Welcoming WNC Virtual LGBTQ Community Center
We are launching a series of welcoming directories: groups, community services, health care providers, speakers, companies.
Does Your Group or Organization Roll Out the Welcome Mat?
Join Us!
Community News
“they felt represented and seen for the first time…” Holiday Parade visibility
Visibility is important as we grow our community, together. On Saturday, November 20 Blue Ridge Pride walked, drove, and floated in the annual Asheville Holiday Parade. There were cheers and smiles everywhere. We had a great time sharing cheer with everyone there. You never know who you may reach through visibility in the community, but this email reminded us how
Fete x Femme: Support local, female-driven film “Whistle Down Wind” at Smokey Park Supper Club – December 7 @ 5:30 pm – 8:00 pm
Come to this fundraising event to support female-driven independent feature film “Whistle Down Wind.”
Power of Attorney and Guardianship: Who Is In Charge?
Find out what you need to understand about powers of attorney at this free webinar.
LGBTQ+ Long Term Care- Rainbow Inspiration
This week Rainbow Inspiration spoke with Tim Lane about the LGBTQ+ community and long term care. Tim, a local nursing home administrator shared his experience with the LGBTQ+ community and some insight on long term care. Some encouraging stories and some disappointing stories were shared in the interview. As the Baby Boomer LGBTQ+55+ community continues to grow this topic provides
Welcoming Communities of Western North Carolina
You might not know it from some headlines, but our state is full of welcoming people and organizations. Look to these pages for …
- A searchable data base of welcoming organizations in WNC
- Links to useful resources and programs
Welcoming Communities of Western North Carolina
You might not know it from some headlines, but our state is full of welcome.
Blue Ridge Pride is launching a new series of programs to celebrate and support the growth of welcoming communities. We plan to launch programs covering communities of faith, health care providers, businesses, schools, and community service organizations. Each program will include:
- A searchable data base of welcoming organizations in Western North Carolina
- Criteria, developed in partnership with each community, that clarify what it means to be welcoming
- Educational materials and programs for organizations who want to become more welcoming and inclusive
While our Welcoming Communities program began with a focus on the LGBTQ community, we want to emphasize that a warm welcome mat makes no such distinctions. We intend this program to be inclusive of other groups as well. We stand with our allies. Watch this page for frequent developments in Q3/Q4 2017.
Welcoming Community Directories
We are launching a series of welcoming directories: groups, community services, health care providers, speakers, companies.
WNC is full of welcome. Find out where!
List your services. Find resources to help you … or your organization.
- Community News: If you have an announcement or news item that you consider worthy of community interest, email the story and picture to vctrnews@blueridgepride.org. [Note: We will decide what to post. Contact us if you have questions. We are new to community-based postings. As we learn more about community preferences, we will publish more specific guidelines.]
- Directory Listings: To add a listing, you need simply be logged in. Register, Confirm your email, and Login.
- Calendar: You must be approved to make calendar entries. After logging in, request to be a Contributor. We reserve the right to approve, edit, and delete calendar submissions. Please don't spam the calendar with events and activities of little relevance to our community. There are plenty of other calendars out there!
- Build Our Welcoming Community. Our immediate priority is to build our listings. We want our community to know just how much support and good will there is.
- Training. OK, so we aspire to be welcoming and equitable. But we're not there yet. That's OK. It's hard work. As we build our directories of welcoming speakers, trainers, and resources, we plan to shift attention to getting all you loving people to sharpen your game by securing training, coaching and other tools from our community partners.
- More Directories & Services: In the fall, we plan to launch additional listings: job postings and help wanted; welcoming resources, welcoming workshops. We also hope to open up some of the tools we use to manage our own organization to other 501c3s in the area (e.g., volunteer openings, event signups, event registration).
- Welcoming Pages: Our eventual goal is to present the entire virtual center as a portfolio of welcoming pages. Examples include: Welcoming Schools & Youth, Welcoming Faith & Spirit, Welcoming Work & Commerce. [You get the idea.] Every event, news item, and listing is being coded to support these future pages.
- Sign Up. Add your welcoming group, company or organization to one of our listings.
- Share. Make liberal use of the share buttons at the top of each page. Let your friends know.
- Become a Community Ambassador. Our immediate priority is to build our listings. We want our community to know just how much support and good will there is. We are eager to enlist Community Ambassadors all over western North Carolina, volunteers who can build participation in the virtual center within their county, town, or organization. (Visit our volunteer page and apply.)
- Donate. Our goal is to make this service free to the community. We're starting the venture on a wing and a prayer. We hope that listers who can afford a donation will do so. If you can, kick in even a few dollars and let us know your zip code.
- Join Our Team. To make this a reality, we will need writers, graphics artists, and community leaders. We need volunteer leaders who want to build and manage this center. Our ultimate vision is to have Welcoming Pages that are curated by members of the community. Visit our volunteer page. Look at current openings or let us know of your interests.
- Give Feedback. Be Patient. We have peppered the site with feedback buttons. Let us know what's confusing or missing. Give us ideas for future rollouts. But please remember: we are a volunteer-driven organization. We manage this site around our day jobs!