SAVE Dade Executive Director CJ Ortuño spoke to a group of about 40 LGBT youth from Pridelines Youth Services last week about the work that SAVE Dade does and how it is preparing for the upcoming election year.

CJ stressed to the youth the importance of being involved in the community, participating in elections, and being the change they want see in their world. “There is a lot at stake this year. We’ve had a lot of victories, but we need to now defend them at the ballot box. Everything is up for grabs in 2012,” he said.

SAVE Dade is implementing an aggressive “12x12” plan to bring 12,000 new subscribers into their universe before the 2012 elections. This project aims to drastically increase the ability of SAVE to make greater change through elections.

Ortuño says it’s important to engage with the youth of the community about the work that we are trying to accomplish. “The irony of the work we do is that we strive to build a world in which SAVE Dade no longer needs to exist. And including into our conversations those for whom we build that world is essential to creating the long-lasting change we desire to see,” said the Executive Director of SAVE Dade.

Ortuño hopes that he was able to inspire a sense of empowerment in the youth to whom he spoke. “I hope that they were able to take away that every person has the ability to make a difference in their community and that SAVE Dade is hard at work already to help them make those differences.”

Started in 1982, Pridelines is celebrating its 30^th year of supporting, educating, and empowering the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth of South Florida.

Visit http://www.pridelines.org/ for more information or to donate to Pridelines Youth Services.