Encircle

Encircle opened its St. George location on October 17, 2020, in a house at 190 S 100 E that philanthropist Brad Clark donated to the organization. The location was named after Kim and Terry Turner, who had become LGBTQ advocates after one of their children came out, and who had been working in Southern Utah's complex intersection of conservative religious community and LGBTQ youth welfare for years before the center existed. Encircle itself was founded in 2016 by Stephenie Larsen in Provo; the St. George home was its third location and its first in Southern Utah.

What Happens Inside

The center is open Monday through Friday from 3 to 8 PM. It offers subsidized affirming therapy for LGBTQ youth and their families — the subsidy is real: most sessions cost far less than market rates for private therapy in Washington County, and some are free. Weekly programming runs friendship circles organized by identity group, art nights, music nights, writing workshops, and speaker series. The groups are age-stratified — youth, young adult, adult — and identity-specific (lesbian, gay male, non-binary, bi/pan, trans, QBIPOC). Quarterly service events anchor the calendar.

Southern Utah's Particular Context

An LGBTQ resource center in a community that is predominantly Latter-day Saint, politically conservative, and deeply family-oriented requires a different model than one in Salt Lake or Provo. Encircle's framing — "No sides, only love," as the St. George News headline put it at the opening — was deliberate. The organization explicitly invites parents and families, not just youth, and the programming includes materials for families navigating the intersection of faith and a child's identity. That framing has allowed Encircle to operate with community tolerance if not universal support since 2020.

Encircle in the 435

For a register of Southern Utah organizations, Encircle is the only dedicated LGBTQ+ mental health and community resource in the Washington County footprint. It's verifiable, place-rooted, nonprofit-registered, and covering a gap that no other entry in the existing register addresses.