Carmen's Place

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Carmensplace.org If you make a donation over $25.00 please e-mail Father Braxton with your mailing address first and last name to receive a thank you letter.

NEWS FLASH!!!!!!!!!!!! Carmen's Place has a new home!

After a very long road Carman’s Place has been able to keep its doors open to the gay, lesbian, transgender youth which it shelters from the ages of 17 – 24. from march 2006 until January 1st 2007 the shelter was located in the basement of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church until the powers that be decided to close the church and the shelter on January 1st 2007 leaving the shelter and the residents with nowhere to go. With the help of generous donors Carmen’s has moved down the street from its former location to a 3 bedroom apartment located in Astoria Queens.

All forms of additional support (financial, volunteers, other resources and assistance) are still needed. Anyone who is interested in helping are encouraged to do so! Everyone, including the board of directors and Father Braxton himself (now officially an unpaid, full-time chaplain for Carmen's Place) are volunteers and receive no salaries. Almost none of us are professionals at this point. Anyone who's able or willing to donate skills, resources, time, and money are welcomed to contact Father Braxton. It may take a couple of days, but he (or the newly designated volunteer coordinator) will get back to you.

Carmen’s Place Louis Braxton– tel: 646-512-1703 Louisbraxtonjr@yahoo.com
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ABOUT OUR PROGRAM: Carmen’s Place is and outreach ministry overseen by Fr. Louis Braxton Jr and small staff of volunteers. This intermediate shelter, as far as we can ascertain, is unique in New York City, perhaps the United States, in that it supports predominately transgender youths at risk while still making room for other marginalized youths who are also in danger. More than half of these young people are orphans, have been sexually abused and or have adjustment and mental disorders, the majority have engaged in prostitution through force or circumstance. Carmen’s Place is their sanctuary. for more infromation please visit www.carmensplace.org



OUR GOAL: Our aim at Carmen’s Place is to transform these young lives from the chaos, ignorance, and the brutality of performing sexual acts for money, food or shelter and living in the streets, to stable adults contributing to society with a self reliance that meets the best of each individual’s abilities, free of shame.

The Bleak Option Without Carmen’s Place to shelter them, these young people would have a number of choices to make each night. There’s the street, a shelter where being beaten up or raped is the reward for being too different or bartering sexual favors for a place to sleep. Procuring a job outside of prostitution, finishing high school, enrolling in college, getting necessary physical and mental attention, or finding stable housing, are just a handful of the things that are nearly impossible without help. Overcoming the terror of filling out an application, or of going to an interview and finding something appropriate amongst merger possessions, are all much harder than changing into something provocative in the ladies room at a McDonalds and going back out again and doing the only thing they feel they are good for, Prostitution.

Fr. Braxton & Tweety on ABC News talking about Carmensplace.org
http://video.yahoo.com/watch/2828667/8201611

A small shelter run by the faith community for homeless transgender and gay youth in Astoria, Queen's. Always struggling to stay open they need your help!