On June 4, Colorado Springs officially opened up PRISM Community Collective, an LGBTQ+ resource center intended to support Club Q shooting survivors.
PRISM has a welcoming and comforting atmosphere, creating a safe environment for survivors to navigate their healing journey and get the help they need. In the 3,000-square-foot building, you can find rooms named after each one of the victims killed during the shooting to honor them. The spaces offer rooms where one can meditate, watch movies, play board games, or just relax with friends. In addition, the center has a gender-affirming closet stocked with racks of donated clothes from the local community, as well as a library full of LGBTQ+ media.
The Community Health Partnership (CHP), a local nonprofit organization, guides and leads the resource center, which has set its goals for assisting Club Q survivors. When it comes to supporting survivors on their paths to recovery, PRISM’s peer support and mental health initiatives are among its most important offerings. Two in-house resource professionals will work directly with survivors and their families to check in, identify their needs, and determine how the center can best assist them.
John Arcediano, PRISM’s program manager and a survivor of the attack, is beyond grateful for this center and what it offers to the community. “People have not been able to get the medical attention or therapy they need,” he says to Them. “Club Q rippled through this community, and people are still coping with that trauma. The healthcare system here was not ready to really step into place and provide the necessary resources. A lot of people have been suffering in silence.” He says that many of the tragedy victims don’t use the resources that could help them because it’s still difficult for them to leave their homes every day. PRISM serves as a beacon of hope for the LGBTQ+ community in Colorado Springs, addressing the lack of representation and support in the area.
It was painful to have Club Q, one of the few queer spaces in the city, unexpectedly taken away. Stoney Roberts, survivor, and PRISM staff, told Them, “It impacted everybody—everyone who’s ever been in or out of those doors, anyone who ever thought about going. It was the one place where you could go and be unapologetically who you were. It changed my life.”
PRISM will continue to operate until 2026 thanks to $1.8 million in funding from the federal Anti-Terrorism Emergency Assistance Program, which aids communities in recovering after mass shootings. Rachel Keener, CHP’s senior manager of health equity, confesses that the PRISM team “did not see ourselves in this role” at first. However, the LGBTQ+ community needed a new place to call home. Since the Club Q shooting, the community has failed to find a safe place where they can show up authentically.
The only LGBTQ+ full-time bar in Colorado Springs, Icons, had to temporarily close in December due to smoke damage from a neighboring business fire. Now, the club is looking for a new home. The decision by the previous owners of Club Q to reopen in a different location has caused controversy among the locals. In addition to the physical location, PRISM runs a free online directory to assist LGBTQ+ individuals in finding LGBTQ+-affirming medical professionals who provide treatments such as hormone replacement therapy.
