Hey everyone, this is Jordan Wilson, Executive Director of COLAGE. For those of you who do not know, COLAGE is an independent organization that co-hosts Family Week with Family Equality. We run “for us, by us” programming exclusively for youth ages 5-18 with LGBTQ+ parents or caregivers, and we are the only national organization that solely focuses on people with LGBTQ+ parents.
I wanted to chime in on recent conversations about the accessibility of Family Week and what can be done to improve the situation for families that are priced out of Family Week (this year, in the past, or in the future). It is no secret that spending a week in one of the most expensive vacation destinations in the United States is a financial stretch for most families, and completely out of the question for many more. If you’ve been attending Family Week for any number of consecutive years, you’re also aware that absolutely everything in Provincetown is becoming more expensive, from housing, to food, to transportation. I understand the barriers this creates in terms of access for low-income families, many of whom are families of color. As a Black queer person I care about these families deeply and who would like to have my own children (but can’t afford it yet). I recognize that class is directly informed by race, which is compounded by the unfortunate reality that queer folks experience poverty at higher rates than straight people. Ptown is also a predominantly white space, which makes some families of color uncomfortable. I have personally experienced multiple instances of racism in Ptown during Family Week, both from within and from outside of the Family Week community. If any of those situations had occurred during my first year, I would not have chosen to return.
I don’t bring up these points to make anyone feel uncomfortable for being able to come to Family Week without worry, or to suggest that families saving up and making sacrifices in order to make the trip is an easy or simple thing to pull off. However, there are very real conversations to be had about accessibility for the entire LGBTQ+ community, and not just the families who can make it work financially or feel comfortable spending a week in Ptown. Before I get to some potential solutions, I want to address another recent topic of discussion, which is the use of Family Week as a fundraiser.
Post-2020, COLAGE has offered pay-what-you-can pricing for registration. Speaking only for COLAGE, some years we bring in more than expected and some years we come in under our internal goals. I made this decision for COLAGE because I wanted to erase at least one of the barriers under my control for working class families that need our programming. If you’ll be in Ptown for Family Week, I encourage you to pull aside any COLAGE facilitator to talk about how our programming and the community we have built for people with LGBTQ+ parents has changed their lives. I want every single person with a queer parent or caregiver to have access to this community, and for many people Family Week is the access point for that community.
One of the first things I did after becoming the Executive Director in 2020 was to go on a virtual listening tour about Family Week to figure out if returning to Family Week after the COVID year was even something that our community wanted to do. Overwhelmingly, the folks that showed up talked about how important it is for COLAGE to show up wherever there’s a critical mass of people with LGBTQ+ parents, how much Family Week as an institution meant to them, and how important COLAGE was as part of that institution. I agree, and as long as there is a Family Week, I think COLAGE should be a part of it. However, it’s likely that things like our programming space will need to change for us as Ptown becomes more and more expensive.
Family Week is a significant expense and a financial net loss for the organization. We are currently projected to spend over $40,000 out of pocket for Family Week 2025, taking all of our registration income and projected fundraising income into account. In service of radical transparency, I have made the COLAGE Family Week budget for 2025 public, which includes several notes and comments to explain some of our various line items. You can take a look and see exactly what we’re working with this year, which includes over $50,000 of in-kind donations from our incredible 2025 supporters. The reality is that without the support of generous COLAGE families and local businesses like the Seaglass Inn (housing for staff all week), Box Lunch (lunches for staff all week), Ptown Bikes (in-kinded bikes for staff), Boston Harbor City Cruises (in-kinded ferry tickets), Crown & Anchor (event space and an ADA accessible room), the UU Meeting House, all of our donated prizes and auction items, and so many others I will kick myself for not naming, Family Week would not be possible for COLAGE. Please note that these are our real numbers at the time of posting, and will almost certainly change by the time Family Week is over. It is important to note that these numbers do not take into consideration the cost of the staff that plan and execute Family Week for COLAGE, including myself, a part-time Program Manager, and a part-time Grants Manager (filling in for our full-time Development Director currently out on parental leave).
Now, some potential solutions! I know we have work to do to serve the rest of the country with the kind of in-person programming we provide at Family Week. Three years ago, we launched Atlanta Family Weekend with our friends at Forward Together, who are joining us for Atlanta Family Weekend 2025 as part of IGNYTE alongside the LGBTQ+ Institute at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, SPARK Reproductive Justice Now!, Feminist Women’s Health Center, and Mothering Justice. We are also in the process of relaunching COLAGE Chapters, which we hope will become hubs of activity for LGBTQ+ families around the country. It is our hope that these chapters can eventually host Family Weekends in their respective communities. While hosting Family Weekends across the country is a great goal, I know that Family Week in Ptown is still a dream for many. In the past, COLAGE was proud to offer scholarships and stipends for families coming to Ptown, and I hope to be able to return to that model again soon.
Regarding inclusivity for families of color, my husband and I often joke about having to be the “first and only” Black folk in a given space. It might not always be literal, but it can often feel that way. It can be a hard pitch to convince families of color that are concerned about the whiteness of Ptown to be the first ones or the only ones here. There’s no silver bullet for diversifying a small beach town in New England, but events like Family Equality’s Family Day on Friday, Womxn of Color Weekend, and FROLIC are a great start to creating a purposefully inclusive space. There’s no doubt that we have more work to do, but I see these events as a positive start.
If you see me on the street this week and want to chat, I’d love to talk more about all of this with any of you. I want COLAGE, Family Week, and the broader community of LGBTQ+ families to be as inclusive and welcoming as possible for all of us. In this political climate, it’s more important now than ever that we make connections, build community, and protect our families.
In solidarity,
Jordan Wilson