Looking back at Prism

The following appeared in Free Magazine in March 2005!

Prism was set up in 1998 when a group of individuals who has undergone community development training organised by the Waterford Gay Lesbian Resource Group that existed at the time had identified the need for a drop in service for all members of sexual minorities in Waterford. They set about securing some funding and a premises and formed a drop in service in the community in Lady Lane House. Here they operated a small café and information centre on a part time basis and supported the development of groups within the centre.

The aim of Prism is to provide the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community of the South East a safe space to meet others, take part in work shops and social outings. There are no age boundaries if visiting the drop in. Unfortunately in 2003 they lost the use of the premises due to renovation work and became homeless for a period of time until the Waterford Area Partnership kindly offered their building to the group. Since then Prism has been operating a limited service to the community from these premises on Wednesday nights from 8pm to 10pm.

The lack of permanent premises has affected other support services for the LGBT community such as Gay Line South East. This confidential phone line provided a much-needed facility for the area but was forced to suspend its service in August 2004. This was due to a lack of volunteers, low level funding and an increase in running costs due to premises change. The phone line is hoping to resume their normal service when a new premises is secured.

The absence of a resource worker and dependence on volunteers has caused prism to experience times of uncertainty and has put on hold the amount of development that can take place. Its volunteers however have kept the facility in existence over the past year and a half and are now very excited about the changes that are soon to take place.

Over the past year a group called sOUTh have been working on the task of securing a space for all of the services to the LGBT community to use. SOUTh are an amalgamation of members of Prism, Gay-Line South East, WIT LGBT society, Pride and active members of the gay community.

They have been successful in obtaining funds from the Waterford Area Partnership for 2005. The premises will give the community the ability to expand, create more support groups and help the services of the South East to develop. It is our hope that a parents support group, transgender support, women's group, men's group and youth group could be just some of the groups that form as their needs are very often very separate from one another. The facilitation of workshops both for personal and creative development will be part of our work along with organising social meets and fundraisers.

This expansion can be daunting for people who might consider volunteering with the groups but our emphasis is on training and learning together. There will be ongoing training throughout the year to ensure volunteers will be kept as up to date as possible. Our hopes for an improved service cannot take place unless we have the volunteers to run it. Giving just one hour a week could make a huge difference to the development of Waterford as a great service provider for the South East LGBT community. Prism drop in is held every Wednesday 8-10pm in the Waterford Area Partnership.