It's our job to help our Center

Affirmations is going through a really tough time. Because of severe budget cuts, the Center has been forced to drastically cut its hours and to lay off a number of staffers.
People who rely on the Center have been vocal that their "Gay home" is letting them down. We have heard them express their fear and anger – at the Center's management mostly – and we have heard them reach out to try to help. A few, but just a few, have thrown up their hands and said they give up on the Center.
But we cannot give up on Affirmations. For over 20 years, our Community Center has struggled to provide much-needed services. There has never been a time in its long history when the Center was flush with cash, had the perfect staff, met all the needs of everyone that came through the doors and led the community in an unwavering charge forward. Rather, the Center has been, and continues to be, a reflection of the community it serves, with all its beauty, conflicts and strength.
Affirmations completed an enormous capital campaign that resulted in a beautiful new building erected right in the heart of downtown Ferndale. All concerned had assumed that, once the new building was completed, programs and services would expand. But almost immediately after the doors opened the economy went into a free fall, decimating the organization's budget. Center leadership was faced with declining revenues from corporate donors, reduced grant opportunities and a pool of individual donors that were each facing financial hardships of their own.
Now, two years after the financial crash, many of the people have moved on that devoted years of service to fundraise, meet with architects, plan programming and design a functional Center that is second-to-none. They served us well. They deserve our thanks – and they deserve a break from the long hours of service.
It's up to the rest of us now to step forward and take Affirmations to the next level. It will never be perfect, just as our community will never be. But it is our home – a safe place where LGBT people can gather, get help, volunteer, donate time and resources. It's our flagship organization.
We encourage people to volunteer, donate if you can, be part of the solution. We call on the new leadership – especially the board and the new interim director, Kevin Howley – to listen to the concern being expressed for the Center. Please don't "hunker down" and get defensive, but instead figure out ways to bring in those who want to help. Many centers around the country have been forced to lay off staffers and rely more heavily on volunteers. We have legions of talented people who can help Affirmations, and they must be encouraged and welcomed to do so with visionary, creative leadership.
We ought to all pitch in to help Affirmations, not because it is perfect. We should help because we respect ourselves, our community and our home too much to let an important asset suffer because we expected someone else to step up and do what we can do ourselves.