From the Board Chair/October 2023
Nevada County Pride: Looking Back….Moving Forward
In March 2022, just as the world was starting to recover from a global pandemic, 17 members of our local LGBTQ+ community came together to have a conversation about re-inventing Nevada County Pride for a post-Covid world. Founded about 40 years ago by a group of gay men who met monthly in members’ homes for potlucks, when communication was by postcard, NCP was in need of a makeover for the 21st century.
The gathering was energizing and productive, initially leading to actions to improve collaboration and communication for events, such as a master calendar on the website that all in the community could post events. There was also agreement that doing something big for 2022 June Pride Month was important to regain the visibility lost during Covid. For a variety of reasons, there was not something big last year, but instead a variety of smaller events hosted by multiple groups. It was a busy and fun month!
Fast forward to 2023. NCP hosted the CA LGBT+ Caucus in May for the first stop on their Rural Listening Tour. One outcome was a community roundtable discussion with Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital to discuss gaps in healthcare for queer and trans patients. There have now been meetings bringing together SNMH leadership, medical practitioners, and community members. The group is using the recently concluded LGBTQIAP+ Rural Healthcare Survey to help inform the work.
Pride Month 2023 was very successful with more than 10 events hosted by various community organizers bringing in 1000+ attendees from the Nevada City Pride Flag Raising to Queer Family Picnic. But the big event was our first Pride Festival on Sunday, August 6th, with more than 650 attendees came out to enjoy a full day of fun for all ages. We appreciated all the community support!
And that brings us to the look forward and how you can help. Our all-volunteer Board recently revised and approved a new Mission Statement that better reflects the purpose of the organization: “Nevada County Pride celebrates, supports, and advocates for the LGBT+ community in Western Nevada County by promoting Community, Diversity, and Respect through Events, Education, and Resources”.
In addition, we are:
· in the process of getting our 501c(3) non-profit status and will soon launch a strategic planning process to build a roadmap for the future, including a possible Gay Community Center
· participating in Nevada County’s Equity, Inclusion, and Leadership Alliance (EILA), advancing a safe and just Nevada County through the elevation of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
· continuing to grow our partnership with Bright Futures For Youth to support Queer Youth and other local social justice organizations
· Growing the number of events that we offer to the community
Our goal is to have an organization for ALL community members regardless of identity. But, we can’t do this without volunteers and new voices from the community.
We are reaching out to you to help us continue to diversify our Board – particularly with women, BIPOC and younger folks. The Board annual meeting and elections are in January and we have multiple positions open. We are doing new board member recruiting now and would be delighted to share more information with you and answer questions about the Board roles that you can view at:
https://www.nevadacountypride.org/board
I would be delighted to speak with you further about the Board and our plans for 2024 and beyond. Reach out to me at rick@nevadacountypride.org
Rick Partridge