Volume 2| June 2019
Sanctuary Palm Springs Newsletter
June 2019
 
From our Executive Director:
 
Sanctuary Palm Springs is thriving! Our 6-bedroom house is full and as a result of increased outreach and trainings we provide to county child welfare agencies throughout the state, we are now receiving so many referrals that we are currently running a waiting list of LGBTQ transition age foster youth who would like to live in our program. In order to meet the demand for our programs and services we have begun to explore the opening of a second house! We will continue to provide updates to our friends and supporters as our organization continues to grow.

One of the most vital components of our success is the generous support we continue to receive from our local Palm Springs community. This support not only comes in the form of financial help, for which we are eternally grateful, but also through the dedication of time by our wonderful volunteers. So I’d like to highlight a few examples of people who have really stepped up to support our young residents.
One of Sanctuary’s residents is a very hard-working young man who has a full-time job and has even set up a 401K savings plan. But like all young people, he needed some help with saving the money he earns so that when he leaves our Transitional Housing Program and moves into an independent living apartment he will have the financial security to make sure he is able to live safely and comfortably as he enters this next phase of his life. So we were thrilled when Glenn Johnson, former president of Horizon Air and Alaska Air Group, offered to work with him to establish a long-range budgeting and savings plan. Thank you, Glenn!
Another of our residents would like one day to open a skin care product line designed especially for transgender women. She is currently enrolling in business classes at COD and also intends to pursue certification as an aesthetician through the International School of Beauty in Palm Desert. So we thank Anthony Hernandez of 18/8 Salon, a recent ISB graduate, for helping connect her to the school and to pursue a scholarship to their training program.

One of our residents intends to pursue a military career as a Navy Seal. He swims in the house’s backyard pool nearly every day in order to build up his swimming skills. Carl Baker, DAP’s Director of Legal and Legislative Affairs and former USC swimming star, has agreed to help this young man become a stronger swimmer so he is better prepared to pursue his dream of becoming a Nay Seal.

And because our residents have interests in a wide variety of pursuits, we have a youth who is interested in becoming a fashion designer. An avid movie fan, particularly Disney’s animated movies, he recently mentioned Mulan as one of his favorites. We were able to connect him with the actress who voiced Mulan, Ming-Na Wen, currently starring in ABC’s Marvel Agents of SHIELD, and Ming has agreed to commission a dress to be built for her from one of his original designs!

These are but a few examples of the ways in which our friends and neighbors play a key role in helping us to prepare our young adults for independent adulthood.

All the best,

Rob Woronoff, MS
Executive Director
Sanctuary Palm Springs
Sanctuary Residents Tour the San Andreas Fault
In April, Red Jeep Tours and Richmond Curtis took our residents on a tour of the San Andreas Fault they had a phenomenal time learning about the history of our area and getting out in nature before the heat set in.

Harold Cutler, one of our resident advocates, is an Easterner by birth (Vermont), but a Californian by choice, He arrived in the Desert in 1994 to take a foreign language teaching job at Palm Springs High School. Harold speaks fluent French and Spanish, as well as knowing "what's going on" in Portuguese and Italian. He graduated from the University of Vermont in 1971 with a major in French and a minor in Spanish and then went on to earn Masters in both French(1980) and Spanish (1993) at Middlebury College. 

Harold Loves to cook with the residents and recently taught them to make Jelly Rolls and other sweet treats.
Askat Ruzyev  from the  Desert Wellness Clinic helps our residents in finding new modalities for stress relief and healing. Acupuncture is something new to all of them!

He spoke to our residents about his life and work through our Sanctuary Palm Springs Speakers Bureau, with generous support from the Western Wind Foundation.

We’d also like to thank the generosity of the congregation from Bloom in the Desert Ministries, especially Penny Sipes, for donating nearly a dozen brand new roller suitcases to our residents. Foster children are often moved from home to home with only a Hefty trash bag to carry their worldly belongings. So to be given new luggage has great meaning for them. It shows that they are not trash but that they are valued members of our community.

We thank them—and everyone in our community who is working to ensure that youth who live with us at Sanctuary go on to lead happy, healthy, and productive lives!
Upcoming Events
Artist David Fairrington's THE RED KIMONO II PROJECT

Exhibition + Fundraiser

Artist David Fairrington's THE RED KIMONO II PROJECT

Exhibition + Fundraiser

Join us for an open house celebration of the Palm Springs LGBTQ+ Community featuring the portraiture artwork of local artist David Fairrington. 

Each artwork is represented by a local LGBTQ+ charity and attendees are encouraged to vote for their favorite portraiture/ charity.

Each "vote" equals one dollar. The winning painting will hang at the Palm Springs Cultural Center for one year.

EAT WELL. DO GOOD.

Tuesday,  JULY 9
5:00 PM - 9:00PM
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Our popular dining out program to benefit LGBTQ youth returns to the Palm Springs location of EVZIN Restaurant

John and Maria Tsoutis are hosting the relaunch of this popular program and donating 40% the proceeds from dinner at their well loved Palm Springs location to Sanctuary Palm Springs!
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To make reservations call  760.656.8764 
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Evzin is located in the Caliente Tropics Resort Hotel
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Did You Know You Can Support Sanctuary with Every Purchase You Make
Simply sign up with Amazon https://smile.amazon.com/ch/46-2867323

Participate in the Ralphs Community Rewards program. Visit  https://www.ralphs.com.  Once logged into your Ralphs account search for THE LGBT SANCTUARY PALM SPRINGS either by name or LN599 and then click Enroll.