Campaign launched to support former Casa Ruby employees
The D.C. Center for the LGBT Community and D.C.’s Capital Pride Alliance announced on Friday that they have launched a campaign to raise funds to assist former employees of Casa Ruby, the local LGBTQ community services center that closed its operations last month following the loss of most of its D.C.
government funding. “The recent shuttering of Casa Ruby has traumatized its employees and clients,” a joint statement released by the D.C.
Center and Capital Pride Alliance, which organizes D.C.’s annual LGBTQ Pride events, says. “Before the shutdown, employees went unpaid for six to eight weeks, with some continuing to work without pay to help transition and support the youth and clients,” the statement says.
The statement was referring to one of Casa Ruby’s main programs that provided housing and other assistance to homeless LGBTQ youth, with a special outreach to the transgender community. “It is imperative that the integral and glorious humans of Casa Ruby feel a sense of reciprocity from our community, meaning the immense care and support that they have provided to our community members in need — selflessly and without compensation — should be reciprocated ten-fold during this extremely dire chapter of their lives,” Kimberly Bush, the D.C.
