About Us
General Overview, Mission & Goals
The mission of the LGBTQ+ Health Initiative is to reduce disparities experienced by gender and sexually diverse populations by helping health and human services agencies that are a part of the NYS HHS LGBT Network more effectively reach and serve these groups. LGBTQ+ Health will share best-practice, evidence-based interventions designed to help Network agencies build trust with their clients so clients can gain the full benefit of health care resources available to them. Our objectives are:
Objective 1
Assess the capacity of Network member organizations to provide multicultural and culturally responsive services, using needs assessment data, training feedback, and client feedback.
Objective 2
Provide technical assistance and capacity building around leadership development, program development, coordination, health promotion/awareness, and education. We will provide in-person, regional, online live and recorded webinar trainings to accomplish this.
We are based out of the University of Rochester and are funded by the NYSDOH AIDS Institute. More information can be found on the NYS HHS Network website.
Guiding Lights
Objective 1
We use these guiding lights to direct how we think about and approach our work:
- Leading and liberating with heart
- Healing
- Identifying and abolishing tokenism & antiblackness
- Being the change we want to experience
- Iterative process
LGBT HHS Grant Components
The New York State Department of Health AIDS Institute awarded the New York State LGBT HHS grant for a 5-year grant cycle (2019-2024), which is divided into three components:
Provision of Direct Health and Human Services for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Individuals, Families and Communities was awarded to 37 organizations around New York State that provide direct service provision to LGBTQ+ communities, including healthcare, housing, legal services, social supports, and more.
Multicultural and Culturally Responsive Organizational Development was awarded to the University of Rochester to support the organizations with technical assistance and capacity building in the areas of:
- leadership development
- program development
- coordination
- health promotion/awareness
- education
The LGBTQ+ Health Initiative is building off the work of National LGBT Cancer Network, whose mission is to improve the lives of LGBT cancer survivors and those at risk for cancer through Education, Training, and Advocacy. They received the Component B funding in the previous grant cycle (2013-2018) with which they created an expansive Cultural Competency Curriculum that is now open and available to the public.
Statewide Coordination of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Related Organizations Funded through the LGBT Health and Human Services for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Individuals, Families and Communities and LGBT Health and Human Services Network Members was awarded to the LGBT Center in Manhattan for the administration of the LGBT Network, including advocating for additional funding to the LGBT community, providing communication services and technical assistance and programmatic support to members, as well as organizing in-person retreats, conferences, and advocacy days.
Successes
The first year of our grant ran from May 1, 2019 to April 30, 2020. Our successes of this year included:
- We created this website!
- We founded our Community Advisory Board
- We started creating relationships with equity thought leaders and folks leading equity changes in organizations
- We worked with a group to create the two surveys that made up our Needs Assessment
The second year of our grant ran from May 1, 2020 to April 30, 2021. Our successes this year included:
- Community Advisory Board Growth and Input
- Our CAB grew after we opened applications for CAB members across NY State. Applications for CAB positions are still open.
- The CAB offered input to help re-envision our Antiracism Listening & Learning Series and to help us identify and prioritize our focus in our third year.
- We completed our Needs Assessment, aggregate results and more information is now available.
- Contracted with Rebellious Root Collective to offer six Technical Assistance Trainings including:
- How to Create and Sustain Equity Committee Momentum: “These two sessions included information on equity committee best practices and collaborative chats with other organizations who have/are thinking about creating Equity Committees.”
- Designing Equity Labs: “A 3-part series focused on developing an organizational best practices, policies, and procedures manual to support work towards actualizing equity in our organizations.”
- Movement Health Workshop: “This workshop was created in response to a high level of burnout reported by Network members, and provided rituals and tools for community- and self-care while doing the powerful work Networks members do.”
The third year of our grant ran from May 1, 2021 to April 30, 2022. Our successes this year included:
- We held the Antiracism Listening and Learning Series twice this year, in Summer 2021 and Winter 2022. Together, a total of 57 participants read and discussed How to Be An Antiracist by Ibram X Kendi.
- We worked with Rebellious Root to offer 30 hours of 1-1 Equity Coaching with 17 Network organizations
- Our Community Advisory Board worked on editing an Equity Guidebook for organizations, and continued to grow and develop as a group (applications are open)
- We offered 5 additional workshops to employees of Network organizations, including:
- How to Create and Sustain Equity Committee Momentum offered Rebellious Root Collective to 11 participants on 10/25/21
- Triad Management Model offered by Gay Men’s Health Crisis to 14 participants on 10/26/21
- Feedback Learning Labs offered twice by the Gandhi Institute to 26 participants in Spring 2022
- Navigating Difficult Conversations offered by Theater for Healthcare Equity at URMC to 12 participants on 3/9/22
Meet Our Team
Our Community Advisory Board
Our CAB is composed of 15+ members of our LGBTQ+ community located all around New York State. The CAB meets about 6 times per year to provide their perspective as stakeholders on surveys and trainings that may be offered to Network organizations. We provide a gift card for participation in the meetings and work between meetings. If you’re a member of our community and interested in joining, please review this document and follow the instructions there. We’ll reach out to you after you have completed a short application.
Our Partners
We work with many partners and consultants from our community who have various skills and expertise to add to the mission of our grant. You can read more about our partners. If you are interested in working with us, please contact us.