As Edmonton’s population continues to increase, many organizations are finding themselves redesigning their roles in the community. The Pride Centre is focusing on supporting created and chosen families across the city, which provide essential basic supports in the queer community. 

“With queerness, there’s a lot of emphasis on the chosen family,” says Shawndy Kowalchuk, Gender Resource Navigator at the Price Centre.  “At the Pride Centre we’re really trying to hone in on that right now.”. 

Previously there were a lot of questions from people wanting to know how they can support their queer family members, but it has transitioned to being a hub for information and services in the community rather than a sole provider.

“You can still send those inquiries to us, but people can come to us and we'll tell them where they can find what they need in the community. 

“Maintaining the physical space that we have as a place where people can come, be safe and express queer joy,” says Kowalchuk. 

Community members can come into the space during drop in hours or attend community programming. 

“Sometimes a drop in day will be a bunch of people who decided to do a drum circle, other days it’s a community support circle,” says Kowalchuk. “ We’re starting to move away from structured programming.” 

The centre’s facility features a community kitchen that sometimes hosts meals, a community closet, single session counselling and a queer library to name just a few. 

The organization has operated under a variety of different names since 1971, rebranding as The Pride Centre in 2004.  

“The Pride Centre has been around for a long time, but about 2 years ago we started to see a lot of newcomers,” she says. “Additionally, two years ago, we had this giant onslaught of people and a huge climb in demand because of political issues here.” 

While newcomers were one factor, there are multiple streams to the additional demands for community support. 

“The pandemic definitely changed a lot of stuff. Folks had time to sit with themselves, and think maybe I’m neurodivergent or gender diverse, and there’s a lot of crossover between those two,” says Kowalchuk. “Many people developed an Increased awareness of things. We’re still seeing a big spike from that still. Also, a lot of the legislation that has come out has had impacts - people who didn’t know we existed are reaching out to help.” 

In addition to all these factors, Edmonton’s swiftly growing population continues to affect community groups across the city. 

“What do we do with very little resources, which is why we’re transitioning toward connecting people to the community rather than trying to provide services to this enormous group of people. 

At the end of the day, Kowalchuk says the Pride Centre’s goal is to create a space where everyone feels safe, and support the spread of safe and inclusive spaces throughout the community as well. 

“Safe spaces are important and it’s not available for everybody yet,” she says. “I would love to work myself out of a job. Until that’s possible things like this need to be here.” 

For more information about the work of the Pride Centre, and to find out how to celebrate Pride Month in June, click here.