About Central Ohio Leather & Beyond
Building a Stronger, More Connected Community
Central Ohio Leather & Beyond, or COL&B, is a community-focused organization created to strengthen connections across Central Ohio’s Leather, kink, fetish, pet play, and allied communities.
Our community is made up of people, groups, clubs, organizations, educators, event producers, titleholders, volunteers, and leaders with different identities, traditions, interests, and experiences. COL&B exists to help those parts of our community connect, communicate, collaborate, and grow together.
We believe a strong community is not created by asking everyone to be the same. It is created by giving people the structure, resources, and opportunities they need to work together while maintaining the identities and traditions that make their communities unique.
Our Mission
COL&B strengthens and connects Central Ohio’s Leather, kink, fetish, pet play, and allied communities through education, advocacy, collaboration, community engagement, and the promotion of consent, accountability, respect, and personal autonomy.
Why COL&B Exists
Central Ohio has a vibrant and diverse Leather and kink community, but people often experience it through individual organizations, events, social groups, or personal networks.
COL&B was created to help build stronger connections between those spaces.
Rather than replacing the organizations and communities that already exist, COL&B provides a shared framework where groups and individuals can communicate, exchange resources, collaborate on initiatives, support community education, and address challenges that affect the broader community.
Our goal is to make it easier for people to find community, participate meaningfully, develop as leaders, and contribute to the future of Leather and kink in Central Ohio.
What We Do
Connect the Community
We create opportunities for individuals, organizations, clubs, educators, and community leaders to connect with one another and build lasting relationships across Central Ohio.
Support Community Organizations
COL&B provides a collaborative structure through which participating organizations can share resources, communicate with one another, develop joint initiatives, and contribute to broader community goals while maintaining their own identities and leadership.
Promote Education
Education helps communities grow safely and sustainably. We support opportunities to learn about Leather and kink practices, consent, negotiation, leadership, history, community traditions, personal development, and other topics relevant to our communities.
Encourage Leadership and Service
Healthy communities need people willing to participate, volunteer, organize, educate, mentor, and lead. COL&B works to create opportunities for both established and emerging community members to become actively involved.
Strengthen Communication
A connected community depends on access to information. COL&B works to improve communication between organizations and community members by providing shared resources, community information, event visibility, and opportunities for collaboration.
Foster Accountability
Community trust requires more than good intentions. COL&B promotes cultures of informed consent, accountability, respect, transparency, and personal autonomy.
We also recognize that people may not always feel comfortable raising concerns directly with organizational leadership. Our structure is designed to encourage multiple avenues for communication and community participation so concerns can be heard and addressed responsibly.
Our Values
Consent
We believe informed, voluntary, and ongoing consent is fundamental to healthy interactions and communities.
Personal Autonomy
Every person has the right to establish their own identities, relationships, boundaries, and forms of participation.
Accountability
Strong communities acknowledge problems, address concerns responsibly, and remain willing to learn and improve.
Respect
We value the dignity, experiences, boundaries, identities, and contributions of the people within our communities.
Education
Knowledge strengthens individuals and communities. We support learning, mentorship, skill development, and the preservation of community knowledge.
Collaboration
Our communities are stronger when organizations and individuals communicate, share resources, and work toward common goals.
Inclusion
Leather and kink communities contain many identities, traditions, generations, roles, and forms of expression. We strive to create opportunities for people to participate authentically and meaningfully.
Community Service
We believe leadership is rooted in service and that everyone has something meaningful they can contribute to the community.
Looking Beyond
The “Beyond” in Central Ohio Leather & Beyond reflects an important part of who we are.
Leather and Pet Play is part of our foundation, but our community extends across many overlapping identities, practices, traditions, and cultures. COL&B recognizes that contemporary Leather and kink communities continue to evolve while remaining connected to the histories and traditions that came before us.
We want to honor that history while creating space for what comes next
Help Build What Comes Next
COL&B is ultimately shaped by the people who participate in it.
Whether you are new to the community, have been involved for decades, represent an existing organization, want to volunteer, have knowledge to share, or simply want to become more connected, there is a place for you to participate.
Together, we can build a Central Ohio Leather and kink community that is more connected, informed, collaborative, accountable, and prepared for the future.