| Thank you. Thank you for taking care of yourself, your family, and your community. Thank you for inviting OFC to be there with you and for you. And thank you for staying strong in your support for OFC. My name is Mimi Demissew and I joined Our Family Coalition as its new Executive Director just a few months ago. I’m thankful to serve this beautiful community and to lead a team that has met the challenges of this year with agility, creativity, and tenacity. |
| Thanks to your ongoing support, we have been able to foster community virtually – as continuously and thoughtfully as we have over the past generation in person. Nearly nine months into this historic public health crisis, I hear stories of hope and connection from OFC families. Just as it should be: our aim is to help our community not just survive, but thrive! Also thanks to your support, the OFC staff continues to pull together, pivoting and adapting our work, driven by our commitment to you and our mission. Here are a few highlights of what we accomplished together in 2020: |
- we hosted a whopping 242 family support events over 48 weeks of programming; bringing our community together more than 1,800 times
- we launched new, special programming to meet the moment, including interactive online music & movement classes, arts & crafts workshops, anti-racist parenting workshops, a Positive Parenting Program: Teen training series, and more
- we launched a Parent Advisory Council, an incredible team of parent leader volunteers who provide input to OFC’s family support programming
- we live-streamed 65 unique story times during the first bewildering months of the pandemic to keep connected to you and your kids – and they’ve been viewed nearly 16,000 times
- we held a day-long virtual “fun-raiser,” Night Out Goes All In, and two different week-long virtual Prides Inside – because our celebratory spaces matter more now than ever
- we never broke our stride as statewide leaders in LGBTQ-inclusive history & social science implementation, providing unparalleled educator trainings and family leadership support
- we were selected by the State Department of Education to train educators from every county in the state in how to teach LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum – reaching 977 school districts and impacting over six million K-12 students up and down the state
With your support, we can expand impact nationally.And we’re looking to you, our beloved community,to help us get there. Side by side, we thrive! Looking ahead to our 25th anniversary year in 2021, we are on the move! We’re planning how to reopen phased, safe-yet-nourishing in-person support just as wisely and creatively as we implemented virtual support. We’re expanding our work in new and exciting ways, including broadening our family support programming to reach into our elder communities, foster families, and more. In January, look for the launch of our 25th Anniversary LGBTQ+ Families Community Needs Survey. We’re counting on your involvement because it’s your vision that drives our direction. And please register for our Virtual Town Hall next Friday, December 4 from 12pm-1:30pm. I can’t wait to meet you there! Sincerely, |
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| Mimi Demissew Executive Director |
