Lavender Magazine Community Pride Award – Ryan Fouts

Reclaim is one of our most essential organizations that serve our state and region. What they do is critical to ensure that LGBTQ+ people are served by, as its Executive Director Ryan Fouts states, “providing financially accessible, specialized mental health care to queer and trans youth. We serve ages 12 to 25 and their families.”

LGBTQ+ youth are essential for our community’s growth and stability. Reclaim sets out to protect these youth through the services they offer. Under Fouts’ leadership, the results last year have been phenomenal. “In 2023, we served about 211 youth and young adults, which was about an 8% increase from the year before,” Fouts explained. “Last year in 2023 we did almost 3,500 sessions of individual therapy, which was like a 25% increase from the year before. And we did about 200 sessions of family therapy, which was almost a 60% increase from the year before.”

In response to being named for the award, Fouts reflects on his role with Reclaim and what they have achieved through their work – and continue to achieve with future projects on the horizon. “I think just feeling really appreciated in that acknowledgement and kind of excited about the awareness that that will continue to bring to support Reclaim,” Fouts said. “Really just any and every opportunity to get information about Reclaim out to the broader community is an amazing opportunity for us. Hopefully this can be a conduit where more youth, more parents learn about our services, might be able to reach out, get connected. So just any of those opportunities to reach more young people are just a really huge opportunity for us.”

For being out front in helping LGBTQ+ youth across our state and region, Lavender Magazine congratulates Ryan Fouts for his Community Pride Award this year.