Farewell from all of us here at Joy as Resistance.

To our beloved Joy as Resistance community,

We want to share some important and hard news with you directly. 

By the end of 2025, Joy as Resistance will be closing our doors. The funding gap we faced earlier this year, despite your incredible effort and support, has proved to be too steep an obstacle for us to continue our operation as an organization. As a staff and as a board, we have made this difficult decision to empower our team to create avenues for services that operate without relying primarily on the unpredictable funding landscape: in this next era for us all, we hope to offer services that prioritize sustainability and longevity during the chaos of our current world.

As Joy winds down our operation, we want to thank you, deeply and truly, for your support in all our endeavors over the past five years. So many incredible folks have made doing this liberatory and joyful work possible. Volunteers, clients, Mentees and Mentors, parents and teachers, artists and performers, GSA students, funders, organizational partners and collaborators, and so many more - Joy has succeeded over the last years in large part due to your support!

Without your support, we could not have accomplished everything we have over our lifetime as an organization. We are so proud to have supported over 200 clients; 55 matched Mentee/Mentor pairs (25 of whom are now continuing on independently), trained a pool of 80 standby Mentors; trained & provided services through Joyful Spaces to 6,000+ youth in schools & organizations, and 500+ adults supporting queer youth (teachers, nonprofit workers, therapists), and stand proudly behind the work we have done to uplift resiliency and connection skills, hope, and joy for 2SLGBTQIA+ youth and the adults who support them in Colorado.

While it is true that the political landscape is more hostile than ever for queer community and especially those of us who hold multiple marginalized identities, we stand firm in our solidarity and care for you. Even as Joy as Resistance closes our doors, our team members continue the work in other ways…

Find Raven at their practice Root to Bloom - Root to Bloom Ancestral Folk Medicine

Find Jamie & Beatriz at their practice Tender Ember Therapy PLLC - tenderember.com

Find Elliott at the Colorado Name Change Project - namechangeproject.org

Find Erica at the new Joyful Spaces LLC - e.r.castro1221@gmail.com

... and all of us showing up alongside you in community and in resistance every day.

Things are scarier than ever, AND we know that staying connected to our joy is an act of resistance. So many systems of power and oppression rely on our exhaustion, our apathy, and our disconnection from our true selves. We (lovingly) challenge you to push back against these forces and connect with your inner joyful self.

We invite you to our final closing event, a celebration of the organization’s life and community, in November. This free event will include community sharing, a sendoff dance party, and highlight trusted partner organizations as a warm handoff. We intend to root this event in solemn community holding and joyous final sendoff energies, and hope you will join us. More details to come!

We encourage you to continue engagement with liberatory practices in the ways you can -

Thank you again for the years of collaboration, connection, and Joy.

With gratitude, in solidarity, and yours in joyful resistance,

The Joy Team

This page was updated on 10/28/25. If you have curiosities about earlier communications, you can read the original email about the state of Joy.