Embracing our Joy

More information to come, but for now here’s what we shared with our community when we announced this transition:

Dear Friends,

We are thrilled to share that the Queer Joy Collaborative (QJC) and Rainbow Organizing and Response (ROAR) are merging to form the Queer Joy and Justice Collaborative (QJJC).

Over the past year we built programs together, showed up for each other's events, shared volunteers and values, and discovered over and over again that our work points toward the same horizon: a world where LGBTQIA+ people can live, organize, create, and thrive.

As our communities have grown closer and our collaboration has deepened, merging felt less like a decision and more like an inevitability — a joyful, deliberate step toward something bigger than any of us could build alone.

The Queer Joy and Justice Collaborative will carry forward everything you love about both organizations, now unified under one umbrella (pun intended):

• Our Artistic/Creative arm — led by Mara Levi — continues the choral and arts programming that has been the heart of QJC.

• Our Action/Advocacy arm — led by Ali Wicks-Lim — continues ROAR's organizing and community advocacy work. ROAR’s work will expand to include both the traditional event-based shielding work, and the other community organizing efforts advocating for safe schools, trans health care and community care models for public safety. 

Our hope is that members of QJJC will access the opportunities within the organization in the ways that feel right to them. Some may participate in a single program while others may bridge multiple programs or leadership opportunities. Every member is valued and welcomed as part of the QJJC community.  

Mara and Ali will serve as Co-Executive Directors, leading the organization together with equal authority and a shared commitment to our community.

We believe that joy and justice are not separate things — they strengthen each other. When we sing together, we build the resilience to fight together. When we organize together, we create the conditions for more joy. The Queer Joy and Justice Collaborative is built on those beliefs.

More details about upcoming programs, events, and ways to get involved are coming soon. In the meantime, thank you for being part of this community — and welcome to what comes next.

With joy and in solidarity,
Mara Levi and Ali Wicks-Lim
Co-Executive Directors
Queer Joy and Justice Collaborative