Focus Group: Drop-In and TGNC Staff 

I met with Letoya Tinch, Chris Huerta, Sheldon Echols, Monica Brown, Alexis Abarca, Frankie Reynolds, Mackenzie Lemons, Carter Cavazos, and Mayadet Patitucci-Cruz.

Other spaces we talked about:

Joffrey studio spaces

La Casa Norte drop-in space

Triple S studio space

Access Living rooftop

Laurie Children’s Hospital Relief Room

NEIU Kimball and Belmont

Howard Brown Sunnyside location staff areas

General Info about V.O.I.C.E.S. and Drop-In: 

Young people coming to BYC may include:

• – A trans person of color who is seeking hormone therapy, surgical letters, HIV screening, or a space to be around community.
• – A young black person under 24 coming in to do laundry and use basic need services.
• – Gender nonconforming people, many experiencing homelessness.
• – An undocumented trans women experiencing homelessness.

Young people find out about BYC through word of mouth, high school and college outreach programs, and from shelters, particularly TNM or Casa Norte.

V.O.I.C.E.S. age group goes to 29 versus BYC which goes to 24.

BYC generally does verify the age of young people, sometimes through the Medicaide process.

BYC watches young people grow, often for many years. The goal of BYC is to let people connect.

V.O.I.C.E.S. has a staff of six people. The program is three years old. The program is funded by CDC PS 17 1704 and is the first of its kind.

Over fifty people pass through the V.O.I.C.E.S. program on any given week.

The staff members meet each week to develop a syllabus of what they want to do and accomplish each week.

V.O.I.C.E.S. meets people where they are. To do so, they partner with other locations and other programs including the Southside Safe Space (Triple S) at 2747 W. 79^th Street.  They rent the space on Tuesdays and Thursdays and hold programs and dance classes. There is a huge demand for a dance studio for voguing. All classes and workshops are free. They use this as an opportunity to also provide free HIV screening, education and training.

Classes at Triple S have a cap of ten dancers but there may be fifty people in the dance room at one time. They hold balls weekly.

Spaces We Discussed 

Reception 

Young people should still have to check in with reception before getting into the drop-in lounge. There should still be a door to enter the drop-in space, with a key, but it should feel much more welcoming than the existing door to drop-in.

When young people walk into reception they should feel a hospitality and lounge-y feel, but the reception staff should still have control over who gets to the next level. The entry/reception area should NOT be institutional feeling.

The police are not admitted to the drop in space, which is a big reason a locked door is needed. Even though there is a door it needs to be brightly colored, inviting, welcoming, and easy to pass through once admitted. There should not be a buzzing sound to unlock the door to the space – this is triggering.

The entry sequence should remain WALK IN to RECEPTION to DROP-IN.

Drop-In Lounge 

Drop-In is the HEART of the building.

This space could incorporate a stage at one end and accommodate events. It could be a large space with movable partitions or dividers and movable furniture to break the large space up into smaller spaces as needed.

This space should be flexible and less programmed.  A whole range of activities should happen here from laid back vibes to high energy vibes.

La Casa Norte has a drop in space that is way too small, but they like the high ceilings and the natural light. When young people walk in to drop-in they should feel comfortable.

There should NOT be a view into the drop-in area from outside the building or from the street or train.

Childcare should not be provided as a service in the building. All parents/guardians should remain responsible. However, the drop-in space should incorporate an area with carpet, kid books, and kid toys where kids can have fun activities to do.

Drop-In should incorporate 100 lockers with charging stations inside the lockers. There should be tons of outlets with integral USB ports.

Activities and vibes of the Drop-In space are completely varied. Currently there could be 25 young people in the Drop-In room and they are all doing completely different things. Activities include playing games, watching TV, drawing, coloring, playing cards, dancing, making zines.

There should be lots of table space and lots of chairs in drop-in. One section should have a TV with a lounge feel.

Incorporate a library in the Drop-In space which would provide LGBTQ and TGNC books.

Huddle Rooms 

Provide 3-4 small spaces immediately adjacent to the Drop-In space for healing specialists.

1. Questions about these spaces:
2. 1.  How private are these spaces? Are they visually and acoustically separate or should they have a window that looks out into the Drop-In Space?
3. 2.  How many people does each space need to accommodate? One young person and one healing specialist? Is there a need for a larger one in case a healing specialist needs to meet with more than one young person or a young person with a child?
4. 3.  What type of furniture should be in these huddle rooms?  Two comfy chairs?  A table with two or more chairs around the table?  A desk with a chair on one side for the healing specialist and one or more chairs on the other side for the young person(s)?
5. 4.  Is this space bright or dark? Is natural light desired?  Do you prefer overhead lights or lamps?
6. 5.  How many of these spaces are needed adjacent to Drop-In?
7. 6.  Are these the main offices of the healing specialists, or is this just a touch-down office for the healing specialists? In other words, do the three healing specialists have ownership of these spaces?
8. 7.  Can these spaces be used for other types of meetings during the day when they are not used by healing specialists?

Dance and Movement Studio

V.O.I.C.E.S. and Drop-In staff would like a space in the new building dedicated to dance and movement, similar to a gym. This space could accommodate dance, yoga, and should have some storage for some equipment. It could host games and activities. One wall should have mirrors. There would be a lot of use in this space.

This space should not be visible to people outside of the building, either on the train tracks or on the street. The space should still have natural light – skylights, frosted windows, or high windows above eye level.

The only way it could possibly work to have this space visible from the exterior is if it is on a high upper floor and only vaguely visible from street level, similar to the Joffrey rehearsal spaces where you can see dancers in the studios but you can’t make out faces or identify people.

This space could be visible to other spaces inside the building but it could have a curtain to make the space private if needed.

1. Questions about this space:
2. 1.  What additional equipment would be stored in the storage closets?  Yoga mats?  Weights?  Costumes?
3. 2.  Would you need a dressing room adjacent? Would it be a large gender neutral room with benches? Would it be a few smaller single user rooms? Would it be enlarged single-user restrooms nearby that can be used for changing?
4. 3.  What type of floor material should this room have?  Wood dance floor?  Rubber dance floor?  Other?
5. 4.  What is the max number of dancers you want to accommodate in the room?
6. 5.  Where do people wait before their class starts? In the Drop-In space, or in an enlarged corridor area outside the dance room where you can stretch and warm up?
7. 6.  What other types of dance would take place other than voguing? Any other types of dance shoes other than shoes with rubber soles?

T.G.N.C. Space 

This needs to be an enclosed, acoustically separate space from the other group spaces.  There are a ton of V.O.I.C.E.S. programs that would happen in this space throughout the course of every day.  However, we could consider this to be a “conference room” that could be reserved in advance and used for group uses or meetings other than V.O.I.C.E.S. and TGNC programs.

This space needs to be extremely private for certain programs like T.W.I.S.T.

1. Questions about this space:
2. 1.  How many people should the T.G.N.C. Space/Conference Room accommodate?
3. 2.  What should the seating be like in there?  One large table with chairs around the table?  Multiple smaller tables that can be broken up into small groups or put together to form a large conference table?  Combination of comfy lounge chairs and sofas with low coffee tables, more like a living room?  Comfy lounge chairs only (no sofas or shared seating furniture) with low coffee tables, more like a living room?
4. 3.  We know this room needs acoustic separation and needs to be extremely private. Should the space have curtains or shades that allow it to be visually connected to other interior spaces for certain programs, and then completely private for other programs?

Classroom

The classrooms should be separate from the computer lab. The computer lab should be adjacent to the Drop-In space.

Medical Floor(s) 

These spaces should NOT be visible to anyone outside the building.

If children are allowed to be in the clinical exam rooms with the patient, it will be time consuming and slow down the sessions. The medical clinic floor(s) may have their own area for children to play while parents have exams.

Roof

The roof should be split into two spaces, one area for staff only and another area for programs for young people, potentially a garden.

The roof should be very safe with high safety guards around all occupiable spaces.

Access Living building has a cool rooftop where they have cookouts.

There needs to be controlled access to the roof.

Smoking/Outdoor Break Area 

There are many smokers who need ready access to the outdoors.

Ideally this would be a large space, more lounge-like than balcony-like, where people can go to smoke and decompress. We discussed a school campus at Kimball and Belmont – assuming NEIU El Central – with outdoor space for decompression.

Smoking area should not be on the sidewalk of Irving Park.  It could be at the rear of the building adjacent to the train tracks at ground level, but the area needs to be protected and vision and sound needs to be buffered from the back yard of the adjacent two-flat.

This space may occur on the roof, or it may be a separate space.  In any case, it needs to be easily and frequently accessible.

Staff Spaces 

Staff needs a break room that is NOT the same as the Drop-In space and is NOT accessible to young people. This space could have air hockey, ping pong, TV, and super comfortable couches. This is a space where staff come to hang out and destress.  There should also be an area of the staff room where the lights are dim and it is more about relaxation than playing games.

Laurie Children’s Hospital has a Relief Room with sofas just for staff.

The staff would eat their meals in the staff spaces rather than in the cafeteria. The staff lounge should be located near the kitchen so the staff can use the industrial kitchen to prepare meals. The staff lounge may also include their own refrigerator and microwave for storing and reheating food that doesn’t require the use of the industrial kitchen.

Each staff member should have their own desk that they can personalize and own it. The desks could be in an open-office setting or in cubicles. Natural light is very important. BYC plans to increase staff in the new building. Drop-In and TGNC like the office spaces at the Howard Brown Sunnyside location.  Drop-In and TGNC staff are okay with sharing this space with BYC staff of all departments.

There should be an open space for interns and volunteers and there should be conference rooms.

Loading Dock 

The loading dock should be positioned so it has a direct route to a large storage room and a direct route to the kitchen. Both of those routes should not be routes used by young people.

There should be a big storage space near the loading dock where a delivery truck can deliver a huge amount of stuff. It should be easy to redistribute the stored items from the large storage area to smaller localized storage areas throughout the building.  For example, hygiene items should be stored locally near the showers.

The “Home” 

We discussed the idea of the “home”. This area would have a homey feel and would bring together the following spaces:

1. – Sleeping room
2. – Showers
3. – Laundry
4. – Personal hygiene products available for young people
5. – Clothing store
6. – Kitchen
7. – Pantry
8. – Mail
9. – Living room for watching Netflix. Film is a big part of programming and interests at BYC.

Sleeping Room 

Sleeping room should accommodate 15-20 people. It should be on a separate floor from Drop-In.

Currently the sleeping room is adjacent to the office. This is both a pro and a con. The pro is staff in the office can monitor the sleeping room by hearing what is going on. The con is it usually takes some time for people to wind down, and the staff can get distracted trying to work when young people are chatting in the sleeping room or snoring.

We discussed having a few smaller sleeping rooms instead of one large sleeping room so that young people have fewer distractions, fewer people snoring, chatting, and trying to wind down.

The sleeping room(s) could have a dorm-room feel.

Monitoring the sleeping room is a challenge. We may consider a combination of visual and auditory monitoring.

Cafeteria, Kitchen and Pantry 

Lunch room should be proximate to the Drop-In space.  If it could be on the same floor that would be ideal.

BYC used to have a youth food pantry in their old space and they want to bring it back.

BYC wants a fully functioning industrial kitchen and refrigerator.

1. The kitchen could function in four ways:
2. – Staff prepare food for young people
3. – Young people prepare food for themselves
4. – Staff teach young people about food/culinary skills
5. – Staff prepare food for themselves

Preparing the food and serving the food should be proximate to one another. If the kitchen is on a separate level from the cafeteria, it should be easy to get food from one space to the other.

Store 

There should be a store where young people can go that feels like they are going shopping for clothes and shoes. The clothes and shoes should be displayed and organized like a retail store.