OUR HISTORY
BCC Full Spectrum Community Outreach Center was created in 2016 when Tim Bortner, Payton Cram and Emily Coelho noticed a missing piece in the support of the LGBT community locally. Full Spectrum Community Outreach Center was created with the focus of providing mental health services, support groups, community involvement, and eventually housing for the LGBTQIA+ community to ensure their health and standing in the surrounding area. It was formed and molded in coffee shops, in living rooms, and by speaking with those who wanted involved. As the demand for this kind of organization grew, a space was rented soon after launching within St. John's Episcopal Church on Wick Ave in Downtown Youngstown to house support groups, meetings, and events. Our relationships with area businesses and organizations became a priority and we began attending more and more outside events in the community to raise awareness of the LGBTQIA+ population. Because of this, we quickly outgrew our rental space and secured a center/office within a commercial plaza. This space closed in April of 2021. We have since launched Warren, Ohio's first Pride festival, Pride in the Valley in 2019 which continued today. We are currently working on opening the area's first LGBTQIA+ shelter. In 2019 we launched a Housing Project that would allow for the first LGBTQIA+ shelter of its kind within the area.
Original Founders from the left Emily Coelho, Payton Cram and Tim Bortner
In August of 2023 Full Spectrum purchased the Hope House Visitation Center which came with a separate space to become the areas first LGBTQIA+ Transitional Homeless Shelter. This shelter will be the first of its kind within a 40 radius of the Mahoning Valley. The goal is to have this shelter opened in 2025. The community outreach center will provide support groups, events, training's, offices for our organization year round.
Full Spectrum Community Outreach Location as of August 2023
OUR MISSION
Full Spectrum Community Outreach Board & Team February 2024
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Full Spectrum Community Outreach Center is helping to build an inclusive Mahoning Valley where LGBTQIA+ people thrive as healthy, equal and complete members of society.
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To promote awareness, education, mental and emotional health, as well as advocacy for the LGBTQIA+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual, and our Allies) community within Mahoning Valley.
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Working on inclusion in today’s workplace by networking with other local organizations and businesses.