Events

 Some Tops Required is one of Chicago's top-tier intermural LGBTQIA+ Kickball Teams. Our Team was established in the Fall of 2022 and it has been the primary goal and focus of every member of the team to build community through sports, recreational outings, and philanthropic opportunities that benefit members of our wider community. In 2023, STR hosted their first annual Spring Fundraiser Queer Prom and raised $,5,800 for Center on Halstead's Youth and Family Services. Were coming back this year with a BIG QUEER PARTY!!!! Once again all proceeds from this year's event will benefit the Center on Halstead's Youth and Family Services Program.

Center on Halsted has been supporting LGBTQIA+ young people since 1973 when it inaugurated its youth coffeehouse at Liberty Hall on Lincoln Avenue to provide a safe space for socializing, identity affirmation, and community building. 

In July 2022 After a six-month strategic review, Center on Halsted made some exciting changes to how it serves Chicago’s LGBTQ+ youth. For years, the Center has been a Chicago leader at providing a wide array of life-saving and life-changing programs and services to LGBTQ+ youth experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity, including its one-of-a kind transitional housing program in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood. However, especially in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, it has become even more clear that all LGBTQ+ youth need a variety of supports in order to grow into happy, healthy, and contributing members of their communities as adults. 

In order to address the needs of these young people Center on Halsted has expanded its scope of services to support all of Chicagoland’s LGBTQ+ youth, regardless of housing status, and LGBTQ+ families as well. Today, Center on Halsted’s new Youth & Family Services department provides:

• Social, recreational, cultural, and educational programs
• Opportunities for LGBTQ+ youth & families to connect, build community, network, share resources, and affirm their LGBTQ+ identities
• A new mentoring program
• A revamped Youth Advisory Board
• A summer leadership academy
• Robust arts programming
• Anti-violence/anti-bullying programs
• Youth & family behavioral health services