For the Youth: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Denver’s Rainbow Alley

Rainbow Alley is a subdivision of the larger GLBT Community Center of Colorado. “The Center,” as it’s known, facilitates Denver’s highly successful PrideFest each year.

Rainbow Alley partnered with the Mental Health Center in Denver to create the program Voz Y Corazon (Voice and Heart). The suicide-prevention program uses art and community to help teens affected by suicide.

Rainbow Alley hosts a two-week summer program called Stepping Out. The program is academic- and career-based in nature, and aims to help guide LGBT teens in the right direction as far as their professional lives go.

Rainbow Alley programs are so positively impactful for youth because the programs and activities therein are created by youth members themselves. By embodying a peer-to-peer dynamic — rather than an adult-child one — Rainbow Alley creates a positive space wherein members and visitors can feel welcome.

Rainbow Alley considers “youth” to be ages 11–21. Special programs are offered for specific ages such as the True Colors program which is for LGBT youth and allies ages 16 and under.

Rainbow Alley can set up a staff member from The Center to speak at an organization or business concerning LGBT YOUTH. “Center Talk,” as it’s known, covers the topics of LGBT Youth 101, Gender Spectrums, and Understanding LGBT Youth Obstacles. Furthermore, they offer subjects pertinent to The Center’s transgender program and their SAGE of the Rockies program.

Rainbow Alley hosts Denver Health’s Youth Clinic every Wednesday for free HIV and STI testing. The Alley advertises that “Safe is sexy, y’all.”

Rainbow Alley travels on a tri-weekly basis to Project Angel Heart, the charity organization that brings meals to Coloradans with chronic and life-threatening diseases. Trips to Project Angel Heart include cooking classes.

Rainbow Alley hosts drop-in hours Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 2pm–7pm, Thursdays and Fridays from 2pm–8pm, and some Saturdays. The drop-in center is located at 1301 E. Colfax Ave in Denver.

Rainbow Alley wants you to know that it’s a safe place where they believe in honoring individuality and empowerment!