Regina Shavers
Executive Director Griot Circle

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Regina Shavers is a graduate of Erasmus Hall High School. Continuing her family’s tradition of community activism she became an advocate for workers’ rights as a shop steward in District Council 37 while working for the New York City Police Department as a supervisor in their Communications Division Training Unit. Nominated by the people she supervised she was awarded the Women Advisory Committee of NYC ‘s “Contributions to City Government” award. She was appointed co-chair of DC 37's Lesbian and Gay Issues Committee and in that capacity served on the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Lesbian and Gay Rights Advisory Board. She was appointed to the NYPD’s Lesbian and Gay Advisory Board and active the Campaign For an Inclusive Family Policy, the citywide coalition that negotiated with Mayor Dinkins to get Domestic Partner benefits for New York City employees. Regina Shavers is a founder of “Pride at Work” the national organization of Lesbian and Gay labor unionist. For her work in the Lesbian and Gay Community Mayor Dinkins, Comptroller Holtzman, Comptroller Hevesi, and DA Hynes have awarded her.

She entered Hunter College as an adult and quickly became involved there. She edited Hunter’s Returning Woman magazine, became a Mellon Scholar, served on their Women Studies Program Committee, and served on the Evening Session Student Government. She graduated from Hunter, with honors, at age fifty, in 1991.

For her contributions to the establishing of Unity Fellowship Church in New York City, she was the first recipient of their Founders Award.

Since her retirement from the NYC Department of Health’s HIV Training Institute, she has become Executive Director of the Griot Circle, a senior center for lesbian, gay, trans elders of color. Co-founded by Regina Shavers, this is the only center committed to affirming the lives of elderly LGBTST’s of all colors. A member of the New York Association for HIV Over Fifty (NYAHOF), she has developed curriculum for teaching issues of HIV and the Elderly, and she gives workshops and seminars at senior facilities on that issue. In October 2002, Regina Shavers received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Senior Action in A Gay Environment (SAGE).

About Griot Circle

Griot Circle -- gri ot (gre-o, gre'o, gre'ot) n. A storyteller in western Africa who perpetuates the oral tradition and history of a village or family

Web:  http://www.griotcircle.org
 

A gathering of Elders, we are an intergenerational and culturally diverse community based organization, which is responsive to the realities of the lives of older lesbians, bisexuals, gay men, two-spirit and transgender persons of color.

Our Goal is to maintain a safe space for these Elders, provide emotional support and quality programming, which affirms age, gender, racial, spriritual and ethnic origins. The Griot Circle is committed to honoring and preserving our histories and traditions, to reuniting the parts of ourselves that have been fragmented by racism and homophobia. While our policies are inclusive, and everyone is welcome, this is a safe space made specifically cuturally comfortable for gay Elders, of all colors, over the age of fifty where they and their friends can enjoy each others company.

Why our own space?
 

• Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender elders suffer greater isolation, discrimination than the general senior population!

• Lesbian, Gay, bisexual and transgender seniors are five times less likey than other seniors to access needed services because they fear discrimination

• 60% of the lesbian gay bisexual and transgender live alone, as compared to 40% of the general elderly population

• Only 25% of LGBT seniors have surviving children who can provide caretaking services, as compared to 75% of the general elderly population

• Very few LGBT's of color are included in this research or surveys, however we do know that when racism, poverty are added to this mix the results are synergistic.

GRIOT CIRCLE
@ the YWCA
30 Third Avenue, Rm. 202
Brooklyn, NY 11217
718-246-2775
718-246-2572, fax

Executive Director: Regina Shavers
Email: