The Hudson Valley LGBTQ+ Community Center (the Center) supports the LGBTQ+ community and promotes positive social change through advocacy, cultural and social programs, wellness and mental health programing, and community education. Located in Kingston, NY, the Center is the largest organization representing the LGBTQ+ community in the Mid-Hudson Valley region. The Center provides vital human services, professional resources, and programs that unite the LGBTQ+ community across lines of age, race, gender, and economics in a safe and supportive environment. All services are provided at no cost to participants.
The Center operates in a three-story building in historic Uptown Kingston. Its purpose is to strengthen, support, and celebrate LGBTQ+ individuals, families, and groups as well as to foster LGBTQ+-affirming beliefs and practices within the community at large. The Center offers comprehensive information and referral services, a range of community center activities, counseling and support group services, and expert training for health, education, and human service professionals. The Center also offers educational programs that cover topics including sex education for LGBTQ+ youth, medical and surgical treatment options for gender-affirming care, and LGBTQ+-affirming adult primary care. In a typical year, the Center provides support, training, advocacy, and direct services to approximately 2,000 individuals and providers, as well as reaching thousands more annually through LGBTQ+ Pride Month events.
In 2019, the Center opened its Well-Being Institute, which provides free, comprehensive, holistic, short-term counseling in addition to a wide range of educational and wellness services. Services include counseling for individuals, couples, and families; free and confidential HIV and STI testing; and support groups and psychoeducational groups facilitated by a counselor. With no-cost and culturally responsive care, the Well-Being Institute removes barriers to wellness experienced by the most marginalized and vulnerable members of its community, including transgender, gender non-conforming, and non-binary individuals, youth, and older adults, as well as those with a history of substance use and others who are at higher risk of contracting HIV or living with HIV. Particularly during the pandemic, when mental health providers were often overwhelmed, this program has proven to be a crucial resource for this community.
In 2022, the Dyson Foundation renewed a multi-year general operating support grant to the Hudson Valley LGBTQ+ Community Center.