Be a STAY Project Member! Wanna join the STAY Project? We’ve added a membership form to our website! If you are between the ages of 14-30 and living in Appalachia and want to be a member of the STAY Project, head on over to our membership page and fill out the form. If you are a current member go ahead and fill out the form to update your information. Come be a part of the movement for youth and by youth that is working towards a just, sustainable, and equitable Appalachia! When you give to the STAY Project you are nourishing a grassroots movement by youth and for youth in Appalachia. We could not do our work without the support of a community that believes in us. Thank you for believing in us! Donate to the STAY Project! Share Tweet Forward Copyright © *|CURRENT_YEAR|* *|LIST:COMPANY|*, All rights reserved. *|IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE|* *|LIST:DESCRIPTION|* Our mailing address is: *|HTML:LIST_ADDRESS_HTML|* *|END:IF|* Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list. *|IF:REWARDS|* *|HTML:REWARDS|* *|END:IF|*