About People Like Us
Mission statement:
People Like Us provides support to 2SLGBTQIA+ community members in our rural Wallowa County through BIPOC-inclusive support groups, regional networking, education and financial assistance to increase safety, security and well-being.
Organization History:
People “like us” - 2SLGBTQIA+ people - have always been here and will always be here in Wallowa County. People Like Us grew out of several years of 2SLGBTQIA+ organizing out of Safe Harbors, Wallowa County’s domestic violence advocacy organization. Safe Harbors recognized the need for culturally-specific domestic violence and sexual assault services for 2SLGBTQIA+ people, so the team sought and received federal funding for it.
Looking around at the landscape, queer advocates at Safe Harbors realized that there were no organizations specifically supporting 2SLGBTQIA+ people in Wallowa County and sought out and received funding from the Pride Foundation for yearly Pride celebrations and other queer community organizing, starting with a small private Pride gathering in the town of Wallowa in 2016. Safe Harbors also began a monthly Queer Youth Program in 2017 to support Wallowa County’s queer youth, which expanded to twice monthly for two different age groups in 2020.
In early 2023, a group of queer community organizers, including all three people who had served as the Safe Harbors 2SLGBTQIA+ advocate, came together to form a 501(c)3 nonprofit specifically to serve Wallowa County’s 2SLGBTQIA+ population: People Like Us.
People Like Us is still in its early stages and we are so excited to grow with and for you! Check out our Events + Programs page to learn more about what we’ve been up to so far, and our Get Involved page for more information on how we hope to grow!
Who We Serve:
People Like Us works to serve the entirety of Wallowa County’s 2SLGBTQIA+ diverse population well - young and old, from here and elsewhere, partnered and single, trans and cisgender, closeted and out. Our community members span a wide variety of lived experiences, views, opinions and needs. Being a member of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community can look many, many different ways and we strive to serve all people here who identify as queer.
We know that confidentiality, privacy, and safety are often of the utmost importance in our small, rural, conservative community. We take confidentiality seriously and will never out anyone who participates in our services or programming. We do all we can to make our events and programming as safe as possible, including having a safety plan for every in-person event or program.