Tara Jae had something to celebrate last week. Community members had donated in droves over Thanksgiving to the organization they founded, Youth Seen.
The flood of support had helped to cover some of the budget gap they faced after President Donald Trump’s cuts to DEI funding.
Then came the break-in, vandalism and theft.
Trump’s cuts have pushed the groups to the brink.
Youth Seen, an LGBTQ support group for youth that runs Black Pride Colorado, needed roughly $300,000 to continue operating after losing around $800,000 in federal funds for the mental health services it provides.
The group had fallen behind on rent at the Clayton Early Learning Campus, where staff gave LGBTQ kids of color — many homeschooled after suffering school bullying — a place to build community and experience joy.
Though the Thanksgiving-week donations were not enough to stanch the bleeding from funding cuts, Jae and their team celebrated community support. Clayton Early Learning was working with Youth Seen through the funding crisis, giving a discount on rent, helping the group keep its space.
Every donation had given Jae a little more faith that they would figure it out.
Then the building was burglarized.
On Sunday afternoon, a staff member saw something suspicious happening on the organization’s surveillance cameras. A man pried his way into a side door, vandalized the building, broke into an office, stole two boxes full of the nonprofit’s $10,000 in emergency cash, an Apple iPad and keys and registration to a school vehicle.
The employee who watched the break-in from afar triggered an alarm, according to a police report, and fled.
The Denver Police Department soon identified a potential suspect in 58-year-old Stephen Guerra, who was driving a stolen Toyota Rav4 that went missing on Nov. 24.
Police arrested Guerra earlier this week for second-degree burglary, and he is slated to appear in court on an arrest warrant on Dec. 9.
Jae alleges Guerra did between $30,000 and $40,000 of damage.
Jae is ready for a break.
While the burglary was far from the biggest hit to funding Black Pride Colorado and Youth Seen had experienced this year, it was a sign to Jae that the groups needed to take stock.
“We need to do a hard pause and really figure out what we need to prioritize to make sure that we are showing up for community in the way that community is asking for us to show up,” Jae said.
With a federal administration attempting to eliminate legal protections for transgender people and defunding projects focused on communities of color, Jae said the organization needs to figure out new ways to survive.
Youth Seen brought in more than $3 million in annual revenue, according to its 2023 tax filing. The group’s programming includes after-school programs and a summer camp.
Jae acknowledges it’s not just Black Pride Colorado and Youth Seen that are struggling. Most LGBTQ groups and Black organizations are as well, they said. After all, the Trump administration has largely stripped funding.
“I am so tired of living in ‘The Hunger Games’ with other organizations,” Jae said. “There is money to go around, and we just need people to see it and know that.”
It’s time, they argue, for organizers to get out of a scarcity mindset and take care of each other.
“No one’s going to save us,” Jae said. “We have to save ourselves.”
