New Haven Pride Center Rising

Donor community steps forward to reopen doors.

June 01, 2026

A group of people stand outside the New Haven Pride Center. A speaker addresses the crowd at a podium, with pride flags, microphones, and others listening and standing nearby. The building displays LGBTQ+ symbols and signage.

The New Haven Pride Center celebrated the first day of Pride Month with the joyful reopening of its space in the city's Ninth Square on June 1, 2026.

Shortly after the center closed in February, it launched a fundraising campaign, “Project Phoenix.” Within 30 days of a kickoff meeting hosted by The Community Foundation, 43 community members contributed $500,000, enough for the Center to reopen and reimagine its future.

"Through Project Phoenix, we saw what collective action looks like," said Community Foundation President and CEO Karen DuBois-Walton at the press conference. This included "dozens of donors and partners coming together around an all-or-nothing goal."

This, she said, is what it means to be a community foundation. "We cannot just observe, but we have to activate."

DuBois-Walton joined community leaders and officials including Gov. Ned Lamont, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, state Treasurer Erick Russell and Mayor Justin Elicker to celebrate the success of the Project Phoenix fundraising effort that allowed the center to open its doors once again and reimagine its future.

The reopened space will include the Center’s food pantry, hygiene closet and clothing closets. “The rest we're going to rebuild together,” said Hope Chávez, Pride Center board co-chair.

A street scene in front of the New Haven Pride Center, featuring rainbow-colored crosswalk stripes, outdoor tables with bright umbrellas, and a tree providing shade on a sunny day.

“We were able to pull off a seemingly impossible thing that — I want to be clear — stemmed from the community, and was met by the community,” said Chávez, Pride Center board co-chair.

More than 75 individuals have already answered the call to join the board or the transition committee, or to volunteer at the Center.

“The community said, ‘Wait, we need this. We need this now more than we’ve ever needed it,'” said Chávez. “I have this picture in my head of laying concrete, when people leave their handprints. I'm excited to see people, metaphorically, do that for the Pride Center, to put their handprints on it and own it and love it and nurture it, hold it accountable and show up when it's needed.”

Watch the full press conference here, and read coverage from the New Haven Independent, WTNH, WFSB, NBC CT and the Hartford Courant.