Thank you! We appreciate you!

if youd been in that group on facebook that was planning this and in some of the group chats with the folks that signed this youd think very different they kick or block anyone that disagrees cause they dont want anyone to say anything nice about laura they changed their tune when peopel started leaving the group cause a couple of the people that authored this got too craxzy

mel you probably need to apologize to a lot of ppl i guess i should have known when you was always fightingthat black lady that ran for congress on facebook is that what you do mel? you turn on ppl after you stop being friends with them?

mel you said curtis was a disaster and argued with steven the whole time at the pride meeting you said that curtis wanted pride to be all about white gay men from chicago, that he didnt care about trans people, and that he hates women nothing you said had to do with laura you also said charlize was known around the community as a predator whats the truth mel when weere you lieing?

Hi anonymous friend... First, I would certainly hope nobody would delete your comments. You get to speak your mind, and wanting transparency and accountability, generally speaking, are good things. None of us are perfect people, and I especially include myself in that. I also want to be delicate in what I say here as to not cause needless harm to others. But to be perfectly honest, one of the most agonizing realizations that I have had to make in this last year was to realize that I was told things about certain people from someone I trusted, and I believed those things and formulated opinions based on those things, and a lot of those things were not true. When I realized months ago that I had likely been lied to about some things I heard about Curtis, it was a punch in the gut. Through social media, I let Curtis know that I deeply regretted believing things that I now realize were untrue. It is a painful truth that we are all capable of causing harm, even inadvertently, and it is important to hold ourselves accountable and make amends whenever possible. I will also add that Charlize is a person I used to consider a friend. Friendships can take different courses over time for various reasons, and while I do not have that type of relationship with her now, I also have no reason (and especially no right) to demand that she not use her voice or sign a petition. I think it is important to understand that what we are trying to do is seek accountability and transparency from people in positions of power who have caused great harm and who have avoided our other numerous attempts to hold them accountable. Some of us have been trying to do this for a long time, at first privately, even from within Outreach itself, sometimes at significant personal cost, and after exhausting all other options now we have no choice but to do so publicly, even at continued personal cost, because our youth and our larger community are too important for us to remain silent. I have

sure ill come on down to the shop and take a look at that wheres the shop agian?

now that i know yall can see these and respond maybe mel can answer didnt you always warn everyone about charlize? didnt you always say curtis hates women? sure feels like a weird choice of ppl

Hi friend! I'm happy to provide my bank statements to show how my grant funds were spent. I'll post this publicly tomorrow for anyone to see. I'd rather just send them to you for your review but I reckon it is okay for me to post them publicly if it will earn trust. Let me know how else I can support you.

im signing this petition because i want the best for outreach. im signing it anonymously because the "concerned community members and allies" arent all that concerned about ppl that dont agree with their narrative. ive seen how they treat people and dont want doxed i used to go to outreach every week. the only people in this situation i would trust would be laura mel and trevor. thats two on one side and one on the other morgan roddy needs to explain to the community what she did with all the queer chocolatier money steven knipp has a history of using confdential info from outreach to attack other queer people then turns around and pretends he is really the voice of this community jm cant stop bragging about doing nothing all the time but i can only guess that the rest of these folks are a lot of talkers but not doers just like jm if this is anything like facebook this group of "concerned community members and allies" will delete and block this lmao

This is an issue I (and others) advocated for constantly as a volunteer, and other than a brief period right before covid hit when the youth were split into two groups on Fridays by age, we were either ignored or given excuses as to why this couldn’t happen. This includes people being sometimes allowed to continue attending the youth group even beyond (what was then) the limit of age 20, which was against our own policy. Laura was absolutely informed of the reasons that youth should gather within more narrow age ranges and why ideally the youth group age limit should be 18 or high school seniors (but that going past age 20 was PARTICULARLY problematic), because I brought these concerns up multiple times. Different ages have different programming needs. Unfortunately she also made comments about how she makes people with social work degrees (like myself) uncomfortable and how they often don’t stay long as volunteers because she doesn’t like rules. I am so sorry that the children in your life did not get the benefit of programming that was tailored to their age-specific needs. So many of us tried so hard to to fix these things, often even at significant personal cost, and this is why we are at this point now of a petition – we have tried every other way we know of already to present our concerns, to no avail.

There is no division between the under 18 and over 18 crowds. When children in my life went to these meetings they were confronted with sexually charged language and “gifts” by the 20-plus crowd. Laura even disowned her own child for some time because of their identity. She needs to go.

Best wishes for OUTreach and Laura!

Preface: It's not my opinion that Muncie OutReach(MO) needs to remain in operation. From my almost 3 years participating, working and attending services with MO. I've seen a decrease in public participation to events and programs put on by the organization. Yes. Laura Janney, Buddies Jones and Trevor Oakerson have been toxic in their roles facilitating the organization. Rather than create a vacuum for power 'to right the organization'. Those of us who feel compelled to do so, should take up the various banners MO failed to uphold. I started Art Starz, the Wednesday art club. It's still going, though I can't speak of it's current attendence or programming. There was little to no support from Laura or other volunteers. I was often left alone with multiple youth, as Laura would be pre-occupied in her office with Facebook. Her feedback expressed misunderstanding of the groups programming and timeline. She spoke as if youth were expected to constantly be 'working' on 'art' during the group. Which is not a requirement of the MO as a whole. Youth were welcome to participate in the club or hang out in the space. Laura did not request or require a program synposis or layout. Though simple, I managed a program that gave space over to the youth work at their own pace. Prioritizing a break from 'programming' in general. The success came from listening to them vent and move on from problematic feelings. Often through conversational rants, then long moments of quiet focus as someone else took their turn to speak. Finding Spirit has never been anything close to helpful. Prior to Buddie Jones, I had been solicited by an elderly sex pest who was allowed to attend group multiple times before being asked to leave. Prior to that, members have been allowed to fixate on their misery of been trans, not being born as they 'naturally feel'. I've seen a lot of hurt and seeking of control under the guise community concern. Specifically, Buddie Jones knowingly engaged in spreadi

I dated Laura's son, Matt Janney for a year and a half while Matt lived with Laura and until I got him out and living with me. During that time I saw evidence of Laura having excessive controlling behavior, resorting to verbal abuse and manipulation to get her way. She disparaged me self identifying as bisexual stating that she doesn't believe in bisexuality that they are just people who haven't decided if they are gay straight yet. She also collected numerous extremely antiblack figurines and kept them on display around her house. When Matt moved out Laura began to develop empty nest syndrome and pushed her attentions on a family friend's daughter named Isabelle. Then into muncie outreach. Her only claim to the community is her having a gay son and from the beginning I knew it was about her own need to feel like a mother and have control and never about the group itself. It has taken all this time for the truth to come forward and I hope she is removed from her position so the group can heal and Laura can possibly develop a healthier way of dealing with her issues.

I’m so sorry for those who have been hurt by this.

Changes need to be made and these guidelines are bringing made in the most respectful way possible.

The community being hurt by people like this makes it harder for us to make progress. It’s like she’s making this about her, when it’s supposed to be about LGBTQ+ youth having a safe space and expressing themselves. This is really disappointing, but not surprising.

I agree wholeheartedly and will support a new organization if that what it comes to.

I was accused by Laura of saying that she had engaged in inappropriate behaviors with minors which I NEVER once said or stated in any way, shape or form! I actually considered a libel and defamation lawsuit against her! I also tried REPEATEDLY to schedule a meeting with her to resolve this awful situation but she REFUSED again and again to sit down with me or my team. I have texts and messages begging her to no avail. I tried to warn people that she did this to me, but it fell on deaf ears … She left my staff TERRIFIED and I lost s few interns because they believed her. Very sad the damage she’s done to the characters of good people. A long line of victims who were unheard and not believed. Some sided with her with no proof and seemingly said it was OK that she behaved this well. Guess she finally ticked off the wrong person. A shame that so many had to suffer.