Happy PRIDE month! But for what it's worth, we celebrate PRIDE every damn day at gather here. gather here is queer-owned and proud to employ queer craft specialists. Like we said in 2021, we always strive to be our true selves, living our complicated realities within the craft community - highlighting other queer makers and finding ways to disrupt assumptions about fiber craft. In June we're fundraising for BAGLY, the Boston Alliance of LGBTQ+ Youth. BAGLY was formed in 1980 and is a youth-led, adult-supported organization committed to social justice, and creating, sustaining and advocating for programs, policies and services for the LGBTQ+ youth community. As one of the country’s first and longest running youth-led, adult-supported LGBTQ+ organizations, BAGLY has added shape and definition to the field of youth work. Youth and adult leadership worked together to establish and develop institutional best practices regarding: youth/adult organizational power and collaboration, personal boundaries between youth and adults, and meaningful youth participation and leadership. We absolutely LOVE this organization's long-standing commitment to social justice. Much of BAGLY's youth programming focuses on promoting a greater understanding of and respect for the diversity within the youth communities they serve, and ensuring that their youth and adult leadership is reflective of that diversity.
We hope to see you at one of the many Pride events taking place in the Greater Boston Area this month. And be sure to cheer extra loud when you see BAGLY in the Boston Pride for the People parade on Saturday, June 8, 2024! (The parade starts at 11 AM on Clarendon and ends in the Boston Common on Charles where there will be a festival featuring entertainment, vendors, and most important, community.)
As always, check out ways to donate to BAGLY directly.
Get involved! There are many ways for folks of all ages to play a role in supporting BAGLY. Check out volunteer and fundraising opportunities here.
*Since launching the We Care Wednesday initiative in January 2017 we have donated over $85,215 to a variety of nonprofits and mutual aid funds doing essential work in our community as well as other places. From the Mayor's Disaster Fund to BAGLY to Abortion Access Front and Material Aid and Advocacy. We select organizations that we feel represent not only our commitment to a better, more equitable world but also our desire to "do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can."