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Eromin Center Records
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Held at: Temple University Libraries: Special Collections Research Center [Contact Us]
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Temple University Libraries: Special Collections Research Center. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
The Eromin Center, an acronym for erotic minorities, originated in July 1973 as an outgrowth of the Gay Switchboard, a telephone counseling service, in response to a perceived need to offer mental health services to sexual minorities. The Eromin Center existed to serve the mental health needs of this population. In addition to clinical services the Center operated an extensive community education program. The Eromin Center focused on three major areas: psychological counseling, the Gay Switchboard, and the Community Services Program. Grants received between 1979 and 1981, allowed the Center to expand its programs to include a special outreach project to older lesbians and gay men, a group home for Cuban refugee sexual minority youth, and youth services for city referrals. The Eromin Center by 1981 was licensed by the Commonwealth as an outpatient psychiatric clinic, a group home facility, and a foster care provider. Eromin worked with many other community organizations including the Philadelphia AIDS Task Force, PLGTF, the Philadelphia Black Gays, GLOW, the ACLU, and the Philadelphia Affirmative Action Coalition. The Center was open until at least 1983 when they celebrated their tenth anniversary.
The Eromin Center Programs Series reflects several of the most crucial activities undertaken by Eromin Center. These include the organization's gay and lesbian counseling services as well as the EROMIN youth group house. The EROMIN records contains a wealth of information that, when examined as a unit, indicates the manner in which Eromin House functioned throughout the early 1980s.
The collection is arranged into ten series:
- Series 1: Administration, 1973-1984
- Subseries 1.1: Board of Directors, 1975-1984
- Subseries 1.2: Public Relations, 1975-1984
- Series 2: Correspondence, 1972-1984
- Series 3: Programs (Portions restricted), 1973-1984
- Subseries 3.1: Administrative Forms, 1974-1984
- Subseries 3.2: Counseling, 1975-1984
- Subseries 3.3: Foster Parents (Portions restricted), 1980-1983
- Subseries 3.4: House Logs - General Atmosphere, 1982-1983
- Subseries 3.5: House, 1980-1983
- Subseries 3.6: Youth Services (Portions restricted), 1973-1984
- Series 4: Other Organizations, 1982-1983
- Series 5: Subject Files, 1972-1984
- Series 6: Financial, 1974-1984
- Subseries 6.1: Development, 1974-1983
- Subseries 6.2: Grants, 1974-1984
- Series 7: Publications, 1972-1979
- Subseries 7.1: Clippings
- Subseries 7.2: Manuscripts, 1976-1990
- Subseries 7.3: Newspapers/Periodicals/Pamphlets: 1972-1979
- Series 8: Audiovisual, undated
- Series 9: Photographs, undated
- Series 10: Memorabilia, undated
Donated by Kay Whitlock, May 1984.
Original audiovisual materials, as well as preservation and duplicating masters, may not be played. Researchers must consult use copies, or if none exist must pay for a use copy. Certain digital files may also be inaccessible. Please contact the Special Collections Research Center for more information.
Finding aid revised according to contemporary archival standards in May 2016. Finding aid updated with box numbering adjustments and inventory corrections in May 2019 by Gemma Goldstein, Student Assistant, and Courtney Smerz, Collection Management Archivist.
Original photographs have been removed to the Miscellaneous Photograph Collection (PC-49), Box 6, folder 11.
Subject
- Publisher
- Temple University Libraries: Special Collections Research Center
- Finding Aid Author
- Machine-readable finding aid created by: Rajkumar Natarajan, Sky Global Services India (P) Ltd.
- Finding Aid Date
- February 2024
- Access Restrictions
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Collection is open for research. Case Files and Individual Progress Report Files in Subseries 3.3 and 3.6 are restricted. Contact the Special Collections Research Center for more information.
- Use Restrictions
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The Eromin Center (Philadelphia, Pa.) Records are the physical property of the Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries. Intellectual property rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. Researchers are responsible for determining the identity of rights holders and obtaining their permission for publication and for other purposes where stated.
Collection Inventory
Series 1 includes activity logs, annual reports; Board of Directors' meeting minutes; completed speaker forms; corporation mailing list and meetings; council membership forms, history of the agency; personnel contracts; policies and job descriptions; training and development; policy and procedures; public relations; staff and Board retreats; staff meeting; memos and reports. The series also includes volunteer contracts, manual for the switchboard hotline, and Workshop Committee minutes.
Series 2 includes correspondence initiated and received by the agency.
Series 3 is divided into three subseries: youth services, case files, and general. Youth services materials include all information relating to Eromin Center's youth-oriented special programs, including assorted foster care forms (parental applications, regulations); youth counseling forms; and Eromin House activity logs and incident reports. Case files consist of thirty individual profiles of young men and women who resided at Eromin House between 1980 and 1984. Materials include medical reports, school reports, incident reports, weekly progress notes, and assorted counseling referral information. General materials are more broadly defined, including adult-oriented counseling materials (which include several individual progress report files), Cuban refugee program information, and lists of Eromin Center speaking engagements.
Series 4 consists of 15 folders devoted to brochures, statements, single copies of newsletters, meeting notices, minutes, and informational material, which EROMIN received from other organizations and filed by creating organization. The folders are arranged alphabetically by organization name. The organizations represented include a Coalition Against Police Abuse and a number of public and private agencies concerned with gay and lesbian issues. Material from and about some of these organizations also appears in Series 5, Subject Files, and Series 7, Publications.
Series 5 includes, brochures, clipped or xeroxed newspaper and magazine articles, single copies of newsletters, notices and minutes of other organizations, occasional correspondence, and hand-written notes, collected by the EROMIN staff during the 1970s and 1980s and filed by subject. The folders are arranged alphabetically by subject heading. The Subject Files are devoted primarily to gay and lesbian concerns and to social services, particularly for youth. Other information about subjects represented in these files and related topics appears in Series 4, Other Organizations, and Series 7, Publications.
Series 6 includes annual reports; audits; Board of Directors' Reports; budgets, counseling fees, development; funding and fundraising; grants; insurance billing; statements and reports and donor options.
Series 7 includes primarily printed news clippings, pamphlets, brochures and flyers.
Series 8 consists of one folder containing one open-reel audiotape marked GAA Forum on Masturbation.
audiotape
Series 9 contains copies of miscellaneous photographs. Some photographs have been removed to PC 49 Miscellaneous Photographs Collection, box 6, folder 11.
Series 10 contains keys, student credit cards, health insurance cards and social security card.