OUR MISSION
The Puerto Rican Initiative to Develop Empowerment (P.R.I.D.E.) is a community-based organization whose stated mission is to empower our community such that it can continue be in a position to address the pressing needs and concerns that arise from systems of exclusion --- such as economic inequality, racism, sexism, homophobia, trans-phobia, HIV/AIDS, and colonialism – that impact daily the LGBT Puerto Rican community in the New York City metro-area. P.R.I.D.E. accomplishes this empowerment through consciousness-raising, grassroots intergenerational leadership development, activism, advocacy, and organizing around immediate and long-term responses to our community’s needs. We create a community space where Puerto Rican LGBT identities are affirmed, sustained, and encouraged to develop and grow. Our organization understands these identities to be embedded in the families, friendship networks, and neighborhoods where our community members live and work and seek to build on these community strengths to promote individual and collective human flourishment for Puerto Rican LGBT people and their allies. P.R.I.D.E. is a long-standing community mechanism for increasing and sustaining Puerto Rican LGBT visibility by doing our various forms of programming and activism. P.R.I.D.E. also seeks to create working coalitions with other LGBT people of color organizations and the broader LGBT and Latino/a communities in shared areas of work. PRIDE is a repository of LGBT Puerto Rican community history and seeks to transmit that history and activist knowledge to future generations of LGBT Puerto Ricans in a United States where the Latino/a community’s demographic impact as well as its cultural, economic, and political power will continue to expand and grow
OUR HISTORY
Founded in October 1995, P.R.I.D.E., is an organization made up of the LGBT Community and its supporters, of Puerto Rican/Latino(a) descent/heritage. In 1996, we marched for the first time in the Puerto Rican Day Parade in NYC. In 1997, we marched for the first time in the Gay Parade in Puerto Rico and led a successful campaign against oppressive HIV laws in Puerto Rico. In 1998, we sponsored events at the LGBT Community Center and collaborated with other LGBT groups of color to best service our constituents. In 1999, we brought the P.R.I.D.E. Awards to Brooklyn’s Audre Lord Project. In 2000, we took time for introspection and re-examination of our structure and purpose. In 2001 we brought the P.R.I.D.E. Awards to the Bronx with the assistance of the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance. In 2005 we brought the P.R.I.D.E. Awards to Manhattan and we celebrated P.R.I.D.E.’s 10th Anniversary, with the assistance and sponsorship of Latino Gay Men of New York and the Gay and Lesbian Dominican Empowerment Organization.
P.R.I.D.E. is redefining Puerto Rican/Latino/People of Color empowerment across the City with the Young Adult Program, Salud Boricua, Volunteer Program, Community Outreach, Health Survey and other programs that will be expanded.
P.R.I.D.E. has become an active part of AIDS Walk NY, Rapture on the River Women’s Dance, Community Forums, Conferences, Toy Drives and our Welcoming Seasons Event. Our two new Initiatives will be: Giving back to our Community (G-BOC) by volunteering at different venues that have sponsored P.R.I.D.E.. In addition we are looking into Starting a Hot Line for victims of hate crimes/bullying.
P.R.I.D.E. Under the leadership of Lillian Nieves (President since 2010) along with the Board Members and Advisory Board Members continues to support the LGBT Community. In addition to the Board Members, P.R.I.D.E. is also supported by their P.R.I.D.E. Volunteer Corp. (Volunteers are welcome!)
P.R.I.D.E. grows at the same pace as our community. In this regard, our Organization is proud to announce that since April 11, 2011, our office is located at the headquarters of the Latino Commission on AIDS (LCOA). Our new address is: 24 West 25th Street (9th Fl.), New York, NY. 10010, and our office number is 212-675-3288 x 469.
We are very grateful to all of the staff of LCOA, and we take this opportunity to reiterate our gratitude to Mr. Guillermo Chacon, President of the Latino Commission on AIDS for giving us the opportunity to work as a team benefiting our community.
Founded in October 1995, P.R.I.D.E., is an organization made up of the LGBT Community and its supporters, of Puerto Rican/Latino(a) descent/heritage. In 1996, we marched for the first time in the Puerto Rican Day Parade in NYC. In 1997, we marched for the first time in the Gay Parade in Puerto Rico and led a successful campaign against oppressive HIV laws in Puerto Rico. In 1998, we sponsored events at the LGBT Community Center and collaborated with other LGBT groups of color to best service our constituents. In 1999, we brought the P.R.I.D.E. Awards to Brooklyn’s Audre Lord Project. In 2000, we took time for introspection and re-examination of our structure and purpose. In 2001 we brought the P.R.I.D.E. Awards to the Bronx with the assistance of the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance. In 2005 we brought the P.R.I.D.E. Awards to Manhattan and we celebrated P.R.I.D.E.’s 10th Anniversary, with the assistance and sponsorship of Latino Gay Men of New York and the Gay and Lesbian Dominican Empowerment Organization.
P.R.I.D.E. is redefining Puerto Rican/Latino/People of Color empowerment across the City with the Young Adult Program, Salud Boricua, Volunteer Program, Community Outreach, Health Survey and other programs that will be expanded.
P.R.I.D.E. has become an active part of AIDS Walk NY, Rapture on the River Women’s Dance, Community Forums, Conferences, Toy Drives and our Welcoming Seasons Event. Our two new Initiatives will be: Giving back to our Community (G-BOC) by volunteering at different venues that have sponsored P.R.I.D.E.. In addition we are looking into Starting a Hot Line for victims of hate crimes/bullying.
P.R.I.D.E. Under the leadership of Lillian Nieves (President since 2010) along with the Board Members and Advisory Board Members continues to support the LGBT Community. In addition to the Board Members, P.R.I.D.E. is also supported by their P.R.I.D.E. Volunteer Corp. (Volunteers are welcome!)
P.R.I.D.E. grows at the same pace as our community. In this regard, our Organization is proud to announce that since April 11, 2011, our office is located at the headquarters of the Latino Commission on AIDS (LCOA). Our new address is: 24 West 25th Street (9th Fl.), New York, NY. 10010, and our office number is 212-675-3288 x 469.
We are very grateful to all of the staff of LCOA, and we take this opportunity to reiterate our gratitude to Mr. Guillermo Chacon, President of the Latino Commission on AIDS for giving us the opportunity to work as a team benefiting our community.
