History of Boulder Pride
In 1994, several community organizations in the City of Boulder collaborated on a series of events to celebrate Gay Pride. This collective was called Boulder Pride. As the LGBTQ community grew, the need for Boulder Pride to broaden its purpose grew as well. In 1999, Pride became a state tax-exempt organization. In 2001, Pride received a three year grant from the Gill Foundation to secure a community center and start offering services to the LGBT community. The Community Center opened officially in 2004 and Pride began offering direct services to LGBT youth in Boulder County. Through the consistent and dedicated efforts of Boulder Pride’s board, staff, and community, Boulder Pride has steadily grown every year, thus, being able to provide a more diverse array of services and programs to its constituents.
Boulder Pride's Vision and Mission
The vision of Boulder Pride is that BoulderCounty serve as a model of equality, respect, and well-being for LGBTQ people.
To achieve our vision, our mission is to foster safe environments for self-expression, gathering, support, and dialogue; advocate for social justice; collaborate with others who share our vision; celebrate the contributions of the many facets of our community; and educate the public about the experiences of LGBTQ people.
Programs and Services
Specifically, in order to achieve these goals, Boulder Pride provides the following programs and services:
Pride House Community Center: Provides a safe space for GLBTQ community groups to meet, and for hosting community empowerment and advocacy events. The Center is open and utilized seven days a week, both during the day and evening.
Project Youth Empowerment (BOLD): Based on the “best practices” resiliency model, the goal of Boulder Pride’s youth programming is to help youth thrive and flourish in their personal lives, and in the broader community, now and in the future. Pride’s accomplishes this by offering opportunities for leadership, social justice education and advocacy, volunteer opportunities, social events, and special projects.
SpeakingOUT: SpeakingOUT is an established and successful all-volunteer GLBTQ educational speakers’ bureau. SpeakingOUT conducts approximately 60 community speaking engagements annually in local high schools and college classrooms. SpeakingOUT’s mission is to cultivate awareness and understanding of GLBTQ lives and experiences.
Smoke Free GLBT: Boulder Pride’s newest program, Smoke Free GLBTQ seeks to prevent initial use of tobacco by youth, significantly increase cessation among youth and adults, and to decrease secondhand smoke exposure to youth and adults. In order to address the tobacco industry’s aggressive target marketing to the GLBTQ community, a counter marketing campaign is also part of the strategic plan along with statewide advocacy for smoke free environments.
Workplace Equality Project: The mission of the Workplace Equality Project is to provide education for managers, human resources professionals, and employees at Boulder City and County organizations on (1) sexual orientation and gender identity prejudice (2) the Boulder Human Rights Ordinance and (3) recent Colorado Employment Non Discrimination (ENDA) legislation. These trainings will focus on creating work environments inclusive for GLBTQ employees and clients. The Workplace Equality Project is scheduled to launch in the second half of 2008.
Youth Filmmaking Project: The Director's Journey, Boulder Pride's LGBTQ youth filmmaking and media literacy project, is a hands-on approach to media education which teaches the concepts of media literacy and theory though the process of scripting, shooting, editing and screening a movie. The ideas and methods contained within the curriculum are based in a belief that everyone has an amazing story to tell and a desire to empower students to have a voice in the global media dialogue.
Red Party: In February 2008 Boulder Pride hosted its sixth annual communit-wide dance and fundraising event recently renamed, "The Red Party." The Eros themed
Red Party invites members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) and
straight allied community to come together to celebrate love, commitment, relationships and
friendships.
Proceeds from the Red Party help
Boulder Pride realize its mission.
PrideFest: Situated in the heart of downtown Boulder, Boulder Pride Block Party provides visibility and community building for the entire GLBTQ community and its allies in Boulder County. Block Party draws over 150 sponsors and vendors and 2,000 people annually.
Issues Advocacy: Boulder Pride advocates on behalf of the local GLBTQ community, for legislative issues, that have a direct impact on the lives of GLBTQ individuals in Boulder County. Boulder Pride advocates on legislative issues at both the local and state levels. Recent advocacy work has included in-depth work on domestic partnership legislation and Employment Non-Discrimination.
Social Events for the LGTBQ Community: In an ongoing effort to build community by bringing together diverse persons within and outside of the queer community, Boulder Pride has a very robust events and activities calendar. Boulder Pride and its queer community partners average 15-20 activities and events per month. Some events are educational and feature guest speakers, workshops, films, lecture series. Other events are more social and feature concerts, dances, and potlucks.
Community Alliances and Coalitions Building: Due to the volume and complexity of issues that arise, Boulder Pride partners with local GLBTQ and allied organizations to strengthen the social justice work done in the community. Recent collaborations have focused on large community rallies, and developing a list of GLBTQ culturally competent front line service providers.
GLBTQ Communications Program: Pride currently offers a weekly “e” newsletter, which features all GLBTQ news in Boulder County. This comprehensive electronic newsletter is delivered to 2,500 persons. Pride has also developed an “activist alert” email list, which mobilizes community members on short notice. Boulder Pride also has a website, and has received a grant this year, to update and expand its site. Pride is also in the process of developing a comprehensive publicity plan.
Volunteer Program: The scope of Boulder Pride’s work cannot be accomplished without the support of hundreds of volunteer hours. Pride has a growing volunteer program, and currently has between 5 to 7 college students working at Pride and receiving service learning credit. Pride is planning for its first college intern this summer. Pride also has numerous community volunteers who help with administrative tasks, publicity, events, and programming.