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Cancún,
C ommunity C atalyst
- Exclusive
Club Med Village
Vancouver roundtable endeavors to connect southwest W ashington's
sexual minorities
J V o i? . 3 - 1 0
by Timothy Krause
,
from
(xi can’t build a community with
Whatever shape the network takes, Furze
out people knowing who’s in the says the goal will be expediency. “It’s about how
community,” says John Furze, a to not wait two or three months to find out
member of the Vanccxiver-based about something,” he explains. “Sometimes by
Sexual Minority Leadership the time you read about it, it’s over. So this is
Roundtable. So, after nearly a year of identifying basically about how to get important informa
southwest Washington resources for sexual tion out fast.”
minorities, this informal group of community
Once the communication infrastructure is in
leaders has launched Rainbow Links, a new tele place, the roundtable will begin a dialogue with
phone hot line to parallel a revamped Web site.
the community to assess other needs. Seniors
Funded by contributions, the hot line offers and trans people are two of the underserved
an automated menu system featuring listings in populations whose concerns might be addressed.
“Where we go from here is going to contin
seven categories. Among the topics are religious
and spiritual resources; social and support ue to be influenced by what we hear from the
groups; health and HIV services; and family and community and the interest and expertise of the
youth infonnation. This directory identifies people who volunteer to be on the roundtable,”
agencies, organizations and businesses not only says Kip Beardsley, gay health promoter at the
in Vancouver but also as far away as Cowlitz, Southwest Washington Health District in Van
Lewis, Pacific and Klickitat counties. And the couver and one of the roundtable’s founding
roundtable plans to facilitate long-distance members.
In the meantime, what’s good for the com
access by adding a toll-free number soon.
Concurrently, the Web site is being updated munity at large has been good for individual
to include all of the same information. In addi- members of the roundtable, too. For example,
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Members of the Sexual Minority Leadership Roundtable meet Sept. 13 to brainstorm ideas to
build a stronger, more connected community
tion, the online service provides an events cal
endar and interactive message board.
“There’s been a lack of understanding of
what is here,” notes Furze, a counselor at the
Children’s Home Society of Washington. “A
lot of people tend to go to Portland for what
should be a Vancouver community. But we
want them to be accessing services here and
seeing here as home.”
Another member of the roundtable is Llyn
Zephyr, coordinator of Vancouver’s Sexual
Minority Services Project. When distributing
information at events, she has found many are
surprised to learn what is available north of the
Columbia River.
At a booth during Portland’s Gay Pride,
for example, she says, “People from Vancou
ver visited us and said: ‘We didn’t know there
was a celebration. We didn’t know there were
services.’ ”
Roundtable members began meeting last
autumn after a handful of providers sought to
ptxd individual rescxirces. Their original goal
was to provide comprehensive services without
duplication, Hit they soon saw the resulting
directory as a valuable way of communicating to
the public what local resources were available.
The roundtable now hopes to build on this
foundation by developing a way for members
of the southwest Washington sexual minorities
community to communicate with each other
quickly and easily. One method might be an
e-mail list, but Zephyr notes that because
many people are not connected to the Internet
yet, other more traditional avenues will be
explored as well.
Zephyr has been able to identify where gaps
exist in services for the sexual minorities com
munity and has brainstormed ways to meet
these needs through the cooperation and collab
oration of the roundtable’s diverse participants.
Among the wide representation of stake
holders is the city of Vancouver. Openly gay
City Councilor Jim Moeller has attended
meetings of the roundtable, and Zephyr says
his participation has helped focus a lot of the
ideas.
“1 am very excited aHxit the existence of the
new roundtable and its potential for future
impact on our community in total,” he says. “I
think it’s going to be important for any kind of
community in the future that these kinds of
roundtables and communication continue and
be developed as much as possible.”
Other organizations active on the round
table include Columbia River Mental Health;
Cowlitz County Health District HIV Support
Group; First Congregational Church of Christ;
Imperial Sovereign Court of the Raintree
Empire; Parents, Families and Friends of Les
bians and Gays; Peace Health Behavior
Health/Choices; Soulforce; United Church of
Christ; and YWCA Safechoice Domestic Vio
lence Program. |H
The S exual M inority L e a d e r s h i p R o u n d
table welcomes others to participate, especially
gay business owners from outlying areas of
southwest Washington. For details call Llyn
Zephyr at 360-695-1325, ext. 332, or visit the
Internet site gayvancouverwa.org. The hot line,
360-816-6877, is up and running.
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