About Us
Volusia Pride is headquartered in Historic Downtown DeLand Florida. Our motto is "Crafting Positive Change'' because we strongly feel that through support, advocacy, and education we can empower our people to imagine and build a better, more equitable community. We use the word 'crafting' because, like the artist, our work is very hands on and nuisanced. Our community is made up of many micro communities that experience the world from different perspectives but when brought together, they can build the framework that creates a world that is equitable for all.
DeLand Pride began in 2016 as a response to the Pulse tragedy in Orlando Florida in June of that year. We started as an online community to help foster social connection among the LGBTQ Community and their allies in and around DeLand Florida. In 2017, Support Volusia took over management of DeLand Pride and, what started as a social group, has grown to encompass many programs that help foster and support our amazingly diverse community.
Our mission is to be a voice for the voiceless by fostering belonging, serving the community, advancing equality, and empowering youth.
Advocacy
Our Advocacy and Education programming works to develop programs to fill needs gaps in our area, provide information and referral services, advocate for change and support those advocating for change through political action, public education, and lending support to causes and organizations that align with our values.
Belonging
Our Community Outreach and Special Events programming seeks to identify needs in the community, establish partnerships with community members, organizations and businesses, and develop social and networking opportunities for the LGBTQ+ community and their allies.
Service
Our Neighbors Helping Neighbors programming supports local organizations in their work to create positive change, focusing on our Community Partners that help to fulfill identified needs gaps. This program also organizes fundraising events to assist in achieving those goals.
Youth
Our Youth programming aims to encourage future leaders by creating safe spaces for young people to connect and developing pathways to engage, support, mentor, and nurture queer youth and their allies.
Human rights are defined as the basic rights and freedoms that belong to every person in the world, from birth until death. They apply regardless of where you are from, what you believe, or how you live your life. We believe that all people, regardless of their age, color, disability, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, ethnicity, race, creed, religion, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, economic class, political affiliation, and veteran status has a unique perspective and deserves to have the same rights as all others. Simply put, we believe in Human Rights for all, not some.
To us, equality for all means that everyone has the freedom to live their truth without fear at home, at work, at school, and in the larger community. By empowering the next generation and creating space that models equitable behaviors, we can help today's youth to continue to build on the work we are doing today to create an equitable society.