Compass LGBTQ+ Community Center

Compass LGBTQ+ Community Center engages, empowers and enriches the lives of LGBTQ+ people and those affected by HIV and AIDS across Palm Beach County. Its roots go back to 1988, when local volunteers started the Stop AIDS Project of South Florida, hosting meetings in homes and businesses to share HIV prevention knowledge. In 1992 that group established Compass as the county's gay and lesbian community center, and since 2007 it has operated from a renovated city-owned building in downtown Lake Worth Beach.

Health care sits at the center of the work. Compass offers free, confidential rapid HIV testing on-site and at community events, free safer sex kits, and free harm reduction supplies including Narcan and fentanyl test strips. Its Health Services Department provides medical and non-medical case management for people living with HIV, helping them with documentation, ADAP enrollment and connection to care. The CAN Community Health clinic inside the building adds STI testing, PrEP and HIV medical care, accepts most insurance, welcomes walk-ins and has Spanish and Creole-speaking staff. Doctors After Dark, an after-hours health series, brings local physicians in to talk about PrEP, mental wellness and access to care.

The Mental Health program offers individual and relationship counseling from licensed and registered intern therapists on a sliding scale, therapy groups based on community need, and case management for residents working on stability in mental health, recovery and housing. Trans Connect provides one-on-one peer support for transgender, nonbinary and gender diverse people navigating affirming care, housing, food and legal resources. Compass also runs the LGBTQ+ Mental Health Collaborative for local clinicians and offers LGBTQ+ Cultural Competency Trainings for employers, schools and service providers.

The Compass Youth Program is one of the longest-running LGBTQ+ youth programs in the Southeast. The Youth Drop-In Center is open to ages 11 to 18 after school, with weekly youth groups for teens and preteens and a group for gender diverse youth. Authentically YOUth gathers transgender children ages three to 11 and their families, and The After Slay introduces teens to Ballroom culture. Each year youth celebrate at the Equality Prom and Lavender Graduation, and The Legacy Project with Palm Beach Dramaworks pairs young people with community elders to tell their stories on stage.

Free groups fill out the calendar: Entourage for ages 18 to 30, Coffee Clatch and its book club for LGBTQ+ elders, Out and About for LGBTQ+ women who love the outdoors, Sewing Sesh, the PBC Gender Support Group, the Trans Masculine Support Group, the Coming Out Support Group, the Multicultural Support Group, Libertad for Spanish speakers living with HIV, Fearless Futures for people newly diagnosed, and the Proud Parent Support Group.

Compass created Palm Beach Pride in 2000 and still produces Palm Beach Pride and Parade, along with the Stonewall Ball, the Mr. and Miss Palm Beach Pride Pageant, The Joy Ride FL, Transgender Day of Remembrance, and a World AIDS Day ceremony with panels of the AIDS Memorial Quilt. Volunteers staff the front desk, support outreach and special events, help maintain the building and, with certification, provide HIV testing and counseling.