Welcome to the Pride Centre of Edmonton

Pride Centre of Edmonton modifies programs and services amid COVID-19

The Pride Centre of Edmonton will continue to provide support to vulnerable community members through phone-based support, information and referral services, and engaging with community members focusing on how we can best meet their needs. Until January 26, due to Covid-19, we are available for information and referral services by phone only on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12-6:45 pm.

Free, drop-in counselling resumes every Tuesday, from 2 – 7 pm, and Thursday, from 5 – 7 pm. Please call us day of, between 12 and 5:45 pm, to confirm your time slot. Multiple bookings cannot be made in advance.

You can reach us by phone at 780-488-3234 or through email at hello@pridecentreofedmonton.ca, however, response times will be slower for digital correspondence.

To see which groups will be meeting, click here. If you would like to be updated on our modified services, please sign up here.

Thank you, everyone, for the work you are doing to keep our community safe while finding ways to provide support where we can.

— Pride Centre of Edmonton Team

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The Pride Centre of Edmonton is excited to welcome our new Executive Director Dawn Carter!

Dawn Carter is a writer, educator, performance poet, public speaker, entrepreneur, and activist with Caribbean heritage. She emigrated with her family from racialized civil unrest in early 1970’s England. They lived in rural Alberta before settling in Edmonton, where she considers herself a Northsider for life. Dawn brings a wealth of experience as a front-line worker with the EI program, an HR professional from the Public Health Agency of Canada and Statistics Canada, and a business outreach specialist with Public Services and Procurement Canada. She also volunteered on several federal employee boards to develop peer-supported career advancement programs for BIPOC employees.

Dawn believes in justice and empowerment. A galvanizing moment for her was when Delwin Vriend, the beloved instructor for her chemistry class, was fired from the university for being gay. His Supreme Court case ended with a landmark decision that ruled discrimination based on sexual orientation was unconstitutional. After Delwin’s dismissal, Dawn wrote an editorial for the school paper that called out campus-wide misogyny. Her piece rallied women-identified staff and students to confront the issue.

Dawn has collaborated with altView, YouthWrite Society Canada, Anderson Career Training Institute and the Africa Centre to empower community members in their creative expression and business communication skills. She has also worked with arts and culture organizations as a performer and producer. In 2016, she hosted the Ministry of Human Services Inspiration Awards, which recognized organizations that build awareness, contribute to violence prevention and advance healthy relationships for all Albertans. Most recently, her writing has appeared in The Black Prairie Archives: An Anthology (2020), the first collection of Black writers from the Canadian Prairies.

Dawn is grateful to former ED, Esfefan Cortes-Vargas, for his dedication to and leadership of PCE into a new era. She looks forward to continuing the Pride Centre’s work in becoming a hub to empower and build capacity in social justice work for the 2SLGBTQ+ community, centering QTBIPOC voices in our projects and programs, and enhancing the warm and vibrant building that many people call home.

She is inspired by her late cousin, Ian. And by open blue skies.

The Pride Centre of Edmonton enriches and improves the lives of LGBTQ2S+ people, their allies, and the broader community in the Greater Edmonton area with a variety of programs and services. We maintain a safe space that welcomes everyone who walks through our doors.