CenterLink hosts annual event at OkEq

by Sharon Bishop-Baldwin

Oklahomans for Equality (OkEq) and the Dennis R. Neill Equality Center will be the hosts this year of CenterLink's ninth annual Executive Director and Board Leadership Summit, slated for Sept. 17-19 in Tulsa.

About 75 delegates from 19 states, Washington, D.C., and Canada had registered to attend by mid-August, and organizers were anticipating an additional 15 to 25 registrants before the deadline. Participants represent nearly 50 LGBT community centers across North America.

CenterLink is an advocacy organization whose mission is twofold: develop strong, sustainable LGBT community centers through a thriving network and ensure that LGBT people have access to identity-affirming and lifesaving services and programs through these supported centers.

CenterLink encourages each member center's right to self-direction; the goal is to provide auxiliary support that allows the centers to meet their unique challenges. But while the organization is future-focused, its roots run deep into LGBT history.

During the early and mid-1970s, gay community centers began springing up across the country, offering support groups and health clinics as well as meeting space for community organizing. The centers became the hub of the LGBT community. This was never truer than during the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, when centers took the lead in HIV caregiving, education and prevention. Throughout the 1990s, the community center movement began to spread to ever-smaller cities and towns.

In June 1994, the National Association of LGBT Community Centers was launched as part of the celebrations marking the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall riot. In 2008, the association changed its name to CenterLink.

Denise Spivak, CenterLink's director of member relations and external affairs, said the group is excited to bring the Leadership Summit to Tulsa “because the staff and board at the Dennis R. Neill Equality Center and Oklahomans for Equality have made some impressive achievements, including being one of a small percentage of centers to have their building completely paid off. And they are one of the largest centers (in terms of square footage) in the country.”

“The relationship that the center has built with the community is really remarkable,” Spivak added, “and we’re excited for them to share all of this with our summit attendees.”

Some participants might question Tulsa – not routinely thought of as a “destination city” – as the conference's locale.

“But I think that people are really interested to see the [Equality] Center,” Spivak said. “Many of them have known [Oklahomans for Equality Executive Director] Toby Jenkins for a while now and are enthusiastic about seeing and hearing about the work that he and his staff and board are doing.”

For their part, Jenkins and OkEq are planning a gathering that the visitors won't likely forget. “Part Route 66, part Oklahoma!, the summit's social activities will show attendees just how much Tulsa does, in fact, have to offer,” he said.

But Jenkins is eager to host the summit as a way of “giving back,” of sorts.

“For at least eight years, we've been mentored to and benefited from” membership in CenterLink, he said. “We learned from them what we've now done in Tulsa, so we're excited for them to see what we've accomplished.”

Jenkins said CenterLink was “the one national group that really supported us and invested in us,” and he takes some joy and pride in now being able to encourage the growth of other LGBT community centers in the area.

“When we started with CenterLink eight years ago, there were no centers within a half-day's drive of Tulsa,” he said. “Now there are centers springing up all over the region” – both a result of and a contributor to the ongoing networking CenterLink provides.

Spivak said this year’s theme is “Connect, Collaborate, Motivate.”

“The Summit is really an opportunity for LGBT community center leaders to come together, network, share ideas, learn, find new ways to work together, and to just recharge,” she said. “Running a center is hard work. Our goal at the summit is to provide a setting where the leaders can spend time with old friends, make new friends and return home rested, relaxed and motivated to do the important work that they do.”

For more information about the summit, go online to www.lgbtcenters.org/leadership-summit.aspx.

The Gayly – September 13, 2015 @ 12pm.