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Southwest Airlines Community

A Simple Gesture Results in a New Beginning for a Local Organization

AshleyOmondi
Employee
Employee

Southwest Airlines loves to hear how our community support in the cities we serve can lead to exponential growth for our community Partners. Each and every partnership has a special place in our Heart for many different reasons, starting right here at home in the Lonestar State. The Montrose Center, a Houston, Texas-based organization and community Partner of Southwest, was established in 1978 as a safe and affirming place for lesbian and gay Houstonians to receive counseling. Now over 40 years later, the Montrose Center has emerged as one of the nation’s leading full-service LGBTQ centers providing counseling and has been the fifth largest LGBTQ community center in the nation for more than a decade.

 

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Although counseling remains a vital part of the services offered at the Center, the organization continues to expand to meet the changing needs of the diverse communities it serves. Our partnership with the Montrose Center works well because our values, missions, and visions are complementary. The Montrose Center and Southwest both know how important it is to lend a helping hand and how vital it is to always have a Servant’s Heart. Together, we envision a healthier society marked by positive changes in attitudes and behaviors, not only toward ourselves, but toward the LGBTQ communities we serve. With our friends at the Center, we continue to make this happen starting with supporting our LGBTQ youth through the Center’s Hatch Youth program.

 

Hatch Youth is dedicated to empowering LGBTQ adolescents to become responsible citizens and positive contributors to society by providing a safe, affirming social environment for LGBTQ youth. Hatch Youth provides role models and sponsors educational and community outreach opportunities focused on issues and problems affecting LGBTQ youth.

 

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Southwest has a rich history of helping Customers and communities through community outreach support. We are committed to giving back in the places where our Customers and Employees live and work.

 

In 2015, Southwest donated travel to the Montrose Center that allowed staff to attend a conference and meet members of the Born This Way Foundation led by Lady Gaga and her mother, Cynthia Germanotta. At the conference, Montrose Center staff were able to network with the foundation, which ultimately led to the Montrose Center Hatch Youth Service center receiving a $75,000 grant from the Born This Way Foundation in 2017.

 

It’s important to align ourselves with community Partners who have the same Heart as Southwest. During LGBTQ Pride Month, we’re proud to reflect on the strides that we’ve made with our community partners to raise awareness of current issues facing the LGBTQ community. In celebration of LGBTQ Pride Month, share your thoughts and stories, and what Pride Month means to you!