A Pride Centre of Edmonton's Very Own
In August, I got the chance to sit down with the program director of an organization I’ve admired for a long time. That organization being the Pride Centre of Edmonton and that director being an incredible person named Kala (she/they).
What does the Pride Centre do?
The Pride Centre of Edmonton provides community support to LGBTQ2S+ folks in Edmonton as well as their allies and families (birth families or found families.) We do that by providing community support, programs and resources whether from ourselves or other partnerships.
What do you do?
Previously to this position I was the administrative assistant and I moved from that to our information and referral coordinator and am now the program director. So right now my job consists of a little bit of those previous positions as well as I’m doing some support for our youth programming. Also, bringing in folks from the community for different programs. For example, with our youth program we’ve been reaching out to folks with different talents; we’ve had magicians and poets [and music performers] a number of different things. Or partnerships which is more like the Family Centre or the CHEW project, [Edmonton Men’s Health Collective] and other programs.
What got you involved?
Well, I’m part of the [LGBTQ+] community and I used to work for a non-profit in Lethbridge. I just wanted a supportive space that was like what I had done in the past, which was youth and admin work, and Pride Centre came up which ended up being a really good opportunity.
Why is this organization important to you? Why not another one?
I think the biggest part of it would be just that it has an understanding of the intersectionality that happens within the queer community. And they understand the difficulty that one could have looking for work and [that I wear men’s clothes] wasn’t necessarily something I need to say in an interview which has been a difficult conversation in the past.
How does one get involved in supporting the Pride Centre?
Well [for] youth we do have our youth group that meets on Wednesdays for youth under 18, it runs from 5-7 and we meet over Discord. Right now that’s the best way to get involved as a youth is through programming. As for volunteering we don’t have a lot of opportunities just because of precaution around COVID and things are pretty limited right now. Of course, when we’re back to normal, if you have a special talent that you would like to share that would be something that we would love to have you in to showcase and teach others how to do. And then we have our regular volunteer program.
How does the Pride Centre operate when not under global lockdown?
We have a lot of people in the community that run our groups. For example, our Womxn’s Social Circle that we have that normally runs on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month that’s for LGBTQ women over 18; they just come and hang out and socialize. They eat lots of little pot lucks together and it’s quite cute, they’ll do movie nights and craft nights, it’s quite endearing. There’s three community members who run that group, who facilitate conversations and organize it and different things like that. So yeah, we have lots of little groups. We also have the Seahorse Circle which is for trans babies under 11 and run by two parents. It’s a safe playspace for trans babies and then it’s a support circle for the parents.
We’re pretty dependent on volunteers but we also try to have diverse programming for everyone in our community.
What can you say to speak to young LGBTQ+ people?
I would probably say that, it can be very difficult to feel like you have a space. I know the walls in a school can feel very caging… being able to break free and be yourself can be hard. But know that there are spaces for you. If you are a student in Edmonton there is the Pride Centre which is a safe space for you where you can come and find acceptance and work on finding yourself.
I think the other thing would be to not forget about the things that make you you beyond your queerness. If you love painting or drawing, if you love DnD or board games. Your queerness does not have to revolve around everything and that you can have multiple parts of you. Being a multifaceted person is good and you don’t need to give up parts of yourself to be queer.
