Safe Space Cape

Safe Space Cape

At the Red Door Jubilee Center, a ministry of Christ Episcopal Church in Cape Girardeau, a 2019 New Ventures grant is being used for three ministries: Safe Space Cape, PFLAG Cape Girardeau, and Lock It For Love.

Safe Space Cape is a program created through Red Door Jubilee Center, for young people within the LGBTQ+ spectrum. The program is for pre-teens, teens, and young adults who identify with the community as well as those who support young persons’ right to live authentically and grow into their true selves.

There is a need in Cape and the surrounding region to support young people who are left behind by their families, ostracized by their peers, and marginalized by the community as a whole. One of the things the young people needed the most was a place to feel at home.

SSC began holding monthly events in April 2018 and moved to weekly meet-up sessions on Friday afternoons. At events, there are usually parents with their teens and other community members who have expressed that the program is something they feel is needed in the area. This

part of the grant was for Safe Space furnishings, games and other entertainment items like a wall mounted screen for TV, games, and movies.

Before the makeover, the space was sterile and had furniture ill-suited for multiple uses. Now the rooms are welcoming and encourage interaction in a fun and inclusive environment. The viewing area includes a TV, DVD player (for movie days including the PRIDE MONTH MOVIE SERIES that they are currently in the midst of ) and a Wii that was donated. They now have a lending library filling up with LGBTQ+ themed books and films, most of which are geared toward teen readers and viewers. And, the Closet O Fun, where the board games and craft supplies are to be found, is the most popular area of Safe Space Cape. Many participants are creative types who appreciate the array of supplies available. And the community really enjoys playing games together.

Safe Space Cape continues to grow. They've held dozens of sessions so far, providing the Cape Girardeau community with a new and different means for young people to interact.

And they've seen friendships grow through the program that would never have been without Safe Space Cape.

Additional portions of the grant funding went to Lock It For Love to purchase additional gun locks for distribution, and to PFLAG Cape Girardeau to purchase materials for outreach. PFLAG meetings held in the parish hall.

In January 2018, Christ Episcopal Church was commissioned by the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri as the Red Door Ministries Jubilee Center. To be granted the designation Christ Episcopal Church, its congregants and network, were required to display a ministry of joint discipleship in Christ.

Jubilee Centers do much within the community "to meet basic human needs and to build a just society." It is in the spirit of the Gospel of Matthew that Jubilee Centers, including Red Door, strive to provide food for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, welcome for the stranger, clothing for the naked, healing for the sick, and companionship for the captive.

The Episcopal Diocese of Missouri DIOCESEMO.ORG 13