Former Center employee seeks to fill void for GLBT youth

Garry Cabading is the coordinator of Operation Samahan, a new space for GLBT and questioning youth in National City. Having previously worked with The Center’s MSM (men who have sex with men) and youth programs, Cabading is hoping to achieve similar results in National City.

Operation Samahan began as a grassroots organization that provided services to immigrant Filippinos in the early 1900s. Volunteer doctors established a barbershop in the Gaslamp area where those who couldn’t practice in the U.S. provided medical services to the migrant Filippino workers who couldn’t afford quality healthcare. Over the years, that barbershop grew to become two clinics — one in National City and one in Mira Mesa.

The population Samahan serves has changed over the years — according to Cabading it is now 75 percent Latino and Hispanic — but the dedication to providing needed services has not. Their overall mission is to “promote better health and living conditions for the indigent, low-income, uninsured and underserved individuals and families of the community,” but there are also programs geared specifically toward GLBT youth. The CDC recently awarded Samahan a grant to provide HIV prevention services in the Latino youth population.

“We have numerous services here in our clinic that cater to [everything] from pregnancy to HIV and STD testing,” Cabading told the Gay and Lesbian Times. “So [this] is just another [way to] reach out to another population, the MSM population.”

Still, Cabading doesn’t expect it to happen quickly. “I look at it this way,” he explained. “It took me several years to actually get the [Hillcrest] Youth Center up. It took two years to get it established. I started out with one person seeing me every Friday night [and it developed into] the Hillcrest Youth Center as it is now. So this is not something that’s just going to happen overnight … and the CDC knows that. It’s very difficult because of the fact that it’s in the middle of a straight community.

“We’re right across from Sweetwater high school and we’ve seen a lot of MSM youth come in,” added Cabading. “We surveyed them and asked what kind of center they would like to have. They always want what’s in Hillcrest, which we actually cannot provide, because a lot of kids go there, not just for the Youth Center, but to go into the coffee shops and the [gay-friendly] shops, which we don’t have here.… They have seen the promised land at the Hillcrest Youth Center — a pool table, big screen TV, DVD players, X-Boxes. We don’t have that here; this is just an empty space. Since we are just starting the program, we want to ask them what they want so we can provide it for them.

“What we provide is a [place for those who don’t want to be outed], because we have straight kids here, too. When you walk in the door you won’t be bombarded by HIV information; that’s just one of the services that we provide. We want to provide them with a space where they can come in after school to do homework or just meet other kids — or to utilize services such as STD or HIV testing, but we don’t encourage them to utilize those services unless they ask for them.”

Eventually, said Cabading, Operation Samahan would like to offer prevention case management, HIV counseling, group activities and psycho-social educational workshops.

However, Cabading is first working on spreading the work about the center to youth in National City and the South Bay area.

The program has been doing outreach in schools with gay-straight alliances, and has two peer counselors who work with Cabading. Operation Samahan also offers nighttime outreach in the areas of National City and South Bay known for public sex.

“The youth who have been coming in have been telling me and my staff that the word is out there — they know there is a gay center here in National Center,” said Cabading. “I emphasize to these kids that this is a gay and straight youth center. If they don’t want to be outed, they don’t need to say that they’re gay, they can just come in here and enjoy the space.”

Samahan is located at 2841 Highland Ave., across from Sweetwater High School in National City. For more information, call (619) 477- 3530, ext. 310.