Encircle breaks ground on Logan LGBTQ resource home
Utah State University and Logan city officials joined LGBTQ advocacy organization Encircle to break ground on a new home to be built at the bottom of Old Main Hill Tuesday morning.
Once completed, the home will provide services like subsidized therapy, support groups and social activities.
“We want to create a place of love, a place that brings people together, that helps people know that they’re perfect just as they are and that they can live their authentic lives,” Encircle CEO Stephenie Larsen said during the ceremony.
The home will be built near the location of USU alumni and poet May Swenson’s family home. Swenson was born and raised in Logan and is now considered “one of mid-century America’s foremost poets.” Swenson also identified as lesbian. In Swenson’s honor, the new home will be fashioned after the design of her childhood home. Utah State University is leasing the land, near the corner of 500 N. and 700 E., to Encircle.
Jake Barney, a recent USU graduate in biological engineering, now works as Encircle’s chief development officer. He got involved with Encircle during his senior year. He reached out after hearing they intended to expand to Logan.
“From there, I was hooked,” Barney said. “My whole dream was that I wanted to help people long term, and I saw Encircle doing that and I wanted to be a part of it.”
Bailey Rigby An architectural rendering of what the Encircle home will look like at its completion.
Encircle is a Utah-based nonprofit that provides support and therapy for members of the LGBTQ community and their families. Larsen founded Encircle in 2016, and its first home opened in Provo in 2017. She said she started it because the high rates of suicide among LGBTQ youth in Utah concerned her.
Currently, Encircle operates 4 homes in Utah. The expansion to Logan is part of a campaign to build eight new homes in Utah, Nevada, Arizona and Idaho. This was sparked by a $4 million donation from Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds and his wife, Aja Volkman, Utah Jazz owners Ryan and Ashley Smith and Apple.
To help complete the project, Encircle is hoping to raise an additional $500,000 within the community.
Encircle was first introduced to Logan and the university in an event in June 2019. Beth Foley, former dean of the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services, held a reception at the Sorenson Center to introduce Encircle to the local community.
Encircle had originally intended to find space in downtown Logan. After several failed attempts, the group worked with Foley and Joseph Ward, dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences to explore the idea of building on university property.
Bailey Rigby President Noelle E. Cockett at the Encircle groundbreaking.
“Utah State is so proud to be able to host an Encircle house here on our Logan campus,” USU President Noelle Cockett said. “It’s just a tremendous opportunity that we have to help create a community, a place of belonging for LGBTQ students and youth across the Cache Valley.”
Several students attended the event including Emilee Harmon, who was recently elected as the new organizations and campus diversity vice president. Riley Crezee, a mechanical engineering student, also attended and is on the advisory board for the Logan home. Both students said they hope to use the home as a way to serve students and the university.
“I think it’s awesome that the university gave them land and that they’re actually going to be an on-campus safe space for youth in the community and families to come,” Harmon said. “I think this is something that has been needed in the community and here at Utah State University for a very long time.”
The proximity to campus is something Encircle’s staff is also excited about.
“I think what’s really cool about this house is that we are right by the university, and I think it really strengthens what we’re doing, because students will be able to go to class and then just come over,” Jordan Sgro, Encircle’s chief programs officer, said. “We’ll be able to partner with different departments to facilitate programming internships and give people experiences inside the home.”
Larsen, said the organization hopes to complete the home by the end of next spring, as well as two other homes.
—william.bultez@aggiemail.usu.edu
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