Help The Alliance attend Creating Change

The Alliance of Our Lady of the Lake University needs your help in sending 8 students to the 25th annual Creating Change conference!

Creating Change

Creating Change is the largest gathering of activists, organizers, and leaders in the LGBT movement. It provides information on personal, community, and national levels about the lives of LGBT people and their Allies with many intersecting identities. It is a platform to create positive social change by building connections and raising awareness of different perspectives.

The Alliance

The Alliance from Our Lady of the Lake University would like to send 8 students to this year's conference. They need your help to raise enough funds to get there. It will be an incredible experience that will influence Their activism for many years to come! The club is the only LGBT affirming group on their campus. OLLU is a very small, private Catholic University. The University is unique in that the Sisters of Divine Providence are fierce allies of them and the community (they even counter-protested when the Westboro Baptist Church came to protest the production of The Laramie Project at the theater). The majority of their members are seeking Social Work degrees, and about half of the members have only recently come out to their friends or families. Sending them to Creating Change will mold them into better students and allies.

Why?

The Alliance had a recent setback in reaching their fundraising goals. This summer they were beneficiaries of PrideFest San Antonio, a free LGBT event that brings in numerous headliners, and packs Hemisfair park full of people. Every year PrideFest raises money to give to their chosen beneficiaries, but this year because of mismanagement of funds by the organizers, none of the beneficiaries are receiving their donations. The Alliance had been counting on the majority of that money to send their members to the conference. Although they have been fundraising on and off campus, they were not prepared for this.

What They Need

The conference will be held from January 23rd-27th, 2013. Sending 8 students to Atlanta, GA from San Antonio,Tx for four days will roughly cost them about $3,000. Roundtrip airfare comes to about $2,600. Hotel stay with everyone sharing a bed comes to about $1,300. Alliance members are committed to raising about $200 each to pay for their own registration. Individual members will also pay for their own meals.

The Impact

The Alliance is the only LGBT and Ally club on campus. They are known for their advocacy and passion for activism. Some things they have accomplished this year are:

·     Hosting numerous documentary nights, with one bringing in over 100 attendees.

·     Facilitating a day long Safe Zone training on LGBT issues and how to become an ally

·     Gathering over 600 signatures in support of having the OLLU non-discrimination policies to include sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.

Please take a moment to support The Alliance in attending Creating Change. I personally attended the conference in 2009, and because of it I became the strong ally that I am today. It was after the conference that I made the life decision to become a Social Worker, attend OLLU, and focus on fighting for the LGBT community. I am raising money for The Alliance, so they can experience the same thing. I love The Alliance, and I don't want them to miss out on attending this year.