This year’s Chicago Pride Parade will honor a West Side organization serving the community for over three decades.<\/p>\n
TaskForce Prevention and Community Services is a multiservice, grassroots, community-based organization that helps LGBTQ+ youth. This year, they will be put front and center at the event.<\/p>\n
The organization, located at 9 N. Cicero Ave. in the Austin neighborhood, offers various services, including a Vogue School. But there is more than dancing happening inside.<\/p>\n
“This is a space where young people can engage and be connected to other LGBTQ+ youth, and that helps build that self-worth, foster a sense of community,” Executive Director Christopher Balthazar said. “Really, at the core of the vogue school is really about firming identity.”<\/p>\n
Balthazar said the space helps support the health and wellness of the LGBTQ+ youth, from medical to a food pantry, and even a community closet.<\/p>\n
“<\/strong>I love this work, there is a great sense of purpose,” Program Director Reyna Ortiz said. “Sometimes kids just want to be around other LGBT youth, you know, and some are experiencing homelessness, and they need a doctor and a lawyer and all of those things.”<\/p>\n All those services are earning TaskForce a big honor. The organization will start the parade as the first “out front” leader in the parade’s history.\u00a0<\/p>\n “It feels beautiful to be recognized,” Ortiz said. “Finally, the city is giving TaskForce the roses.”<\/p>\n But not only is the organization being recognized, Balthazar said the honor will also be for the people they serve. <\/p>\n “This sends a very powerful message that our young people, their existence, their identity, who they are matters and they’re being celebrated. Everyone deserves a safe, affirming space, and we need those spaces all over the city,” Balthazar said.<\/p>\n TaskForce is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year. It serves about 2,500 \u00a0teens and young adults every year.<\/p>\n The organization said it is preparing to move to a new location about four blocks away, hopefully by 2027.<\/p>\n