In the photo below, a workman from Thomas Glass installs new windows in the Annex, as phase one of the center’s restoration began earlier this summer.
SUPPORT THE CENTER – DONATE AND BECOME A MEMBER
LGBT Center Awareness Day was founded by CenterLink: The Community of LGBT Centers, to increase widespread awareness of the vital services offered by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender community centers and to promote the central role LGBT centers play in local communities, as well as in the LGBT movement.
– LGBT community centers are the front doors to the LGBT community and in the United States serve over 40,000 people weekly.
– LGBT community centers are the backbone of the LGBT community, with a reach across metropolitan, suburban, and rural areas across the country, and in other countries as well.
– LGBT community centers are “the center of it all,” and the broad range of services, cultural programming, advocacy work, and community infrastructure that they provide is unparalleled.
2009: “My Community Center Changed My Life”
This year’s theme for LGBT Center Awareness Day focuses on the vital role that community centers play in the health, empowerment, and unity of LGBT communities. Centers continue to change the lives of the LGBT community by offering services including; social services, mental health counseling, cultural programs, recreational activities, libraries, educational programs, support groups, youth support, elder support, computer access, and care and treatment, just to name a few!
In 2005, Stonewall Columbus purchased the two buildings on the corner of 4th and High Street to begin to build the first LGBT community center in Central Ohio. After a recommendation from councilwoman, Ms. Charleta Tavares, Columbus city council approved funding to repair both buildings in the first of several stages of restoration that began in 2006. Over the past three years with help from the city and a few major donors, Stonewall Columbus has made approximately 3200 square feet of space usable for the community and has begun restoring the adjacent vacant warehouse space called the 4th Street Annex. Each year approximately 20,000 people seek services and over fifty organizations operate out of the Center on High. Each month SWC offers over thirty programs including coming out support, men and women’s support groups, alcohol and drug addiction classes, yoga, ballroom dance, counseling, health and fitness programs, book clubs, young professional groups and much more.
