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Volunteers Wanted

Creating Change Invites Volunteers to Host its 2019 Detroit Conference

After 30 national events have been held across the U.S., the LGBTQ conference Creating Change is seeking a dynamic crew of volunteers to help put on their 31st in Detroit in 2019. Creating Change hosted an informational meeting for potential volunteers on April 9 where conference founder Sue Hyde emphasized the conference's reliance on local help.
"We are serious about building our partnerships, relationships and working with you closely to bring Creating Change to life," Hyde said. "Over the years at the Creating Change conferences, we have hosted over 63,000 people. Some people are repeat offenders of course (laughs) … in 2019 this is going to be the third time in Detroit: 1995, 2008 and now, 2019. We are excited to be back in Detroit."
The conference is put on by the National LGBTQ Task Force, and its aim is to "build the LGBTQ movement's political power from the ground up to secure the full freedom, justice, and equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people in the U.S." Each year has had a steady increase of participants, and 2018 was no different.
"Creating Change just closed in 2018 in Washington D.C. … it was big, it was bold, it was beautiful and our thematic focus was learn, connect, resist," Hyde said. "We had 3,665 participants, we occupied over 1200 hotel rooms, over 400 volunteers, we had 70 exhibitors and we had about 300 different sessions. It's also one of the most representative and diverse gatherings in our movement."
In keeping with that diversity, Hyde emphasized that she doesn't want all volunteers to "look exactly like me," and urges all who are interested to come forward. This year will also be the first time that Hyde will not be involved with the event's planning, as Andy Garcia, the Task Force's former senior manager of leadership programs, will be stepping in as its new conference director.
"Creating Change celebrates what is best about the LGBTQ movement: our abundant strength, our powerful diversity, and our unending commitment to a broad, progressive vision of working for justice and liberation." Garcia said. "Through its values, the spaces it creates and the people it brings together, Creating Change has shaped the lives of so many of us, not just as activists, but as people."
Interested participants in Creating Change 2019 should reach out to [email protected].

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