DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
Taffet@DallasVoice.com
Resource Center will launch its Community Wellness Program on Oct. 8, marking an expansion of some of the organization’s essential services, officials said this week All programming and events have been paused since Sept. 23 and will continue so through Oct. 7.
The center has had a long-time commitment to safe spaces for LGBTQ+ and allied individuals. And under the Community Wellness label, that dedication continues even though familiar program names will be dropped, officials said, adding that Youth First, United Black Ellument, Grupo Orgullo Hispano, FUSE, GenderBrave, SapphiQ, THRIVE and CAFÉ are all being brought together under one umbrella.
Even though those names will no longer be used, the weekly programs and the annual events will continue from each of them will continue, officials pledged.
Resource Center COO Marisa Elliott said listings of the events will be on the website on Wednesday, Oct. 8, and it will be clear who the events are for.
“The change is part of our strategic plan,” Elliott said. “Part of that plan is to develop sustainable programming. Moving what were individual programs under one umbrella allows us to provide more nimble, robust services.”
And moving these programs under mental health gives Resource Center access to more resources. Elliott said 24 additional staff members and consultants would be available to contribute to programming and operation of the services to constituent groups.
Director of Strategic Initiatives Aloe Johnson said, “We’re not going to have the same names as before, but we’ll be expanding with revitalized resources.”
Some of that new programming will include intergenerational programming.
“But we’ve always had a youth empowerment camp,” the two said. “We’ll still have a youth empowerment camp.”
Resource Center will also continue to have affinity spaces for prioritized groups including older adults, youth, young adults, people of color, transgender people, the sapphic community and Spanish speaking LGBTQ+. CAFE, which was the name of the support group for parents of trans youth, will also continue its programming under the Community Wellness umbrella.
Elliott and Johnson said it will be easier to apply to grants and allows the center to apply for a wider variety of grants under the new organization. Both said that despite the current federal administration’s on-going war on DEI policies and programs, Resource Center hasn’t lost any funding and the issue of diversity, equity and inclusion just hasn’t come up.
Change can be frightening for staff. But Elliott and Johnson said center officials have not gotten pushback from the staff, even though several positions were eliminated because of duplication of services.
“As we explained and shared this, I’ve gotten nothing but positive response,” Johnson said. “I have input coming directly from staff who are excited about these changes.”
“We are continuing our role to be the community’s home for programming,” Elliott added.
“An important thing to recognize is this was done in support of our strategic plan,” Johnson continued. “Resource Center may be changing branding, but we continue to provide support for groups with high quality events within the walls of the community center.”
To start off, all programs will be held at the community center. But as programming expands, they plan to expand the reach beyond the community center’s walls.
Programs and services at Oak Lawn Place, Resource Center’s senior housing facility, and the Resource Center Health building on Inwood Road have not be affected by any of the changes.
Program updates will no longer be posted under group names such as Youth First or UBE, and all social media for program-specific accounts will be deactivated on Oct. 7. That same day, the first listings of new events will appear online at MyResourceCenter.org/CommunityWellness. For listings of events on social media, check Facebook.com/ResourceCtr on Facebook, @myresourcectr on Instagram and Resourcectr on TikTok.
“Things are going to feel familiar to community members,” Elliott said. “We’ll provide the same quality programming we did previously.”
If you have questions, contact communitywellness@myresourcecenter.org or call 214-540-4430.
I still do not feel comfortable with the new program, if programming isn’t changing then why was the original message you all sent a complete 180 now?
People within our community where fired for this new program, and if programming didn’t change either then I feel like there isn’t something being said. Either these 24 people already existed and are already occupied and adding this whole schedule om top of them is just overworking people who already had work, or you hired 24 new people in that case it’s just a spitting in the face of the people that where fired.
I have no confidence in the Resource Center anymore. You fired all the people who ran the organizations and just claim it was from duplicated roles?
This felt very sudden and as if there was zero planning other then to save money. Every message before this has been vague and left me concerned that the upper management doesn’t care about any of us.
As a frequent attendee of the Resource Center’s programs, the organization has lost all confidence from me with this move. The sudden shuttering of the existing programs combined with the firing of the programs’ coordinators is abhorrent. Their move to replace the coordinators with mental health professionals who must both guide social programs and manage their clientele will only serve to tax an already overtaxed system.
The Resource Center has poorly managed their programs in the past, but I believed in the coordinators that made these programs possible and saw firsthand the positive effects they had on the community. That is why this move has hurt me so much. I can only hope a better alternative is made available.
RC keeps assuring us that there will be events for us. No one is worried about losing queer yoga or Gay Bingo, we’re upset by the dissolution of our communities. Ironically, RC dissolved the Faces communities to offer faceless programs.
I was a Sapphiq volunteer. Sapphiq and the other Faces groups were special… it was real community organizing. They were places of rest and support and education and solidarity and protest. I went to a Sapphiq yoga event after being assaulted on a date. The support and care I felt in that vulnerable moment made a real difference in my resiliency after the event. The community that Nina created in Sapphiq was so intentional. She worked so hard to facilitate a welcoming, supportive space and for it to dissolve like that.. I don’t hate Resource Center. But I’m angry. I don’t think it was a good call and I think it will harm a lot of people who rely on these groups. I guarantee you these groups have saved lives, community shouldn’t be an after thought. Leadership didn’t consider the community they were already serving and how much of its success relies directly on the core organizers involved. This choice feels very disconnected from the actual participant’s needs. These weren’t programs, they were communities.
Further, the choice to place all communication and programming under a single umbrella is most likely going to result in one group’s programming washing out all of the others. We don’t need another space dominated by white gay cis men leaving no room for other identities. Genderbrave saved lives, Sqpphiq saved lives. Resource Center is talking about replacing our communities with faceless programs that reach further into DFW. But will these programs meet the needs of participants? Or will they just look better on grant applications?
I’m confused how completely eliminating community-specific programs and their coordinators can be considered an “expansion of the organization’s essential services.” Cutting programs and the staff members who made them happen and then painting it as a “gift” to the community is truly wild.
To me this feels like they are cutting costs, adding work to probably already overworked mental health staff members, and completely eliminating programs for community without even asking community members what THEY want. If they had asked community, we would have told them we do not want this. The fact that they even said in this interview that this isn’t in response to a loss of funding feels like an extra slap in the face – like, y’all didn’t even have to do this then!
The queer community in Dallas has watched the Resource Center steadily cut community programs and offerings and the staff members who interact with community (usually the Resource Center’s only Black and Brown staff members) over the years while the same all-white leadership remains. This feels like the last straw, there is no reason to trust this organization anymore.
There was “no pushback” from staff on this decision because they’ve been eliminated as a part of said decision. Just ruthless and cruel. I can’t believe how they are just outright lying to the public.
Re: “no pushback from staff”. My simply reply is, B.S.
There was no pushback from staff simply because the staff that ran these programs (FaCES) were fired except for two people and IF they wanted to keep their jobs, they are going to stay quiet and endure the change (whether they agree that it is a good thing or not). The rest of the staff at the Resource Center is not affected about these changes, so why would they push back at all. They are simply going to keep quiet in order to keep their jobs.
As with any other organization or job, when there is a layoff, word spreads, and everyone else goes silent in hopes of keeping their jobs.
For senior management to say no push back at all, it’s true! Say something . . . and your fired. So of course, no pushback!
As a volunteer, I was “no longer needed” as I did not support the nre values of the Resource Center. My response to that is that I was let go because I did not want to accept their conditions: dropping group name, being placed under Mental Health (which the ADA disagrees with), AND the way they executed the changes. There was absolutely NO CHANGE MANAGEMENT AT ALL. The programs were cut, brochures were pulled, the web was changed – all at once. This indicates some level of planning; yet no CHANGE MANAGEMENT AT ALL. The AXE FELL and they are trying to implying that there was no management pushback – yeah, right! They LITERALLY are forcing their “staff” to go back into the closet on these changes.
Re: “Mental Health” and or “Community Wellness”
As far as being clumped under “Mental Health” and or “Community Wellness”, there clearly was little consideration for how long it took the AMA to assert that our being LGBTQIA+ was NOT a mental condition. Also consider how this now appears to the non-LGBTQIA+ world.
So, in effect, our own organization is telling the world that we belong under “MENTAL” health and we need “Wellness” care. How do you think the Republicans and MAGA groups are going to deal with this? They are going to LOVE it; they are going to point at us and say we have mental problems, they are going to point at the Resource Center and say – even your own people think you need mental help . . . and hence, need to be fixed; then they are going to legislate toward that end. I’m not being negative – I’m being realistic in today’s world.
Senior management threw our “safe, social groups” under the bus so they could get more funding for the medical-related needs of the Resource Center and ensure they can keep their high-paying jobs.
And all this is happening at the same time they are adding and creating a new position for President at the Resource Center.
All I can say is, “Wow!” This REALLY makes me feel like they are providing a Safe environment for us. NOT!!!