HOLLAND (WHTC-AM/FM) — Out On The Lakeshore will celebrate the one-year anniversary of its community center, 451 Columbia Ave., with an open house set for 6-8 p.m., May 31.
The OOTL Community Center opened last May to provide a place for LGBTQ residents and their allies to meet and feel safe. The center offers education and training programs as well as outreach for youth.
Programs and services expanded over the last year to meet the public’s needs and the center moved from the north end of the group’s Columbia Avenue home to a larger space at the building’s south end in February.
“Some of what’s happening is we’re becoming more a resource to the community than we originally thought we would be,” said the Rev. Jen Adams, an OOTL board member, in a statement emailed to media. “Just our existing has brought people to us that I didn’t think would be connecting with us. It’s grown in ways we didn’t expect.”
The center is open to the public from 5-7 p.m. every Tuesday and 3-6 p.m. every Thursday.
Programs hosted by the center have included a focus group on homeless youth, area schools’ Gay/Straight Alliance events, pop-up hours the second Monday of every month by Michigan Equality’s Department of Victim Services and Gender SAFE support group.
Services to the LGBTQ community can be lifesaving as the risk of suicide is raised by isolation. People who want resources can call 211.
