There are three easy ways to begin the process of getting involved with Pride Lafayette, Inc. and the Pride Lafayette Community Center:

1. Read the descriptions of our teams and committees below, then visit our Get Involved! Form.
2. Visit the Pride Lafayette Community Center during any of our open hours. The friendly hosts will be happy to talk to you about all the opportunities we have to get involved. They will direct you to our Get Inolved! board where you can sign up to help with over 15 different activities and teams.
3. Call the Pride Lafayette Community Center at (765) 423-7579. Our hosts will be happy to speak with you over the phone about our volunteer opportunities and answer any questions you might have.

You may also wish to "lurk" a while on our email list, Facebook group, or Myspace group before taking steps to get involved. You can sign up for any of these on the bottom right side of this page.

Several areas that Pride Lafayette currently is seeking help with area listed and described below. If you are interested in any of the following volunteer opportunities, please see the Team/Committee Sign-Up Form on our website.

Center Hosts

We are always looking for center hosts to host business hours and social hours at the Pride Lafayette Community Center. We are in the process of transitioning to host social hours seven days a week and need additoinal volunteers to help fill in where needed. Center host duties include greeting visitors to the Center, ensuring that all the lights are on and the doors are unlocked, providing information to visitors that may inquire about services available to the LGBT community and providing information about our organization.

Center Maintenance

Center maintenance is an increasingly important need with the recent influx of visitors to the community center. Volunteers are needed to help sweep and vacuum floors, wash tables and countertops, ensure that the bathroom is clean and stocked with supplies, and, in general, to keep the Center looking clean and tidy.

Coming Out Discussion

Volunteers are needed to help coordinate Pride Lafayette's monthly Coming Out Discussion Group meeting. This may involve organizing topics for each month's meeting and providing an atmosphere in which individuals may feel comfortable sharing their struggles with coming out as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender in the Greater Lafayette community.

Décor Advisory Committee

The committee provides recommendations to the board regarding the overall décor of the center. The aim of the committee it to problem-solve strategies that make sure that the center looks good (aesthetic values), is comfortable and welcoming (functional aspects), and has a positive visibility (visual message).

Dinner Out

We need volunteers to help plan and publicize Pride Lafayette's monthly dinner group Dinner Out that is open to anyone that wishes to attend. In the past, the monthly dinner has been held at various restaurants in downtown Lafayette.

Food & Flicks

Food & Flicks is one of the newer social activities being held at the Pride Lafayette Community Center. Volunteers are needed to provide input into the movie and food selection for this event.

Greener Society

The Greener Society is part of West Lafayette's Go Greener Commission that organizes community volunteers to provide recycling assistance at various Lafayette-West Lafayette events including OUTfest '09, The Feast of the Hunters' Moon, and Dancing in the Streets. Pride Lafayette works with the Go Greener Commission by providing volunteers to help with recycling at some of these events.

History

The Tippecanoe County LGBTI history project was recently organized to compile the LGBTIQ history of Tippecanoe County and design an exhibit to be entered into the OutHistory.org Stonewall Local Histories Contest. OutHistory.org is taking entries for the best online exhibits on the local LGBTQ histories of villages, towns, counties, cities, or states in the US since June 1969. All entries must be completed by March 31, 2010. Five winners will receive cash prizes (1st place-$5,000, 2nd place-$4,000, 3rd place-$3,000, 4th place-$2,000, 5th place-$1,000). Please contact Kelly Leonard if you are interested in working on the history project. You can use our contact form to send him a message.

Library

Pride Lafayette houses an LGBTI library containing books of interest to the LGBTI community and their allies. We currently need volunteers to help shelf and organize books and to catalog the books using a library management program to allow visitors to the Center to check out books and return them. Donations of LGBTI-themed books and bookshelves are also welcome.

Metrics

A volunteer is needed to enter information from the attendance sheets into an online database for the purpose of compiling data regarding the number of people that visit the Pride Lafayette Community Center for various Center events and meetings. The compiled data will be used for grant writing purposes to help secure private and government funding for Center-related events.

Newsletter

The Pride Lafayette Quarterly, Pride Lafayette's newsletter, is published every three months and included articles about events and issues of interest to the LGBTI community and their allies. Volunteers are needed to help write articles and take photographs for the newsletter.

Programming

Volunteers are needed to help coordinate various programming (meetings, special events, fundraisers, etc) that occur at the Center on a regular basis and for special events.

Photography/Video

Photographers and videographers are needed to help capture memories at various Pride Lafayette events including OUTfest, the Second Chance Prom, and the annual Volunteer Appreciation Picnic. If you are interested in photography or video recording/editing, this may be the committee for you!

Publicity

Pride Lafayette is always looking for people to help promote its various events to spread the word about the Center and the organization to help attract visitors to our Center. Ways that the publicity committee currently publicizes Pride events include interacting with local business owners (word-of-mouth), advertising in the Pride Lafayette Quartlerly (print), posting messages and events to the Pride Lafayette Facebook and MySpace groups (web), and maintaining the organization's Twitter feed (web).

Service

Each year, Pride Lafayette organizes a team for the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life and also organizes a winter service project. Volunteers are needed to help generate ideas for as well as to organize service activities throughout the year.

Spectrum Art Gallery

Spectrum Gallery is a small intimate space and run exhibitions of local and regional artists as well as educational displays. The purpose of the gallery is to carry on the mission of Pride Lafayette while at the same time giving back to the community a cultural space with a wide range of free artistic and educational exhibitions. The exhibitions rotate on a monthly basis. The gallery is located inside Pride Lafayette’s Community Center.

Technology

The technology committee is involved in making sure that Pride Lafayette has access to computing resources (computers, wireless Internet access, printers, etc) and utilizes all available technology to promote Center activities. Volunteers are needed that have computer experience and experience with other electronic media including audio-video systems.

Website

Are you interested in helping Pride Lafayette maintain its new cutting-edge and eye-catching website? Do you want to provide up-to-date news items for our homepage? If you answered "Yes" to either of these questions, this committee may be for you. Please contact Christy Cooper for more information. Please use our contact form to send her a message.

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