An LGBTQ+ cooperative building support & visibility in Rutland County
Our Vision:
A Rutland Region where all LGBTQ+ people feel truly welcome & supported.
Our Mission:
To coordinate all community resources for greater effectiveness, visibility, and support for LGBTQ+ people.
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Who can Participate?
Any individual, business, or organization who wishes to increase support and visibility for LGBTQ+ folx in Rutland County.
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Meetings
Meetings are usually held virtually on the 2nd Thursday of each month. Email us at socialtinkeringvt@gmail.com to join our work!
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Current Work Includes
Pride Month Planning:
We coordinate with partners all over Rutland County to celebrate Pride as a community. CLICK HERE for more information
Monthly Socials:
Social Tinkering hosts monthly socials as a way for people to simply gather and build community and friendships for healthy living. CLICK HERE for more information
Crystal Queer Video Podcast: Social Tinkering hosts a video podcast mini-series! CLICK HERE to listen and watch!
Building Support for Youth: Ongoing partnership building in process
All Are Welcome Here Visibility Initiative: We partner with Awesome Graphics to manage this Initiative to spread visibility and support for our LGBTQ+ community. CLICK HERE for more information!
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How You Can Help
1. Join our cooperative work!
Are you an individual, business, or organization that wishes to help further LGBTQ+ support and visibility in the Rutland Region? Join us at our next meeting to help us coordinate all the great work being done throughout Rutland County. Contact us via email at socialtinkeringvt@gmail.com to learn more.
FOR BUSINESSES/ORGANIZATIONS: Commit to becoming a long-term ally of Rutland Plus! All brains and types of resources are valuable to achieving our goals. Everyone can help in some way. Contact us to brainstorm how you can participate and fill our our ally form to help us get to know you:
2. Donate!
Donate to Social Tinkering and specify Rutland+ in your donation. We will set aside your money specifically to support our organization's work in facilitating this collaborative, printing our All Are Welcome Campaign products, as well as any LGBTQ+ specific programs and events that we run.
Go to our "Donate" page for more information (click here).
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Learn More:
Local VT Resources:
Rutland County Pride Center: https://rcpride.square.site/
Outright Vermont: https://www.outrightvt.org/
Queer Connect (Bennington): https://queerconnectbennington.com/
Pride Center of Vermont: https://www.pridecentervt.org/
National Resources:
The Trevor Project (LGBTQ org for Youth under 25): https://www.thetrevorproject.org/survey-2020/
The Human Rights Campaign: https://www.hrc.org
WHY PRIDE STILL MATTERS
https://youtu.be/5vGEkrqJTQc
About National Pride Month: https://nationaltoday.com/pride-month/
Human Rights Campaign: https://www.hrc.org/resources/violence-against-the-trans-and-gender-non-conforming-community-in-2020
Our Rutland+ Story:
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In fall of 2020 we started gathering LGBTQ+ leaders in Rutland County together to meet, share information, and build community. Our goal was to support all LGBTQ+ folks in our area and elevate visibility. In 2021 a young resident brought his idea for a visibility project to the collaborative and in June 2021, we announce the All Are Welcome Here visibility initiative, installed banners in downtown city of Rutland and gave out yard signs and stickers - all funded with a GoFundMe fundraiser that raised nearly $5,000 in just over 2 weeks time from local residents. For the first time in Rutland City history, we celebrated Pride Month as a community, loud and proud, letting all our LGBTQ+ fellow residents that we see them, we value them, and most importantly - we welcome them.
In 2022, Social Tinkering picked up the leadership reigns of our young group and together, we have created "Rutland+, an LGBTQ+ cooperative building support & visibility in Rutland County."
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Moving forward, this cooperative is a way for LGBTQ+ folks and allies to come together to create a set of short and long-term goals for building healthy community support for LGBTQ+ folks. We meet once a month and businesses and organizations are also welcome to join us in this good work in any way they can.
