Today we’d like to introduce you to Robert Boo.
Robert, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
The Pride Center at Equality Park celebrates 24 years of service in 2017. Our mission is: “We provide a welcoming, safe space–an inclusive home–that celebrates, nurtures and empowers the LGBTQ communities and our friends and neighbors in South Florida.” The Pride Center meets the distinct health, social, educational, socio-economic and safety needs of the LGBTQ+ community and our allies.
More than 35,000 adult and youth attended activities at The Center over the past year. We host more than 65 regularly-meeting groups each month. Support, social and educational groups focus on women, seniors, youth, men, transgender individuals, communities of color, recovery, health, the arts, athletics, spirituality, games and more. Outreach activities over the past year directly impacted over 250,000 residents and visitors to South Florida.
The Center also spearheads the three-county collaboration to organize, develop and market the current online health directory of culturally competent providers for LBTQ women at LBTHealth.org. Stop in and learn about all we provide: a community Flea Market; women’s health initiatives; parenting workshops; transgender education series; family outreach days; Bingo; a playground for children and families; Wicked Manors; financial investment series; art gallery openings; couples coaching; a rentable auditorium; Diversity Honors with the Harvey Milk Foundation; a beautiful courtyard; the Rainbow 5K; music, movies and live theater presentations; a variety of health fairs; and a spectrum of creative symposiums, speakers, forums and events for the entire community. We own five-and-a-half acres of property with 30,000 square feet of office space that provide homes for programs and services, as well as synergy among organizations. Our Vision is to be the premier point of connection for our community.
The Pride Center at Equality Park is not just a little nonprofit providing vital programs and services to South Florida residents. We’re one of the largest LGBTQ community centers in the world. Between one and two thousand people utilize our campus daily. And the life-enhancing, innovative programs we provide each day are used as best practice models for centers worldwide–in HIV prevention, Seniors programming, women’s health resources, outreach to communities of color and more.
And we’re not satisfied. We’re planning and preparing for the next decades of service and the next generation of our community right here in South Florida
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
We were once described at the Kitchen for the Community. No matter what house party you go to most of the time people end up congregating in the kitchen. In times of crisis, in times of celebration, in times that we want to remember someone, in times that we need help and in times that we want to help others, we turn to The Pride Center. Our goal when we purchased the 5 1/2 acre campus was to create a campus of care. Multiple services being provided by multiple organizations. That’s why we welcome 8 other non-profit organizations into Equality Park. This is also the reason that 65 groups and organizations utilize our meeting space on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. We have between 1,000 – 2,000 people step foot onto our campus on a daily basis.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about The Pride Center at Equality Park – what should we know?
Thousands of lives have been enhanced and touched by our LIFE and CHOICES programs. Thousands of people come to us to get tested and learn their HIV status. We test in the bathhouses, sex clubs, universities, churches, businesses, housing developments, Walgreens, recovery centers and street festivals. We meet people where they are. Our outreach team is all over; they build relationships and help educate people where they shop and party and worship and work. Folks recognize that we took the lead—when it wasn’t popular—to educate our community about PrEP and get folks linked to life-saving services.
Our Kiki Project is recognized for cutting-edge work among communities of color. So many same-gender-loving men of color haven’t felt welcomed, empowered and heard by some in the LGBTQ communities. The Kiki Project is making a difference. Our staff and volunteers work to empower and support our transgender sisters and brothers. Our Healthcare Navigators links people with care, concern, and compassion to needed medical services. Our Couples Speak program enhances the communication and relationship skills of families in our community. We give out half a million condoms a year—that’s a lot of safer sex.
Our popular Senior Services activities include weekly Coffee and Conversation events with over 200 LGBTQ Seniors; individual linkage services, wellness workshops, daily Enhance Fitness senior exercise classes; a speaker series; recreational activities; healthy aging seminars; cultural events; and our annual Senior Health Expo. We have the largest LGBT senior program in the country.
What are we most proud of? The Residences at Equality Park will represent South Florida’s first affordable housing project with customized supportive services for LGBTQ seniors. We already provide a safety-net of services on this campus for local Seniors. The Residences, coupled with The Center’s growing seniors programming– the largest LGBTQ seniors program nationwide–will give residents a permanent, safe place to live and support services they need to age in place. The Residences joins a growing national trend in which senior affordable housing projects are being built in conjunction with LGBTQ community centers in major cities across the country, including Los Angeles, San Diego, Chicago, Philadelphia and most recently a project was announced on Long Island.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Our community is at a crossroads. We live in an uncertain world. The LGBT community is being attacked by the current administration. Rights that we fought for and gained under the previous administration are being stripped away piece by piece. Many in positions of leadership here in Florida and nationally have no interest in protecting our community. They don’t want to count us; they want to remove us from the census and surveys. They want to deny us protection from losing our jobs due to discrimination and prejudice. They want to control where we go to the bathroom. They want to further stigmatize and vilify transgender and gender-non-conforming children and adults. They want to refuse our pre-existing conditions. They want to drain research and care dollars for HIV. They want to forget the needs of LGBT Seniors. They want to slash funding for needed social services, affordable housing, prevention programs and health care. They target communities of color and immigrants. They want to allow businesses to reject the validity of our marriages under the false guise of religious freedom.
As a Center, the programs and services we provide daily face an uncertain economic future. Candidly, many sources of grant funding we utilize today to serve thousands may not be here next year. Here’s the reality: we are going to have to take care of our community. The government isn’t going to do it. We are.
The LGBT community is the most diverse community around. It does not matter the race, religion, nationality, gender identity or expression or age. We are everywhere. If the transgender community is being attacked, we are all being attacked. Last year I toured the Holocaust Museum, Yad Vashem, in Israel. I was struck to the core by the quote by Martin Niemoller: “In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist; And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist; And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew; When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.” This is why when we see something being done to someone else, we need to act up.
At The Pride Center, we work daily to create a community that takes care of each other. We provide a welcoming, safe space–an inclusive home–that celebrates, nurtures and empowers the LGBTQ communities and our friends and neighbors in South Florida.
Contact Info:
- Address: The Pride Center at Equality Park
2040 N. Dixie Highway Wilton Manors, FL 33305 - Website: www.PrideCenterFlorida.org
- Phone: 954-463-9005
- Email: rboo@pridecenterflorida.org
- Instagram: PridecenterFL
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThePrideCenter/?ref=bookmarks
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/PrideCenterFL?lang=en
Image Credit:
Stephen Lang, Steve Shires, Chris Chavez, Kristofer Fegenbush
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