ETSU’s Women & Gender Resource Center celebrated its grand re-opening on Wednesday, Sept. 14, in its new location, found in Room 215 of the D.P. Culp Center. This special event was met with a tour of the new center, entertainment from female performers and light refreshments.
The Women & Gender Resource Center, shortened as WGRC, is an all-inclusive safe space located in the heart of campus. They aim to encourage equity, security and an overall feeling of belonging through a variety of gender-related outreach and programming.
“Our mission, in plain language, is to provide education, support, encouragement and affirmation, to anyone – everyone is welcome in the center,” said Dr. Michelle Hurley, director of the ETSU Women & Gender Resource Center.
Before this year, the WGRC was located in the Campus Center Building, where it only met with a handful of students in the span of over a year. Since relocating to its new space in the Culp Center this August, it has welcomed more than 250 people for its services.
Free menstrual products, safe sex products and domestic violence programming are just some of the many resources and services the WGRC has to offer. The center itself encompasses a calm, welcoming physical space, outlined with a miniature library stocked with educational reads, drawing and coloring stations.
“We really do open it up to anybody, because gender is a very broad issue and it encompasses a lot of different meanings for people,” said Dr. Hurley. “Our goal is to make anyone who wants in the center to feel like the most loved person in the world.”
In upcoming events, the WGRC has a variety of classes and events, including multiple resource classes highlighting topics such as sexual health and domestic violence.
The WGRC focuses on all genders, while also elevating cisgender and transgender women, as well as nonbinary and femme individuals. Overall, they vow to always offer a welcoming environment where all questions from all people are heard and respected.
For more information on the Women & Gender Resource Center’s upcoming events and activities, find them on Instagram at @wgrcetsu.
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