Encircle, Ogden officials break ground on facility geared to support LGBTQ community
Jed Nilson of Nilson homes speaks at the groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday, March 25, 2021, for Encircle at 2458 Washington Blvd. The organization helps LGBTQ teens and young adults.
Participants at a groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday, March 25, 2021, for Encircle at 2458 Washington Blvd. in Ogden get ready to dig the ceremonial first shovel of dirt. The organization helps LGBTQ teens and young adults.
Stephenie Larsen, chief executive officer of Encircle, speaks at the groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday, March 25, 2021, for an Encircle facility located at 2458 Washington Blvd. in Ogden. The organization helps LGBTQ teens and young adults.
OGDEN — Dirt has moved for a planned new center serving LGBTQ youth and young adults in Ogden, near the city core at 25th Street and Washington Boulevard.
“This is so awesome,” said Marcia White, a member of the Ogden City Council who was on hand for Thursday’s ceremony. “This is a safe space for the LGBT people.”
The groundbreaking for the new Encircle facility, the fourth in Utah, drew leaders from Encircle, Ogden Mayor Mike Caldwell, U.S. Rep. Blake Moore, Weber State University President Brad Mortensen and around 100 others. The facility, a brick-red structure with the look of an urban brownstone, is to take shape in an empty green space at 2458 Washington Blvd., with work finishing, Encircle reps have said, in October.
“I hope that it means that the kids never feel alone,” said Stephenie Larsen, the Encircle chief executive officer. It’s geared to members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community aged 12 to 25 and Larsen’s hope is that they “learn they are perfect just the way they are.”
TIM VANDENACK, Standard-Examiner
A gay pride flag flies along Washington Boulevard in Ogden on Thursday, March 25, 2021. Numerous such flags were placed along the street as part of a groundbreaking ceremony for Encircle, which helps LGBTQ teens and young adults. The new facility is taking shape at 2458 Washington Blvd.
White, who is gay herself, said she never had such a resource to turn to growing up. She has been open about her own experience to send a message that it’s OK to come out and hopes Encircle’s presence does the same. “It’s scary to come out,” she said.
As is, local resources for the LGBTQ community are somewhat limited, White said, and many make their way to Salt Lake City in search of a support network. Weber State University operates an LGBT Resource Center, and Ogden Pride, which also serves the LGBT community, is raising funds to open a physical location. Encircle, though, aims to take things a step further with a brick-and-mortar location in a high-profile, heavily trafficked part of Ogden.
The facility will offer counseling to the LGBTQ community and their family members and also serve as a gathering space for LGBTQ teens and young adults. It’ll operate in the day and early evening, but not be an overnight operation.
“It creates an environment, a home-like environment, where they can feel loved and be surrounded by people who love them,” said Jed Nilson, an Encircle backer and operator of Nilson Homes, which is helping with construction of the building. “They’ll come after school and just be able to hang out and be friends.”
Preventing the sort of anguish that can lead to suicide is also a key aim.
Renderings filed with the city show a three-level structure. It will have a small plaza in front, with green space on either side and a covered patio and outdoor plaza area to the rear.
Image supplied, City of Ogden
A rendering of the planned Encircle building for LGBTQ youth and their families, to be built on Washington Boulevard in Ogden, just north of 25th Street. Encircle reps and area leaders took part in a groundbreaking ceremony for the facility on Thursday, March 25, 2021.
Encircle already operates facilities in Provo, Salt Lake City and St. George. In addition to Ogden, it plans to build a facility in Logan, with a groundbreaking there set for March 30. The organization recently received a series of high-profile donations worth $4 million from Apple, the Cupertino, California-based technology company; Utah Jazz owners Ryan and Ashley Smith; and Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds. That money will help with construction of the Ogden facility.
Caldwell said the Encircle facility will be a good fit in Ogden. “Ogden’s one of the most diverse communities along the Wasatch Front. This blends hand-in-glove with what we’re about,” he said.
He noted the case of a teenage relative who tried to take their own life years ago as they wrestled with their sexuality. “There was no access to resources back then. They had nowhere they could be accepted, ask questions and get validation,” he said.
For the groundbreaking, city officials placed multi-color gay pride flags along 25th Street outside the Encircle location on Thursday. Likewise, Weber State University, which plans to create an affiliation with the Encircle facility, placed similar flags outside of an entrance off of Wall Avenue.