By Stephanie Harrington
After years of scrambling for places to meet, Ottawa’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered population wants to build a community centre to physically symbolize and strengthen its presence in Ottawa.
Ottawa’s GLBT community currently has around 70 organizations serving its 70,000 members. These organizations range from the Pride Committee, to Capital Xtra! newspaper, to Pink Triangle Services, and other numerous recreational and support groups. But there is no place for these organizations to meet and collaborate together.
“A Place to Call Our Own” is the slogan for over 30 members of a task force that will spend the next three or four years planning to turn a long time vision of a GLBT community centre into a reality.
According to the Wellness Project, the first survey in Ottawa to address the holistic health of the GLBT community, 55 per cent of the 826 respondents want a community centre. Those who are especially in favour are youth under 25 years of age and people who prefer community services in French.
“If we had a physical space it would really solve the problem. Right now we have to rent, beg, steal [for a place to meet]. Also, I think the community wants to have a meeting place outside the bar environment,” says Yvon Vaillant, a member of the community centre task force and the GLBT Wellness Project.
A centre has operated in Ottawa before but it failed because it didn’t secure the interest, co-operation or funding from the community to sustain it.
In 1995, the Association of Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals of Ottawa (ALGBO) closed the doors of its centre because it accumulated $16,000 worth of debt.
But Kerry Beckett, the last president of ALGBO, says the former centre was “a baby” compared to the size and focus of the future one.
The former centre was “run by one group for the benefit of everybody,” whereas a board of directors with “more of a collective mind” would direct the new centre, she says.
“The community is now in place with more stability, power, direction and conviction. The people involved are eminently qualified for this,” says Beckett.
The new community centre could include a library and resource centre, health and counseling services, recreational activities, family services, a lounge and a range of programs to serve the senior and youth populations. It could also house local businesses and serve as a central headquarters for many organizations.
The issue of having a physical symbol in the community is especially important for isolated groups such as youth and transgendered people, as well as others coming to terms with their sexuality.
“There has to be a fixed place and an alternative to bars and the nightlife scene. There needs to be a place for youth to go to build a sense of self-esteem and awareness,” says Nathan Hauch, the 19-year-old outreach co-ordinator of Pink Triangle Youth.
According to the Wellness Project, GLBT youth and transgendered people are at a significantly higher risk of feeling isolated, depressed and suicidal compared to other youth in Ottawa and other GLBT respondents. They are also twice as likely to report poor health.
A community centre would help provide the tools to assist these people and strengthen the overall health, education and support network in the community.
The next step in planning a community centre is revising a mission statement and developing a project plan. The task force will study other centres, such as Toronto’s 519, and centres in Los Angeles and Philadelphia. Then the task force will submit the plan to the city.
City councillors Alex Munter and Elisabeth Arnold both support the concept, but no funding has been promised yet. However, the community remains hopeful.
According to Bruce Bursey, spokesperson for the Wellness Project, “There’s a lot of optimism and a sense of renewed purpose and focus on the community centre. Its infrastructure building. Its bricks and mortar. It’s providing a compass for the future – for the individual and the community.”