Welcome to Rainbow Haven!

 Hello! 

We are a small organization on Lopez Island, Washington founded in November of 2022. Our purpose is to provide support to members of the LGBTQIA+ community living here on Lopez as well as to offer education for the Lopez community as a whole. 

We have three branches to our programs: youth support, adult support, and community education.

Currently, our focus is the development of our youth program. Rainbow Haven believes our job is to teach young people in the LGBTQIA+ community that they are loved and supported for the people they are. We believe in teaching youth to communicate with maturity and confidence so they can become their own advocates within their schools, families, churches, workplaces, and all other walks of their lives, both as teens and in their future adulthoods. 

This includes:

- Mentorships

- Education and support for youth and their families

- Group social activities

- Tutoring and job training

- Assistance with locating counselors, therapists, doctors, and other professionals who are space spaces and allies. 

- Self-advocacy skill-building through teaching communication methodology. 

Our community program is next on our development priorities list. Over the next month or two, we will hold our first community education event on Lopez Island. We plan to include a brief introduction, give a lesson on a LGBTQIA+ topic, show an applicable documentary and follow with a discussion of the topic, Q&A session, and closing comments. Childcare and snacks will be provided. 

In the future, we hope to offer a community newsletter informing on LGBTQIA+ topics relational to Lopez Island, We also plan to team with the Lopez Island School District GSA to plan a community Pride celebration in June. 

Finally, the adult program is currently running needs assessments on adult members of the Lopez Island LGBTQIA+ community to see what people would like, what the needs are, and gain other information to guide our program to its best efficacy. Our needs-assessments focus on various age demographics to ensure Rainbow Haven is truly an organization for every LGBTQIA+ Lopezian who would like support in any way. 

Some ideas we have received include:

- A monthly support group including a Zoom option for attendance.

- A social group/mixer for people to meet and spend time together in a casual setting.

- Assisting transgender adults in accessing services ranging from the difficulties of the legal system (name and gender marker changes on birth certificates, etc) to financial support with transition elements not covered by insurance (some examples include but are not limited to clothing, hair cuts, travel expenses for transition-related medical appointments, laser/electrolysis/etc). 

- Assistance seeking out safe/allied service providers (everything from dentists to hair salons to hotels, etc), employers, etc.

If you are a LGBTQIA+ Lopezian adult or youth or the parent of a youth, we would love to hear from you! What would you like to see here on Lopez? How can we help you/us/Lopez as a whole? 

If you are interested in our services or have questions or suggestions, please contact us! 

We can be reached by email at: trisharainbowhaven@gmail.com