Andrea McArdle, Ann Hampton Callaway, and More Set for VOICES for Homeless LGBTQ Youth Benefit, 6/30

The New Alternatives for Homeless LGBT Youth event will be hosted by Jené Hernandez (Conviction, Cash Flow, The L Word) and Frankie Faison (Banshee, The Wire, Coming to America) and music direction by Nate Buccieri.

Andrea McArdle (Broadway's Original Annie, Les Miserables, Jerry's Girls, Beauty and the Beast) , Ann Hampton Callaway (Platinum Award winning songwriter/singer, Tony nominated singer/actress) ,Marty Thomas presents DIVA featuring Kelly King (Michael Bolton, Babyface) , Alexa Green (Wicked), Marissa Rosen (My Big Gay Italian Wedding) ; E. Clayton Cornelious (Beautiful, Wonderland), Anne Steele (MAC Award/ Bistro Award winning artist), Danny Calvert (Rent, Altar Boyz, All Shook Up), Bridget Everett (At Least Its Pink, Inside Amy Schumer, Our Hit Parade) Jené Hernandez, Fatima Ptacek (actress/model, Academy Award winning Curfew, Dora the Explorer,Tio Papi), Jeremy Abram (Louis Armstrong: Jazz Ambassador, Love Blactually, Out of the Game) , and Shakina Nayfack (One Woman Show) will all take part in the benefit for www.newalternativesnyc.org at Joe's Pub June 30th 7p.m.

Tickets can be purchased at http://bit.ly/1jDos08 Pride1 for $5 off. There will also be raffle prizes at the event. New Alternatives works with youth that slip through the cracks in the programming that other organizations offer, either because they're "too" mentally ill, or unwilling to come into the shelter or foster care systems, or "too" trans, or simply "too" different.

New Alternatives is funded solely through individual donors, small foundations, and fundraising events. As a very small organization, and one of the few agencies working with youth in the 21-24 year old demographic, there are three primary reasons why we do not apply for government grants: first of all, because most would restrict our right to serve youth in the 21+ demographic; secondly, because the reporting requirements far exceed the kind of time that our tiny staff has; and finally, because the overhead for the kind of documentation those grants require would mean that most of the money would go for staff time and paperwork, leaving little money for actually helping our youth.