Candice Nichols honored as one of Vegas Inc magazine's Women to Watch 2013

The following is reprinted with permission from Vegas Inc.
Originally published in the January 28, 2013 issue.

The big thing happening at the Gay & Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada this year will be growth.

In the year just ended, Nichols and her group kicked off a $4 million capital campaign and renovated a 16,000-square-foot building at 401 South Maryland Parkway. “Right now the center is a very small organization,” she says. “We’re in a storefront right now.” With the new building, she adds, “We kind of look at ourselves as the east anchor of the downtown project. It is a freestanding, very visible building on 1.1 acres.”

The grand opening, set for this spring, will be only the beginning, Nichols explains. “We will also be expanding our staff, and expanding the programs and services we provide.” The new building will include a health-and-wellness center with private assessment rooms. “We have a partnership with the Health District now, where they come in two days a week to do HIV, STD and Hep A&B screenings. Hopefully they will be there five days a week.” Those services will also be open to the community at large.

“We have a partnership with the Nevada Dental Association, and we are very excited to be able to provide some dental care, hopefully at low cost,” says Nichols. “The area in which we’re located is home to low-to-moderate income residents, just on the fringe of the lawyers/business area, so we are hoping to be able to provide even more services to that segment of the community.” The building’s lobby space can also be used in the evening for pro bono legal services.

Nichols and her group also plan to expand their youth programming, with a drop-in center that will be open every day. “Our youth will extend the services we provide. With the drop-in center they will be able to come in after school and have a much larger space to hang out, play pool, have activities.”

Nichols is excited by the building’s proximity to the law offices. “That means people who normally wouldn’t come through our doors because they wouldn’t have a reason to now will. They will get a great lunch and some wonderful coffee. That’s great because then they can learn about our services, who we are and what we provide there.

— Howard Riell