We made a place for us. Help us keep it.
THIS IS OUR HOME.
It is where we gather, learn, organize, celebrate, grieve, dance, make friends, ask hard questions, build new skills, and take care of one another.
And right now, we need your help taking care of it.
WHAT WE'VE BUILT In the last 3 years...
Over the past several years, The Autonomy Project has built far more than a calendar of events. From this community center, we have created educational workshops and support spaces, mutual aid, accessibility initiatives, leadership development, community gatherings, queer and alternative events, harm-reduction work, consent and community safety, volunteer leadership training, creative experiences, fundraisers, and opportunities for people to find connection in a world that can make that surprisingly difficult.
This building makes that work possible.
It gives us a permanent place where we can create programming around the needs of our communities instead of constantly trying to fit those needs into spaces that were never designed with us in mind.
It gives us room to experiment, grow, make mistakes, try again, and build something that belongs to the community itself.
But keeping that home has been harder than we expected.
WE KNEW AN OLDER BUILDING CAME WITH SOME EXPENSES..
When the Autonomy Project took stewardship of this building, we knew that caring for an older property would come with expenses. What we did not anticipate was how many unresolved infrastructure and compliance issues we would inherit from before the building became ours.
Some of those problems date back years. Some involve systems and conditions that existed while the property was under previous ownership, including its time as a City-owned building. And increasingly, the Autonomy Project has been left responsible for the cost of correcting them.
We have done our best to absorb those costs. We have pursued grants. We have found creative solutions. Volunteers have contributed extraordinary amounts of labor. Our leadership has spent countless hours navigating contractors, inspections, compliance requirements, repairs, and unexpected building expenses while continuing to operate our programs.
But there is a limit to how much a little scrappy grassroots nonprofit can absorb.
The financial reality is that our organization has already been operating under significant pressure. Community events do not always cover their costs. Accessibility improvements are expensive. Utilities, insurance, maintenance, supplies, programming, and simply keeping a large community center functioning add up quickly. The rising costs of everything hit us too.
When another unexpected infrastructure bill arrives, that money has to come from somewhere. Too often, it means resources that could have supported mutual aid, education, accessibility, community programming, or the basic operating costs that keep our doors open instead have to be redirected toward solving problems we did not create.
ThIS IS WHERE YOU COME IN!
That is why we are launching our 2026 Community Center Stewardship Campaign with a goal of raising $20,000.
This campaign will help us complete several important projects, including required infrastructure and City compliance work, while continuing to make the center more accessible.
One of those accessibility priorities is sound.
Members of our community have told us that hearing speakers during workshops, meetings, panels, and each other at events in our main space can be difficult. Thanks to a grant from Community Fund Ohio, we will soon install audio baffling throughout the event space. That is a major step forward!
Our next goal is to add an Assistive Listening Device system alongside Silent Disco technology so deaf, hard-of-hearing, late-deafened, neurodivergent, sensory-sensitive, and other community members can participate more fully in the things happening here.
At the same time, we must complete less visible but equally necessary building work, including required improvements to our dumpster enclosure and infrastructure work involving a legacy fire-suppression water connection that predates our stewardship of the property.
Nobody comes to The Autonomy Project because they are excited about water lines or dumpster enclosures.
They come because there is a workshop they want to attend.
Because they need community.
Because they are looking for support.
Because they want to volunteer, make art, learn something, meet someone, dance, organize, teach, play, or simply spend a few hours somewhere they feel like they can be themselves.
But all of those things depend on having a place for them to happen.
And right now, protecting that place requires help from the community that has made it what it is. Without additional support, these inherited costs will continue pulling resources away from our mission and placing increasing pressure on our ability to sustainably operate the center.
We do not want to wait until this becomes an emergency. We want to act now, while we still have the opportunity to stabilize the building, complete these projects, and protect the future of a space our community has spent years creating together.
If you have attended an event here, taken a class here, volunteered here, made friends here, received help here, taught something here, danced here, laughed here, cried here, or simply walked through the doors and felt like you had found somewhere you could belong, then you are part of this place.
This is not simply a building, its our home.
And we want it to still be here years from now, full of people learning things, making things, organizing things, helping each other, building relationships, and creating the kinds of communities we wish existed everywhere.
If this place has meant something to you, will you help us keep it?
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KEEP THE LIGHT ON
When the world feels uncertain, safe spaces like The Autonomy Project become a beacon of hope. Your donation keeps our lights on—literally and figuratively—for those who need it most.
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