National LGBT media headlines continue to underline the needs of LGBT youth and the struggles of our communities to provide for them. As I read yesterday’s “Gay and Lesbian SmartBrief” and saw yet another story about the flood of LGBT youth to urban cities and into the LGBT communities and community centers, I was so proud of San Diego. While the story is about the struggles of cities to recognize the numbers of youth in their midst and the challenges of providing for their unique needs, I was reminded of the courage and vision of many of our community members six years ago when The Center first established the Hillcrest Youth Center.

Even then, the need for safe, youth-dedicated space was crystal clear, although the challenges to providing it were daunting. Yet our community and our allies have stepped up to the responsibility of providing care, services, opportunities and a place for our youth. This community rose up to care for youth who have oftentimes been abandoned by their families, their friends, their schools and the institutions that are supposed to care for and protect them. And the San Diego LGBT community continues to do even more to address the overwhelming needs of our youth.

This week, a small ceremony will quietly mark the official opening of The Center’s Youth Supportive Housing Project. Without a crowd of media exploiting the painful stories of the youth, without the usual anti-LGBT protesters who pontificate about their “concern” for the souls of our young people, a dream will become a reality. The culmination of four years of vision, dedication and commitment by our LGBT community, this project is and will continue to be a national model of effective and compassionate community response to homeless LGBT youth in need.

The Youth Supportive Housing Project provides all who dedicate their energy, their time, their hard-earned funds and their resources an opportunity to reflect on some of the things that matter most to nearly all of us. The project was half full of youth before we even opened, and the stories of those youth have moved even the most jaded to tears. Stories that, in almost every case, involve being asked to leave their homes because they are LGBT. Stories of the streets, survival sex, drugs, HIV, abuse and an aching and desperate loneliness. Handing the keys to safety to a youth who hasn’t known safety in years or months is an indescribable moment. It is a moment when you know in every fiber of your being that we can truly change a life. I hope each of you who have dreamed with us, helped and supported us, can feel it.

But the most difficult tasks lie ahead. We have built a house for them, and now we have to help them rediscover a home. One of the most terrible consequences of family betrayal and the survival-focused streets where no one can be trusted is the loss of hope and the complete destruction of a belief in a positive future. Imagine losing all of your optimism, losing your ability to trust the people who say they care for you, losing any dream of a different, better day. Goals become irrelevant, other than the single goal of not being hurt again. Many social science researchers call this response “the death of spirit” or “soul murder.” The loss of trust and the loss of all hope are among the most devastating consequences we know. And, to some degree, that is what lies at the heart of youth suicide, drug addiction, survival sex, school dropouts and often HIV infection.

While our job is to provide case management, educational and vocational skills, resources, drug abuse treatment, mental health support and new primary care interventions, our biggest job is to re-introduce the youth to a world where they are once again safe to trust and to hope; a world where adults and compassionate systems can offer firm compassion, where care is consistent and lasting, where their needs, ideas and dreams can matter.

As we open wider than ever the doors of the Youth Supportive Housing Project and the Hillcrest Youth Center, I know you will join us in opening our hearts even further. We need your time, your talent and we need your resources to rebuild and solidify the lives of our youth. Your gifts are the lifeblood of those programs and we need them now, at the end of our fiscal year, more than ever. Help us welcome our youth home.

To make a gift to the Youth Supportive Housing Project or the Hillcrest Youth Center, please go to our secure site online at www.thecentersd.org and click on “Donate Now,” or call Michael Horvat, development associate, at (619) 692-2077 ext. 104.