Creating Community with Zebra Youth

There is a powerful moment that happens most weekday afternoons at a drop-in center on North Mills Avenue in Orlando. The music gets a little louder, someone shares a TikTok, the aroma of a home-cooked meal drifts from the kitchen, and a young person who walked in for the very first time just days prior—quiet, hood up, eyes glued to the floor—suddenly laughs. Out loud. With their whole chest.

According to André J. Molette, MPH, the Executive Director of Zebra Youth, "That laugh is what Pride looks like... It is the sound of a young person realizing that the room they just walked into was built for them."

At Zebra Youth, they believe businesses have a responsibility to be more than just a storefront; they must be a pillar of support for the community. When you choose them as your charity of choice, you are directly investing in the safety, joy, and futures of LGBTQ+ youth across Central Florida.

For more than a decade, Zebra Youth has served LGBTQ+ young people ages 13 to 24. They are the only nonprofit in the region built from the ground up around the specific needs of queer and trans youth.

Today's youth are growing up in a challenging political climate where affirming healthcare has been restricted, books have been pulled, and families have been frightened. In this environment, organizations like Zebra Youth are no longer just optional nonprofits. They are essential community infrastructure.

When you support Zebra Youth, you support a holistic, wraparound ecosystem:

• Transitional Housing: They house young people who do not have anywhere safe to sleep, walking youth ages 18 to 24 through stable housing, employment, and education.

• Identity-Affirming Counseling: Licensed clinicians provide individual and group therapy, offering care that does not require a young person to "translate" themselves before being heard.

• Drop-In Services: Their center provides food, showers, internet, hygiene supplies, peer support, and the steady presence of trusted adults.

• Case Management: They connect youth to medical care, legal services, school enrollment, and identity document updates—the complex infrastructure that is terrifying to navigate alone at 17.

Every young person Zebra Youth walks alongside is a future neighbor, voter, parent, employee, artist, and leader. Central Florida grows up at their door.

This Pride Month and all year round, we invite you to use your purchasing power for good. Join us in supporting Zebra Youth, and let's invest together in a future where every youth can laugh with their whole chest. Download the Good Pour app to get started!