MU Spotlight 20/20
Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center
What is your role in your organization and what is something many may not know about the work you do?
I'm Adrian Shanker, the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center Executive Director. Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center provides arts, health, and youth programs for the LGBT community in the Greater Lehigh Valley. Some people may not know that we work specifically to address health disparities shortening LGBT lives - especially tobacco, cancer, diabetes, and HIV. We work to ensure smoke-free spaces for the LGBT community and we promote cancer screenings, HIV testing, and healthy eating for the LGBT community. We also worked this year to protect LGBT youth in the city of Allentown from the unscientific and debunked quakery that is sometimes called "conversion therapy" by banning it in Allentown.
What projects were completed on Heritage Day? How Did volunteers on Heritage Day support your work?
On Heritage Day, ÑÇÖÞÇéÉ« community members helped the center clear out our garage, which was a long-awaited project that was important in helping us to maximize storage space for our organization.
What is your favorite part of your job?
Waking up every day to do work I'm passionate about is a wonderful thing. Working to open our center so the LGBT community has a place for arts, health, and youth programs has been a dream come true.
How does ÑÇÖÞÇéÉ« support your mission?
We are proud of our many partnerships with ÑÇÖÞÇéÉ« - Liz Kleintop serves on our Board of Directors, we've had ÑÇÖÞÇéÉ« students intern at the center, we've had student groups come to volunteer, and right now we even have a service learning partnership with the MBA program. Students who want to be more involved with our center are most certainly welcome!
How can ÑÇÖÞÇéɫ—and the greater community—be more involved with your organization?
We welcome students as interns or volunteers, or even just to attend our events or services here at our center! For more information on interning, .
What is the biggest challenge your organization faces?
Like many non-profits, we face greater community needs than we have the resources to address. We are doing an incredible amount of work, but as a small non profit, there are limits to what we can do. We try hard to ensure that we are always placing priority on current community needs and responding to evidence and data when determining which projects to prioritize.
What do you hope for the future of your organization?
We hope that the future brings us continued community engagement and partnerships that allow us to grow and offer more for our community!