(Photo via Hope CommUnity Center’s Facebook)
ORLANDO | Hope CommUnity Center, in partnership with the University of Central Florida’s Lavender Council, is organizing “Spark With Hope,” an event designed to provide practical training and tools for emerging community leaders.
Scheduled for Sept. 22, the all-day training session will run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and feature special guests, including leaders from nonprofit organizations in Central Florida. The event will also include breakout sessions focused on helping young leaders develop skills in civic engagement, community organizing and advocacy.
Zafia Gomez, LGBTQ+ services manager for Hope CommUnity Center and the event’s organizer, says one of the reasons behind the creation of the event and partnership with UCF was her desire to help people understand the fundamentals of community organizing and recognize that their “voice is very powerful.”
The event is being held in partnership with UCF’s Lavender Council, a student advisory board that “works to make UCF a more accepting and welcoming campus by developing and advising on student-centered programs for members of the LGBTQ+ community.” The council often works with other organizations to bring events and initiatives such as “Spark With Hope” to Knightro’s Kingdom.
Gomez says part of the leadership development discussion at the event will help students identify issues that concern them and explore how they can take the lead in creating change.
“Especially being in an election year, there is so much that is at stake for our future, so I really want it to be an empowering experience where people care about the exact same thing that you care about, and work together and collaborate to make something happen,” Gomez shares.
The organizer added that one challenge she has noticed while working with younger queer community leaders is that they sometimes disqualify themselves from leadership opportunities before even trying.
“A lot of times we aren’t given that permission to ask questions, or to be able to ask them in a way where we’re trying to get solutions from these questions,” she says.
Gomez also said issues affecting individuals are often interconnected, with multiple factors shaping people’s experiences.
“There are so many multi-layered things that are affecting us, and I think this provides an opportunity for folks to kind of look in, but also look around and realize this isn’t just a ‘you’ issue. Somebody else might be experiencing the same exact thing,” Gomez explains.
When discussing her work with younger leaders and activists, Gomez said she hopes participants understand that social change does not happen overnight and that many people have contributed to changes over the years.
“To understand that wasn’t just something that was given; those were things that people organized together to make it happen,” Gomez says. “Just in general, there were a lot of people that came before us.”
Gomez hopes the event will equip emerging leaders with the tools and resources they need to start their own fire.
“A spark is personal, but a fire is collective,” Gomez notes. “We want to build something that is bigger.”
For more information and to register, visit HopeCommUnityCenter.App.neoncrm.com.
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