Nonprofit: The Bridge for Youth

Over 6,000 youth in Minnesota experience homelessness on any given night. Over 23% of them identify as LGBTQ+. The Bridge for Youth provides them with a safe, welcoming place to stay when they need it most.

“For 55 years, The Bridge has been a safe place for all youth,” says Lisa Mears, president of The Bridge for Youth. “The Bridge provides emergency shelter and housing when youth don’t feel safe, accepted, or supported in their identity, additionally providing specialized case management, therapeutic health supports, access to gender affirming care, resource connections, and more.”

The Bridge doesn’t settle for attempting to create a welcoming environment via passive acceptance; rather, they actively create space for LGBTQ+ youth to express themselves.

“The Bridge is home to the Twin Cities’ longest running LGBTQ+ youth support group, ‘So What If I Am?’, a space that uplifts queer voices for a community of youth and young adults experiencing homelessness and instability,” Mears says. “The group is essential as The Bridge works to build a community where all youth feel safe, accepted, and supported.”

Mears continues, “We come to this work with love and care, authentically welcoming queer youth, bringing our Mobile Youth Outreach Center to Twin Cities Pride year after year, providing specialized supports for LGBTQ+ youth, finding opportunities to celebrate community together, and more. It is core to The Bridge’s mission that we support all LGBTQ+ identifying youth. And we promise to continue walking with them, especially at this point in time where allyship and community response is needed more than ever.”

The Bridge’s work to create a welcoming environment for LGBTQ+ youth at such a critical juncture creates an impact that is impossible to measure.