BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – A chapter closed today for the Pride Center of Vermont, as they moved out of their Burlington location.
The LGBTQ+ resource organization abruptly announced it would shut its doors, after 26 years in operation.
The Pride Center has been in a Burlington building since 2013. Mo Allard, Pride Center Board Co-Chair told us they felt the squeeze of funding cuts. Leaving this space was part of an effort to stay in the black.
“We’ve been planning to move out of this space for some time now and because of our operational pause that timeline did move up a little bit,” she said.
It’s still unclear if they’ll be able to restart services like STD and HIV testing, their Safespace Anti-Violence hotline, their trans program and others. She says the board is using this time to make a plan for when they re-open.
“Just really take some time to make clear strategic plans about how the Pride Center will move forward so that we’re not jumping back into the same system that wasn’t working for us,”
That system was strained, by state-grant funding switching to a reimbursement method and program funding cuts.
That caused them to lose 80 percent of their HIV prevention funds, one of their main revenue sources, according to Allard.
Ultimately, that forced them to rehome, or relocate, everything inside these offices.
While a bittersweet moment for volunteers helping to move, board members think this is an opportunity for new beginnings, according to Allard.
“The community has shown up for us, and we plan to continue showing up for our community. So that means taking the time to really do this right and for now stepping out of our space,” she said.
While it’s “goodbye” to this space — it’s more of a “see you later” to the LGBTQ+ community.
They’re close to reaching their 350-thousand-dollar fundraising goal, she said. They will be doing a community needs assessment to see what resources they will prioritize in the future.
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