After years of planning and successful fundraising events, the newly named North County LGBTQ Resource Center in Oceanside has been given the go-ahead.
The decision follows the recent Imagine the Dream of a North County LGBTQ Resource Center Coming True fundraising event at the Oceanside Museum of Art, which not only exceeded the initial $10,000 needed to begin the process to open the center, but actually raised $17,147. Ongoing fundraising for the center continues though, and a fundraising bike ride has been set for November.
On July 23, North County LGBT Coalition board members had a daylong retreat to discuss the future of the organization. The meeting says Max Disposti, executive director of the planned center, “Organized leadership and the open positions,” and discussed “partnerships with other clinics.” The evolution from the coalition to the center-based organization is a “step by step process,” he added, concerning the restructuring of the leadership and involving clinics in order to “provide services immediately.”
The need for an LGBT-specific community center was crucial, with the North County LGBT Coalition having as many as 700 members, but with as many as 3,000 – 4,000 LGBT people in North County that are “uninvolved and isolated from the community.”
As a consequence, says Disposti, the center was conceived to “… create a safe place for everyone because in North County there is none. We wanted to create a place where our youth can come and be comfortable and boost their self esteem.”
According to Disposti, the “Q” in LGBTQ “represents those who are questioning their sexuality.” In addition to providing physical and psychological support to members, the center will also offer educational programs “to help youths better understand themselves” and give advice to the parents of gay teens “who are uncertain how to support their children.” Ultimately, medical testing, such as HIV and AIDs, will also be available, most likely through the help of medical clinics.
Says Disposti, “We are working with a couple of clinics to offer services and those we have been working with may come in as a partnership.”
However, he maintains that the center will open before the end of the year whether a clinic comes on board initially or not. “Without a clinic we would run support groups, because the support groups need to start straight away,” he said. “But if a clinic does come on we can look for a bigger space (immediately).”
While there is a membership, Disposti says that “… everyone can come in and everyone can use the services. We shall be running different programs in order to accommodate different ages.”
In the near future the North County LGBT Coalition intends to launch a series of events that will culminate in the opening of the center. In the first instance, from Aug. 1 to Aug. 31, 2011, the coalition will hold a public contest to create a new logo and image for the center.
Then on Sept. 30, 2011, a North County town hall meeting will be held in Oceanside which the coalition says on its Web site will “… explain how the North County LGBTQ Resource Center will function, present our open board member positions, answer all the questions you may have and give you the chance to voice your input on the process as well.”
Disposti adds that it is at the town hall meeting where “… community input is collected because we are looking for public input.”
The organization has a Web site at northcountycoalition.org.
