Open community letter demands resignation of District 202 director Curt Prins over youth disempowerment, unaccountability

"District 202 was originally intended to be a community organization “by and for youth”, providing physical space for queer youth to exercise their agency, build community, and grow as leaders. The elimination of the Youth Advisory Committee in 2009 and the absence of a youth presence on the Board demonstrate a disregard for input from youth. More specifically, the changes since your appointment have especially affected queer youth facing multiple oppressions. The Board is incomplete and ineffective without the voices of people of color, trans people, dis/abled people, poor people, and youth. The new structure of District 202 is inherently classist: by forcing queer youth to access District 202 via internet only, you have made the organization’s limited services utterly inaccessible to poor queer youth." (Read on for the full letter written by members and allies of the TC queer community.)

November 4, 2010

Curt Prins
Executive Director
District 202
PO Box 8139
St Paul, MN 55108

Dear Curt Prins:

This letter is a public demand for your immediate resignation from the position of Executive Director of District 202. We represent a diverse group of over one hundred community members who, after innumerable discussions with youth, peers, and donors, have concluded that the only way District 202 can fulfill its mission is through radical restructuring.

This letter is an indictment of the entire organization in its present manifestation; however, we believe that you pose the most serious barrier to reform. The following four points make up only a partial list of grievances, and any list we make will be incomplete due to the continued lack of organizational transparency.

• Your position is undeserved. You were appointed by the Board of Directors illegitimately, as there was no quorum and the Board did not have youth representation at the time. Moreover, your appointment was made despite a clear conflict of interest, as you were President of the Board until this transition. You are grossly unqualified: you have no prior experience working with youth, and coming from a career in the private sector, you have minimal experience with nonprofit organizations. While some businesspeople are able to work successfully in fields of social justice and human rights, you have failed to demonstrate any understanding of these concepts and the needs of queer youth. Disregarding the true needs of the community, you have twisted District 202 into something unrecognizable in order to fit it into your limited professional expertise.
• You have disempowered and alienated youth of all identities. District 202 was originally intended to be a community organization “by and for youth”, providing physical space for queer youth to exercise their agency, build community, and grow as leaders. The elimination of the Youth Advisory Committee in 2009 and the absence of a youth presence on the Board demonstrate a disregard for input from youth. More specifically, the changes since your appointment have especially affected queer youth facing multiple oppressions. The Board is incomplete and ineffective without the voices of people of color, trans people, dis/abled people, poor people, and youth. The new structure of District 202 is inherently classist: by forcing queer youth to access District 202 via internet only, you have made the organization’s limited services utterly inaccessible to poor queer youth. Young people who cannot afford their own computers may not be safe accessing your website in public spaces such as school libraries.
• You have violated the mission and bylaws of District 202. On your LinkedIn profile, you boast that you are currently “repositioning a local 18-year-old LGBT youth drop-in center into a lean, technically-savvy youth empowerment organization that will have a regional impact within two years.” What you have described elsewhere as District 202’s change from “a social justice model to a public health model” is merely code for your transformation of the organization into a hollow marketing scheme. Your business strategies cannot fulfill the original version nor the revamped 2009 version of District 202’s mission. District 202’s bylaws have likewise been consistently disregarded—and compliance is required to legitimate funding and nonprofit status. The Board of Directors is currently comprised exclusively of white cisgender adults, constituting a violation of District 202’s bylaws.
• You have not held yourself accountable to the community. Your appointment to the position of Executive Director was an enigmatic process lacking community accountability. The same can be said of the closing of District 202’s physical space and the dismissal of all youth staff in the summer of 2009. Since those events, District 202’s services, trajectory, and programming have remained a mystery to the community at large. You direct inquiries to your website, but your online calendar links almost exclusively to other organizations’ events; other information on your website is incomplete, outdated and inaccurate. You have kept board meeting times and locations secret, blatantly attempting to thwart community members who wish to attend. You have not made the minutes and other information from these meetings publicly available. You consistently fail to engage meaningfully with key local agencies and organizations providing direct services to queer youth. Still, you continue to claim District 202’s primacy as a queer youth resource in the Twin Cities, soliciting donations under this pretense—even exploiting the tragedy of youth suicides to gather funds for your broken organization.