LGBT COMMUNITY CENTER TO HOST REOPENING EVENT
Open house Saturday to include resource fair, tours
The San Diego LGBT Community Center is inviting the community to a celebration more than two years in the making.
An open house, set for 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, will mark the reopening of the newly renovated center in Hillcrest, complete with an opening ceremony, resource fair, guided tours and more.
“People are really hungry to be together ... in that diverse, multigenerational powerful LGBTQ community,” CEO Cara Dessert said. “We are just thrilled to welcome the community back here to see that we have made an even more beautiful, modern center for everyone in the community to enjoy.”
Dessert says The Center is the heart of the LGBTQ community and its opening signifies a major milestone as the nonprofit ap
proaches its 50th anniversary in the fall.
While The Center continued providing services virtually through the pandemic, it implemented a phased reopening to begin opening its physical doors to the community. On June 1, it will fully reopen to the public for the first time since the pandemic hit more than two years ago.
“No matter who you are, the pandemic has been challenging, and for some it’s been devastating, and to be able to welcome folks back to this space, to their center, is so exciting,” Dessert said.
In the last two years, the nonprofit has increased its budget by 20 percent and its staff count by 15 percent to support the growth.
During the celebration, community members will have the opportunity to connect with familiar faces like Dessert, as well as new center staff like the organization’s new deputy CEO, Kim Fountain.
Staff will also lead tours of the new renovations on the ground floor of the 17,500-square-foot center, including a welcome lobby, additional community spaces, updated restrooms and sexual health and wellness testing space, LGBTQ community art pieces and a new sound system in the historic auditorium.
Additionally, the resource fair will highlight some of The Center’s new programs and services, which also expanded with the needs of the community amid the pandemic.
The Center now has a more comprehensive sexual health and wellness program, a peer-led program that not only offers sexually transmitted infections and HIV testing, but also sexual health education and training.
The Center also reopened its youth centers and expanded its housing programs, food bank program, and behavioral health services.
Dessert says it took a village to find ways to continue to provide these much-needed services to the community through the pandemic.
“I am just so deeply grateful and so extraordinarily proud of all the people in this community who came together ... to do a job we are so proud of, which is to serve and advocate for our community,” she added.
The celebration at The Center, at 2909 Centre St., is free and open to the public, however, advance registration via thecentersd.org/ open-house is required to participate in the indoor tours. Proof of vaccination, booster and masks are required indoors.