a look back at 2025
2025 recap
What a year 2025 has been. It was a year full of twists and turns, needing to adapt, to stand together and to show the world that we are not going anywhere. It was tough, scary, and challenging. But throughout it all, our community has come together; we have expanded our resources, renewed our commitment to providing a safe and welcoming space in the Shenandoah Valley, supported one another, and fought like hell. Thank you for your support this year, for sharing your stories, for showing up, and for being unapologetically you. We are so proud of the strength and resilience of our community. We are so glad you are here with us, your passion, determination, and resolve inspires us every day and helps us keep fighting alongside you.
What happened this year?
With a year as hectic and chaotic as this, it's important to take time to reflect. This year has been full of hard work from the community and leadership team. Here is an overview of some things that happened in no particular order:
Served over 830 people!
Transitioned to a volunteer management software
had more people attending events at the space
Changed our hours which has helped us stay open more consistently
Refreshed our space and Improved the accessibility of it
Raised over $9k in donations from Great Community Give
Restarted our volunteer trainings and are working on improving them
Onboarded a lot of new volunteers
Participated in the Harrisonburg Holiday Parade
Increased our outreach and community partnerships
Created a mural for Trans day of Visibility in the mutual aid room
Had a week of Pride Events leading up to Shenandoah Valley Pride
Created a new Logo through the help of our community
Attended Red Wing Roots Festival
Committed to having more community dialogues
Improved our facilities and our available resources
Working to improve ways for volunteers to engage with our organization
Worked to improve our operations and refocused energy on sustainable activities and efforts
Changed Site Directors + Established a new Leadership Team
Improved and better organized our clothes closet and space
Shenandoah LGBTQ Center and FCSS received two of the largest donations to date
And so much more!
Exciting Changes
We have decided on The Friendly City Safe Space’s new Logo! Thank you to everyone who submitted their designs, and helped us vote on our new design! We needed to update our exterior signage as they were confusing and small, which made it difficult for our community to find us. We want our community to be able to utilize the resources we provide. Since we needed to update the exterior signage anyways, we thought it would be a good time to also update our logo, as it is important to us to focus our efforts on improving visibility this year.
We wanted a logo that felt similar to our roots, but also shows our commitment to being a safe space for all members of the LGBTQIA+ community, regardless of race, identity, sexuality, expression, and level of ability. We added the progress flag to our logo with the Harrisonburg Skyline to show the wide range of people we serve here in Harrisonburg, Virginia and the Shenandoah valley. We are able to bring this logo to life thanks to the community that supports us, and through the generous donations we have received this year. You have been an active part in this process, from the beginning; you are the lifeblood of our organization, and we are where we are thanks to you! This new logo is a love letter from our community, and a promise for the future. We will continue to improve our visibility, our partnerships, and the resources that we provide in the coming years.
A logo may feel like something small, but a logo is so huge for our efforts of sharing who we are, what we stand for, and who is welcome. A logo is the first impression people have with our organization, and we want to convey that all are welcome in our doors. We believe this logo will do just that! We are committed to making our safe space, a place for all people to be welcome. Our community is diverse, resilient, ever-growing, beautiful, and united. We hope that when you see this new logo, that you will feel connected to something bigger than yourself.
This Logo will be coming to our space in 2026! We will be working on creating some additional tabling merch in the coming weeks, new ways for you to support our organization and help increase our visibility. Stay tuned to see what we do next! Thank you for your part in bringing this to life! We couldn’t do what we do without you.
We will let you know when things are happening, but we are hoping to hold a launch party in 2026! We would love if you could attend, it's a great time to explore the space and the changes we have already done in 2025.
Coming Soon
Quarterly Community Dialogue - Date TBD - Fill out this form with any questions you would like us to address!
Monthly Potlucks on the 3rd Sunday of the month
More programs within the space
More community partnerships - More Pride events and nights at local businesses
Additional Trainings
Workshops
and more!
If you would like to help FCSS fight for that future, one way you can support that is through donating to the space. Every donation, no matter the amount helps us provide more resources, and provide a safe space for our community.
There are many other ways to support as well. We always need more volunteers, donations of food or drinks, or other in-kind support. Looking to become a volunteer? Join our waitlist for upcoming volunteer trainings!
-The Friendly City Safe Space Leadership Team
