LGBTQ Community Center of the Desert Moves Social Programs Online Amid Pandemic

PALM SPRINGS (CNS) – The LGBTQ Community Center of the Desert in Palm Springs has turned to virtual classes due to the coronavirus pandemic.

A knitting class scheduled for Monday afternoon, for example, used to be held in person at the center’s Palm Canyon Drive building, attracting locals who enjoyed the comraderie of getting together to knit and chat.

“Once it became clear that being physically apart, and having to close down portions of our building, were going to be the norm, we needed to at least continue offering choices and spaces to make sure people are connected with each other,” Alexis Ortega, the center’s director of community engagement, told City News Service.

Zoom video conferencing software has proved to be a crucial tool for the center, which was closed to many in-person services on March 18 due to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s stay-at-home order. The platform allows center regulars to continue staying touch as they did before, offering them “a semblance of normalcy,” Ortega said, while they remain at home practicing social distancing.

“It’s helpful for them” she said.

Essential services, including a Thursday food bank and mental health services, remain operational at the center, which has served the Coachella Valley since 2001.

Many of its programs, like knitting and chair yoga, shifted online. And Zoom has also allowed center staff to add new programming specific to the coronavirus pandemic, including a “Social Caring in the Face of Quarantine” class typically offered via Zoom on Monday mornings.

Ortega described it as “a community care check-in space” where “folks can come and air out their feelings, connect, listen and share with others.”

For more information on the center’s virtual classes, visit http://www.thecenterps.org.