great community give 6am - 8pm
great community give 6am - 8pm
Great community Give 2024
Help us reach our fundraising goal of $10,000! Click the button above to donate, or come stop by the space in person and say hello! Check out the day’s activities below:
march 1, 2024 - an important update from fcss
Dear FCSS community,
As many of you are aware, the past few months have been a period of transition for the Friendly City Safe Space. At the end of 2023, our founder Hyacinth Bellerose stepped down from her role as director of the Friendly City Safe Space to focus on her personal well-being and professional development; RISE, with whom we have shared the physical space with since our founding, have also decided to transition out of the lease in the coming year. As we approach our third year of operations, FCSS is also undergoing changes in other areas as well, including overhauling our volunteer system, expanding our programming, and focusing on community outreach and partnerships.
In order for us to succeed as an organization during this time of growth and restructuring, we on the FCSS Leadership Team, along with the executive director of the Shenandoah LGBTQ Center (our parent organization), have decided it is critical to have a dedicated person to navigate the transition from a nascent organization to an established community resource center, and have unanimously voted in Peregrin Sanchez as director of the Friendly City Safe Space until December 31st, 2024. During this period, he will work closely with both the Leadership Team and Shenandoah LGBTQ Center to focus on making sure that this coming year goes as smoothly as possible, while still focusing on the long-term strategy and growth of the organization. You can find his letter of introduction below.
Starting later this year, FCSS will open the director position for our first three-year term, which will start in January 2025. The Leadership Team will send out an official announcement once the application is available on our website, and we welcome all interested candidates to apply. In our commitment to full transparency and equality, we also feel it is important to note that since a current director is eligible to reapply for an additional consecutive term, they are by default excluded completely from the selection process.
We greatly look forward to the coming months and all the positive changes it will bring, and we thank you all again for your continued support. If you would like to reach out to us for any reason, you can email us at friendlycitysafespace@gmail.com, or contact our Executive Director AnhThu Nguyen at anguyen@shenlgbtqcenter.org
Sincerely,
The FCSS Leadership Team
FROM THE DIRECTOR
After having been involved with Friendly City Safe Space for a year and a half–first as a volunteer, and then as part of its Leadership Team–I am honored to be officially stepping into the role of director for 2024 as FCSS embarks on an exciting year of new changes. Born and raised in San Francisco, I learned about the LGBTQ+ community from an early age; and yet even in the birthplace of our flag, in a place so steeped in our history that it is literally embedded in the sidewalks and embossed on the street signs, I did not even realize my own queerness until I was in my late twenties. My journey of self-discovery as a second-generation Latino and gay trans man has made me intimately familiar with the intersectionality of race, religion, and culture in the context of gender and sexuality, and the unique challenges that this can present particularly within religious and immigrant communities.
When I first moved out to the Valley four years ago, I quickly realized that my journey was by no means unique, and through my interactions with others at FCSS, I quickly felt at home in the multifaceted and vibrant city of Harrisonburg. Over the past four years, I have also begun to embrace the Appalachian culture that has been a part of my partner’s heritage for generations, and have come to deeply respect the people of the Blue Ridge Mountains, particularly the rural queer folks who are so often quietly forgotten and ignored.
In this coming year, I hope to lead FCSS into a period of foundational growth by forging connections with the long-standing communities in the area while also welcoming new faces as they make Harrisonburg their new home. We also hope to expand our programming and outreach to focus and support those in the LGBTQ+ community that through their intersectionality–be it race, religion, age, economic status, or disability–have been additionally marginalized. Most importantly, we hope to establish ourselves in Harrisonburg as a legacy organization, one that is not only known by both local and visitors alike, but that also embodies the spirit of the Friendly City and serves as an exemplar of a truly diverse, equal, and equitable Appalachia.
All the best,
Peregrin Sanchez
Drop-in Hours
Wednesday-friday 4-7 pm
Saturday 9-6 pm
OUR MISSION
The Friendly City Safe Space is a community for LGBTQ+ people and aspiring allies of all ages, racial and ethnic identities in Harrisonburg and surrounding counties that will empower them with the resources, education, and community necessary to thrive as equal, healthy, supported, essential members of our society.
OUR VISION
A Community where all lgbtq+ people thrive
safe space Events
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