Connexxus/Centro de Mujeres

Connexxus/ Centro de Mujeres was a community organized which opened its West Hollywood facilities January 1985 to provide service primarily to Lesbians in Los Angeles, California.  On January 1988 they opened an additional center in East Los Angeles.  Connexxus was “an educational and charitable corporation for women, with most programs and services designed to meet the needs of a severely undeserved population: lesbians.”  The organization served as  to access information and referrals to various human service agencies, gain business counseling about developing and operating your own business, and be sponsors and hosts to cultural and educational activities by the community. 

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History
On May 1984 a diverse group of women, from business women, to writers, scholars, artists, and activist met to establish next steps to make Connexxus happen.  They first needed to identify the needs of the community to create relevant services.  To tackle this process they surveyed Los Angeles and its human service agencies, plus, hosted general meetings with local women and lesbians by distributing questionnaires to gather data.  Through their findings they identified three major concerns: lesbians were undeserved by human service agencies, the quality of services offered needed improvement, and no facility existed to support the lesbian community.  With this knowledge in mind, the women started planning and bringing Connexxus to fruition. 

Connexxus ran for 6 years from May 1984 through June 1990.  Throughout their run the organization was led by notable lesbian members in the community, Lauren Jardine, Del Martinez, Judy Doyle, Jean Cordova, Jane Wagner, Bunny MacCulloch, Yolanda Retter, and June Mezer.  To sustain the organization the board was able to raise over $20,000 for its operations.  They received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council, Colling Higgins Foundation, and the Liberty Hill Foundation.  Additionally, they hosted numerous fundraisers such as their annual Casino Cabaret, Founding Celebration, and the New Year's Eve Gala.  Smaller events included, Fun-Raising Party & Auction, Day at the Races in Santa Anita at the Oak Tree Racing Association, and the Dinah Shore Picnic in Palm Springs. 

Despite the successful run of this organization until 1990, in 1991 Connexxus Women's Center/ Centro de Mujeres was officially dissolved.  In a letter to the community, on January 18, 1990, they shared that as Connexxus expand and their work surpassed their intended goals, more human service organizations followed their lead and expanded their services.  Due to the increasing number of specialized groups, services, and business less lesbians accessed the center's services.  Due to these fall in numbers and an imminent financial crisis, Connexxus decided to close its doors on June 30, 1990. 

Work

Economic Empowerment
Before U.S. President Bill Clinton issued an Executive Order in May 1998, discrimination based on sexual orientation was not part of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).   Due to blatant discrimination towards the Lesbian community and women of color in the workforce, Connexxus created an economic empowerment component to their services from 1985-1986.  For them, it was crucial to outreach and bring in underemployed and unemployed women, particularly “displaced homemakers, youth, parolees from prison, welfare recipients, and re-entry women.”  They hosted workshops about dealing with: discrimination in the workforce and during job hunting.  Developing new employable skills, how to write application and resumes, creating and sustaining your own business, and career exploration.  The majority of these services were free or low-cost to participants. 

Mental Health Services
Connexxus offered two different types of mental health services, direct one-one-one therapy and facilitator run support groups.  The organization also served as a training facility for counselors and therapists still earning their hours.  Connexxus built a community based therapeutic approached to their healing services.  This model was beneficial for both the clients and therapists because services were affordable, if not free, and the latter gained specialized training opportunities.  Facilitators were expected to be neutral parties in the group and were simply there to navigate, instigate, and guide the conversation between attendees.  Each facilitator received training rooted in lesbian and women of color theories such as the work of Audre Lorde and Cherrie Moraga.  Much like the one-on-on therapy, the support groups' topics were planned based on the needs of the participants. 

June Mazer Collection
June Mazer and her lover Bunny MacCulloch started the June L. Mazer Collection at Connexxus, a “Lesbian Herstory Collection” of Lesbian people, events, organizations, and spaces from the Bay Area and Los Angeles, California.  The collection, previously called the West Coast Lesbian collection, contains archives about important Lesbian women in the 1980s and 1990s, records of organizations like the Daughters of Bilitis, and even the Lesbian Love Records (a radio show targeted towards this community).  After Connexxus disbanded the collection traveled to various repositories and finally found its home at the UCLA Library Special Collections. 

Latina Lesbian Mental Health Conference
On Saturday November 8, 1986 Connexxus in collaboration with El Centro Human Services Corporation and Latinas Unidas coordinated the “Latina Lesbian Mental Health Conference: Issues, Research, and Implications for Practices.”  The conference covered topics about parents of lesbians, children of lesbian, and parenting lesbians, as well as identity developing, coming out, and lastly, clinical experiences and best practices for therapists.  The conference intended to give service providers the unique experiences of the Latina Lesbian population to make their services more accessible and effective. 

Community Events
Because the center was intended to be a community space, on top of the social based fundraisers, Connexxus hosted a variety of events.  They hosted economic empowerment workshops to support the women's skill development.  Social groups based on identities, such as Black Lesbians, singles, Latinas, mixers were common.  The most popular one was All Around Town in 1988, which doubled as a fundraiser, where women would meet across the greater Los Angeles Area and share meals, partake in activities such horse races, and enjoy local festivals.  Another popular event was a gallery show of long time support Laura Aguilar, a Chicana Lesbian photographer, called the Chicana Lesbians Series. 

References 

Category:LGBT organizations in the United States