Building a Safer Evansville (BASE)
BASE has been hard at work in their community breaking down barriers and making their community a more inclusive place for all. If you missed their presentation at our Retreat last year you missed out on a great presentation about their LGBTQ+ work and how they have been making significant strides in their community. This year’s Pride Month has been no exception. They have been hard at work hosting events such as their interactive LGBTQ+ reading displays at a public library, a Pride Photobooth, a Pride book club, and even more events to come. Keep up the amazing work and continue supporting your community. BASE Facebook Page
Community in Crisis
Community in Crisis has taken action to help provide support for a local LGBTQ+ AA meeting by providing space for the group to meet. This has been a project a long time in the making with the first meeting being planned for April 7, 2020 and then a little thing called Covid came along. The meeting did finally launch as an in-person-only meeting June 28, 2021 and will be celebrating 1 year this month. The meeting has grown to a consistent attendance of 12-15 with a high of 22 at one meeting. A pretty incredible stat considering the meeting started during Covid hesitancy, Omicron surge, etc. The meeting has an incredible representation of the diverse LGBTQ+ community with many different ages, demographics, and identities in attendance. Traditionally, particularly in the Northern NJ AA community meetings are predominantly attended by gay males, in fact, when we went to have our meeting listed in the Northern NJ AA meeting directory there was no option for an LGBTQ+ meeting, they only listed meetings as Gay. Our group caused NNJAA to vote on changing the classification to LGBTQ+ and that is what the option is.
While this might seem like a small step, it has had a large impact on the community and the NNJAA overall. Sometimes just being able to provide support through something as simple as meeting space for a group that is necessary for the community can help people feel welcome and have a voice in their community. The meeting’s founder sits on both Community in Connection’s Recovery and the newly formed JEDI Task Forces to help better inform our connection with the local LGBTQ+ community. He also designed a neat rainbow pin so that we can show our pride.
Check out https://communityincrisis.org/ to learn more about Community in Crisis.
Partners in Prevention
Every community is different and needs support in different ways and Hudson County in New Jersey is no different. This year for Pride Month, the coalition has decided to help support the community by sharing their #Pride Toolkit. The toolkit is for local community members and other organizations to use to help ensure an informative and useful social media campaign and consistent messaging. To check out the coalitions tool kit visit their website at www.pipnj.org/pride/.
