William Way LGBT Community Center to Reopen for Limited Hours as Critical Funding is Secured
William Way LGBT Community Center to Reopen for Limited Hours as Critical Funding is Secured
Like many LGBTQ non-profits, the William Way LGBT Community Center has faced challenging times this past year. In October, as part of our ongoing efforts to renovate our pre-Civil War-era community center, we temporarily closed to conduct additional inspections and make repairs to ensure the safe public occupancy of our historic building.
We are happy to report that we have completed the critical work needed to reopen all public areas of the building, including addressing egress issues, termite damage, and urgent environmental concerns. As we complete this critical work, our architects have approved the reopening of most of the building for limited programming activities as we address some of the larger-scale needs. To fully reopen the building, the Center will need additional major renovations in the next 6-12 months. Quotes for the renovations are in the process of being collected.
These renovation projects will require funding, at a time when the Center has also faced reductions in general operations support. For the William Way Community Center to continue its important work and welcome the community into the Center, we will need the support of the entire community.
The current political climate and strained resources of funders have affected our ability to raise the funds needed to operate our Center at full capacity. Unfortunately, last month we had to make the difficult decision to reduce the size of our staff in order to conserve resources, including security and facilities staff. These employees are not funded by grants and rely completely on community support. In addition, all senior staff members have taken pay reductions.
Without adequate staffing and facing the need for major repairs in 2025, we will be reopening in a limited capacity in January. The organization will need to continue to identify funds to maintain these limited hours.
Beginning January 13, 2025, we will reopen Monday through Thursday from 5 to 9 p.m. Programs including Peer Counseling, limited Recovery meetings, Elder Initiative, Archives, Arts and Culture, and food distribution will be available at the Center. The Library, Trans Resource Center, Arts & Culture, and Archives will also be accessible and open to the public. Continuing this schedule will depend largely on support from our generous donors.
Updates about programs will be made regularly on our website www.waygay.org. During this time we apologize that we will be unable to participate in partnership endeavors, have large volunteer groups in the building, and host large external events.
We thank you for your patience and understanding during this time and will continue to update the community as we learn more about our building’s needs and plan for our future together.