OGDEN, UTAH: GLBT teen resource center

Written by JoSelle Vanderhooft

It’s a busy night at Ogden’s OUTReach Resource Center for teens. The minute director Gary Horenkamp answers the telephone, 25 youngsters march into the drop-in center’s space at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Ogden in search of something fun to do on a cold December night.

As Horenkamp explains it, OUTReach, while not a religious program, was the brain child of the Unitarian Universalist church that houses it. Three years ago, the church’s social action committee decided that they wanted to provide a service for the city’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender teens. Although a number of resources existed to serve Ogden’s 60,000 young people, such as The Boys and Girls Clubs of America and Youth Impact, Horenkamp said none at the time existed specifically for queer youngsters.

Horenkamp, who also volunteers at the Teen Suicide Prevention Taskforce in Utah, holds a Master’s degree in counseling and interned at a juvenile corrections facility. Between this work and serving in the U.S. military for 20 years, he says working with youth has become his calling.

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