At ENC, we envision a thriving, liberated North Carolina with a powerful LGBTQ+ community united in service of racial and social justice. Our mission is to build LGBTQ+ power through advocacy, education, and uplifting the stories of queer and trans North Carolinians in pursuit of racial and social justice. Our core values are: • We hold people at the center of all that we do: we see, hear, respect, and value each other. • We honor and build power on the margins until the margins are the center. • We know all oppression is interconnected. None of us are free until all of us are free. • We work strategically and sustainably: our work holds the realities of the need for both long- and short-term progress. • Y’all means all. We believe in the inherent dignity and worth of all, including people who are LGBTQ+, Black, Brown, Indigenous, Workers, Women, Resource Poor, Incarcerated, Immigrants, Undocumented, Rural. We accomplish our mission through the core strategies of Advocacy, Training and Education, Leadership Development, and Base building. Our advocacy efforts include creating cross-sector alliances with business and public leaders. Through these alliances, we convene pro-LGBTQ equality leaders, offer training and education on the issues affecting our people, propose key policy implementation, and develop knowledgeable equity advocates for LGBTQ people. We provide training and education to individuals, institutions, businesses, and the government on how to provide diverse What began as a defense fund in 1979 has now matured into a social justice organization working for legal rights, justice, and “lived equality” including safety, protections, and acceptance in the community at large. Our focus is to work efficiently at both the grassroots and the grass tops levels to ensure equitable treatment of all LGBTQ North Carolinians regardless of their immigration status, socioeconomic level, gender or gender identity, race, and standing with the justice system.