We are establishing a queer community centre.
We want one central location for 2SLGBTQIA+ resources, events, outreach, and organization.
It will be a beating heart in Comox Valley, enabling our queer community to further thrive.
A lounge, a venue, a queer hub. A space to just be.
Build with us.
We are already operating without our own space.
check us out
Visibility is Accessibility
We do not currently have a place in Comox Valley that flies a pride flag year round.
When you move to a new place, where do you go? How do you find your people? Who do you ask which doctors will allow you to access HRT? Who do you ask where local STI tests take place? Where’s your guiding star leading you to community?
When people need help, they need to know where to go. Mutual aid starts with friends. Access to community and the building of relationships. It isn’t clear where to go right now. We are crafting the landing pad. The first stepping stone.
Where do you start, when you’re looking for help?
The place in town with the pride flag out front.
Funding?
Our MINIMUM opening amount is $15,000 in the bank before we rent a building.
More importantly, we need to sustain ourselves once we are open.
We are exploring multiple avenues to achieve these goals.
To help Sustain Funding and Thrive, Queer Centre hosts the Queer for Queer artist Collective.
Art by, and for, Queer Artists – this gallery space will serve as the foundational opening and central physical space for the Queer Centre.
Seeking Partnerships:
This is a community collaboration. We want to unite other non-profit organizations and provide a central space for any org providing 2SLGBTQIA+ focused support to host workshops, groups, gatherings.
Our purpose is to provide space.
Let’s work together.
Endless grant writing:
We are actively working on finding and applying for grants. Do you know of one that sounds like it would fit this project perfectly?
Shoot us an email!
Our best bet will be larger grants that provide consistent and regular funding. For these, you typically need a year’s worth of operation.
What’s a “third space”?
A third place refers to a social environment that exists outside of the two primary spaces most people engage with: the home (first space) and the workplace or school (second space). Third spaces are informal, neutral, and often public places where individuals can gather, socialize, and build community without the pressures associated with home or work responsibilities.
Yes, we know of gay bars, but how about a queer hub that revolves around community and Safety; A space for all ages.
It is the goal to create accessible space for EVERYONE!! All Ages, All Genders, folk of all socioeconomic statuses and all brain types.
Comox Valley is sorely lacking in inter generational spaces that you don’t need to pay to exist within. Cost can be a strong barrier to community, especially to those who are in need of it the most.
Youth can’t enter alcohol centered spaces, as well as those who may struggle with substance use, be in recovery, or prefer alcohol-free environments. This severs their connection to community – if all that’s available is adult aimed events.
Cost to enter events excludes those who might be struggling financially and would benefit most from a mutual aid network in the first place. It will always be a foundational goal of ours to provide free accessible events for all ages.
Centralized Organization
This is about unity.
Centralized resources. Centralized organization.
Pride societies, organizers of yearly festivities.
2SLGBTQIA+ health educators. Counsellors.
Protest and counter-hate organizers. Legal warriors.
What if we all could be in the same space together?
What if we shared a table?
A bulletin board?
A building?
Wouldn’t that make all this organizing
easier?
We are a central organization for other non-profits with a focus on queer subjects.
Every queer resource in one space. House these non-profits. Let’s share our resources!!
Queer Centre strives to stabilize and connect community through continuity and accessibility.
How are we going to do it?
Step 1: Assembly
Very many meetings. Board assembly, community organizer outreach, opening of a bank account, branding, website, policy writing, incorporation as a non profit society. Have a community meeting with a presented plan.
Step 2: Operating without a space
Continue hosting the events we (the board) have already been organizing. Reach out and grow the Queer Centre Society into a broad umbrella with many volunteers who have already been organizers of local community events. Events previously hosted through loose social groups may become Queer Centre Official, allowing them access to our network, greater stability, and promotion.
Step 3: Fundraising
Events held specifically for funding our current operations and eventual space. Hosting Queer Centre Official events through our partnerships’ usage of space, offering events with more organization behind them, like workshops. Building of a membership base.
Step 4: Larger funding
After 1 year post incorporation and consistent operations we will have the ability to apply for larger grants that offer consistent funding. Built reputation, successful partnerships, community connections, and a greater membership base.
Step 5: Secure a space
Once we have secured the funding, we rent a building. Renovations begin. Opening night celebrations. Continue our current operations, now in one central location. Maintain the space with a mixture of income from grants, memberships, and a gallery based structure selling pride merchandise and queer artwork from our centre.
Step 6: Expand
Give pride societies and community organizers access to our work.
Change queer culture to become more accessible. Provide stability to volunteer run 2SLGBTQIA+ organizations through connection.
