July 18, 2025
BY JOHN BAILEY
“It’s so hard to be who I am.”
This was what OUTright Youth of Catawba Valley Executive Director Kim Bost recently heard from a local student interested in learning more about the agency, and it’s a message she hears often.
OUTright Youth is dedicated to creating safer communities for LGBTQ+ youth and is committed to fostering a supportive environment where LGBTQ+ youth can thrive and be their authentic selves, according to the agency’s website.
It was the desire to help foster this sense of belonging that inspired the Catawba County Youth Council to support OUTright Youth’s community garden project through the council’s annual grant cycle, which is underwritten by the Catawba County United Way.
“We’re taking the opportunity to have a lot of life lessons with the garden, about caring for things, nurturing things, working together, responsibility,” Bost said.
“We want this to be a safe space for the kids, but we want them to know they belong in the middle of things too. We’ll be working on the garden with other members of the community. This is a collaborative effort.”
OUTright Youth is already planning on using the garden as a platform to work with the Girls Scouts and hopes to find other organizations who would like to help with the project.
Overall, the garden is also meant to be a place where LGBTQ+ youth can express their identities openly, share experiences and find support from peers and allies alike, according to the agency’s Youth Council grant application.
Bost said it’s been a humble start with just two garden boxes, which were built on the green space across from the agency’s office in Hickory. The youth have filled them with a variety of vegetables, starting everything from seeds in pots earlier this Spring. They’ve had to learn the basics of gardening and how to share the responsibilities of maintaining a garden. Their work has already paid off with a small harvest of green beans.
“We always have a goal of helping the kids learn something about themselves or how to be in the world with other people,” Bost said. “The garden is a great metaphor for so much of that.”
OUTright Youth board member Louie Ornelas said it’s important that programs like the garden can help get the word out about what OUTright Youth is and how it can help both the youth and their parents.
“It’s a place the kids can come and be themselves and not worry about being judged,” Ornelas said. “We can’t share that message enough.”
OUTright Youth holds meetings every Wednesday night for LGBTQ+ youth ages 12–21 and average between 16 and 20 youth attending.
To learn more about the agency and its programs email director@outrightyouthcv.org or call 828-320-1937.