Illinois Safe Schools Alliance Announces Opening of Champaign Office

Chicago, IL (October 1st, 2012)—The Illinois Safe Schools Alliance (the Alliance)
officially announced their expansion with a new office in Champaign, IL yesterday
at the 4th Annual Alliance Brunch. The Alliance’s Champaign office will host two
staff positions and will be located within Unit 4 district offices. “We are so excited
about this huge step toward fully realizing our statewide mission and we are grateful
for the significant support we are receiving through the Illinois Department of
Human Service’s Substance Abuse Prevention Statewide Capacity-Building grant
we received in July of this year.” The IDHS grant, totaling $128,000 per year, aims to
help the Alliance increase the capacity of school personnel and social service
providers throughout Illinois to prevent substance use and abuse in LGBTQ youth.

The opening of this office is emblematic of the significant growth of the Alliance
over the past few years. The Alliance’s Chicago-based staff has expanded to five
with the recent addition of Lawrence Carter as the Gay-Straight Alliance Network
Coordinator. The Alliance has also become the fiscal sponsor of the National Safe
Schools Roundtable (NSSR), a national collaborative of LGBTQ safe schools
organizations, and will be hosting the NSSR’s annual convening in Chicago this
November.