Posted by Karla Rothan

Last week I was fortunate to be able to attend the first Executive Director Summit hosted by the National Association of LGBT Community Centers. I spent several days learning from the brightest and most dedicated LGBT leaders in our country. I did not realize that there were 168 community centers across the United States. Each of the centers have been created over the past thirty years and offer hundreds of programs and services for our community. The conference sessions contained information on how to strengthen the boards of our centers and how to stay healthy as an Executive Director. Fundraising was a hot topic and I received great advice from participants about linking our mission to our fundraising efforts. Lorri Jean, the Executive Director of the LA Center in California, gave an inspiring speech on the last day and talked about the future. The need for community centers is great and our existence is inevitable. She spoke about the grassroots community center movement and laid out an ambitious agenda and statement of purpose for our work. She covered questions like: "Why do we need LGBT community centers? What makes our mission different from others?" This was a small part of her speech:

"What makes LGBT community centers different from these more generic providers?  After all, they are also making a difference in the lives of individual people.  The difference is that WE are doing what we do for an even bigger purpose. We are helping individuals in order to make our communities healthy and stronger and more powerful.  After all, a healthy, strong queer community has a greater ability to organize, build political power and make change.  A healthy, strong community is better able to fight for civil rights.  A healthy, strong community is better able to educate mainstream society about who LGBT people are and thereby change public opinion.  A healthy, strong community is a better model for LGBT people of all ages who are struggling to accept themselves.  A healthy, strong community can do so much more collectively than we could ever achieve as individuals.  And community centers are the key link in that chain."

It was an eye-opening experience for me to learn that there is a new type of activism on the rise and it is the Community Center Movement. Grassroots activism is stronger than ever before and Stonewall Columbus is an important part of a larger purpose. Not every city or state has a community center. Stonewall Columbus is a pioneer and vital participant in the community center movement, a movement that is growing stronger every day and changing the history of our civil rights.