09/06/2013
Friday, August 16, 2013
Dear Oasis Board, Volunteers, Supporters and Allies,
Since being founded nearly four years ago, Oasis the GLBT Center of Northeast Florida has attempted to live up to its mission: providing support services, programs, and a safe gathering space for GLBT people, while striving to create and sustain a population who can be open, honest, as well as safe at home, at work, and in the community.
To that end, Oasis has supported and participated in many local programming opportunities, including:
A Day in the Park
Elder Source
Get Inspired 6k
LGBT AA
Margaret Cho
Quit Smoking Now
Suzanne Westenhoeffer
These programs, and many others, have continued to bring the GLBT community together in Jacksonville, Florida, and Oasis is extremely proud to have been a participated in them.
With the local area GLBT community in its infancy, it is clear that Duval County is rapidly approaching the need for adult community centers, like Oasis. Such well-developed and supported organizations exist in other major cities like Orlando, Tampa, Ft. Lauderdale, Miami, and Tallahassee. These centers provide a safe space for the GLBT community to organize, engage, celebrate, and support one another through developed programming. Centers like these only exist with active involvement from the community – And fail to exist when the community and political climate is fractured.
Though Oasis has worked through many challenges, it is with this letter that we regretfully announce Oasis will discontinue as an organization. The current board has reached this decision based on complex social, economic, and political challenges, challenges in which Oasis is not positioned to address with appropriate vigor.
We extend a heartfelt thank you to Oasis’s board members, volunteers, and contributors --- Your time, effort, and financial assistance allowed Oasis to operate and create programming to foster positive connections among the GLBT community of Jacksonville, Florida. Net-financial proceeds after Oasis’s dissolution will be contributed on behalf of Oasis and Get Inspired to NFAN (Northeast Florida AIDS Network), an organization committed to curbing the tide of HIV/AIDS here in Jacksonville, Florida.
In closing, it is our sincerest hope that GLBT individuals of Jacksonville, Florida, will continue to play an active role in forming a community that is open and supportive of one another, regardless of sexual orientation, expression, or identity.
All the best,
Oasis, The GLBT Center of Northeast Florida
[email protected]
