In celebration of Pride Month, The Community Foundation invited some of our nonprofit partners to highlight their experiences working with the Greater Washington region’s LGBTQ+ community.
La Clinica Del Pueblo
1) Briefly describe the mission of your organization and the services you provide to the LGBTQ+ community in the Greater Washington region.
La Clínica del Pueblo's mission is to build a healthy Latinx community through culturally appropriate health services, with a focus on those most in need. La Clínica was founded in 1983 to address the emerging health needs of DC's Central American immigrant population. Today, it serves the Latinx community in the Greater Washington region, providing linguistically and culturally appropriate, as well as LGBTQ+-friendly, health services.
The Empodérate Program, specifically designed for LGBTQ+ Latinx youth, has been a part of La Clínica's services since 2006. It operates two drop-in safe spaces in the region, one in Washington, DC and another in Prince George's County, MD. The program focuses on culturally and linguistically appropriate HIV prevention services. Annually, the Empodérate Program serves approximately 2,350 MSM (men who have sex with men) members of the Latinx community.
2) What do you find most meaningful about the work that you do with the LBTQ+ community in the Greater Washington area? What are you most ‘proud’ of?
In addition to providing essential healthcare services, we recognize the importance of representation and visibility. One of the aspects we are most proud of is providing a safe space for LGBTQ+ individuals within the Latinx community, advocating for their rights, and actively participating in events like the DC Pride parade. We understand the unique challenges and barriers they may face, such as cultural stigma and language barriers, and strive to create an inclusive and welcoming environment where they can access the healthcare services they need. By doing so, we contribute to a more inclusive society where all individuals, regardless of their cultural background or sexual orientation, can live with dignity and access the healthcare services they deserve.
3) As a nonprofit partner, tell us about how funding that you’ve received from The Community Foundation has helped you achieve your goals?
The funding we have received has been instrumental in expanding our programs, enhancing our service delivery, and improving health outcomes for the Latinx LGBTQ+ community in the Greater Washington area.
4) What do you wish that more people understood about the LGBTQ+ community?
People must understand the intersectionality and unique struggles experienced by low-income, immigrant, Limited English Proficient (LEP), LGBTQ+ Latinx individuals.
Low-income members of this community often confront multiple barriers to accessing healthcare, housing, education, and employment opportunities. Discrimination and systemic inequalities exacerbate their challenges, making achieving economic stability and social well-being even more difficult. Furthermore, being an immigrant and identifying as LGBTQ+ introduces additional hurdles. Immigrants within the LGBTQ+ Latinx community may face discrimination, prejudice, and even legal challenges related to their immigration status.
Addressing these intersectional challenges requires a comprehensive and inclusive approach. It involves creating safe spaces that embrace diverse identities and experiences within the LGBTQ+ Latinx community. It also necessitates developing tailored programs and services that account for economic disparities, immigration concerns, language access, and cultural sensitivity. This entails advocating for policies that address systemic inequalities, promoting cultural competency training for service providers, and supporting initiatives that uplift and empower LGBTQ+ Latinx individuals in low-income and immigrant communities.
The Equality Chamber Foundation
1) Briefly describe the mission of your organization and the services you provide to the LGBTQ+ community in the Greater Washington region.
The Equality Chamber Foundation (ecf) was founded in 2019 to create a united community. United by a common purpose to enhance our community’s culture, evolve its economy, and create safe spaces for the entrepreneurial spirit to thrive.
We are an essential conduit between community, culture, and enterprise. We help our community do more, be more, and grow more, so that they may continue to enrich our LGBTQIA+ family and evolve our community to meet their economic potential.
2) What do you find most meaningful about the work that you do with the LBTQ+ community in the Greater Washington area? What are you most ‘proud’ of?
All of the work we do is for the LGBTQ+ and allied community. Through our work we are able to help individuals, business leaders, business owners, and the community as a whole grow.
3) As a nonprofit partner, tell us about how funding that you’ve received from The Community Foundation has helped you achieve your goals?
The funding we have received has provided us with a vehicle to do safe space training for employers.
4) What do you wish that more people understood about the LGBTQ+ community?
The LGBTQ+ community is the most intersectional community - you can be a member of any other identity or affiliation and also be LGBTQ+
Whitman-Walker institute
1) Briefly describe the mission of your organization and the services you provide to the LGBTQ+ community in the Greater Washington region.
Whitman-Walker Institute expands the body of knowledge and science needed to strengthen our foundation of care, advocacy, research, and education. Through our work, we empower all people to live healthy, love openly, and achieve equity and belonging. Today, Whitman-Walker Health lives out its mission statement by offering affirming, community-based health and wellness services to all with a special expertise in LGBTQ+ and HIV care. WWH has the expertise to address numerous health disparities, including providing services to the largest cohorts of transgender and gender expansive patients in the country.
2) What do you find most meaningful about the work that you do with the LBTQ+ community in the Greater Washington area? What are you most ‘proud’ of?
For almost fifty years, Whitman-Walker has been woven into the fabric of DC’s diverse community as a first responder and trusted resource for those living with and affected by HIV; a leader in LGBTQ+ care and advocacy; a research center working to discover breakthroughs in HIV treatment and prevention science; a fierce advocate for health equity and inclusion; and one of DC’s dependable healthcare partners throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
3) As a nonprofit partner, tell us about how funding that you’ve received from The Community Foundation has helped you achieve your goals?
As a nonprofit, grant funding is pivotal to expanding our capacity to advocate, research, and educate about the health needs of LGBTQ+ people and people living with HIV. Funding supports our research into the bio-psycho-social drivers of ill health and the interventions to address these causes! Grant funding supports the many services we provide that are not covered by medical insurance.
4) What do you wish that more people understood about the LGBTQ+ community?
While LGBTQ+ people are subject to the bias and stereotypes that permeate our culture, the LGBTQ+ community is an invitation to questioning many of these assumptions that are woven into the fabric of our society. Liberation from sexual norms and gender roles provides us with an insight into how we can build a more expansive and inclusive society where more people can flourish. This process is fun and exciting!
AsylumWorks
1) Briefly describe the mission of your organization and the services you provide to the LGBTQ+ community in the Greater Washington region.
Founded in 2016, AsylumWorks is a regional 501(c)3 nonprofit created with the awareness that asylum seekers and other immigrants seeking safety from violence often arrive in the United States with many needs but few resources.
Rebuilding one’s social support network is an important component of feeling at home in a new place. Unfortunately, LGBTQ+ refugees and asylum seekers are not always welcomed by members of their diaspora when they arrive in the U.S. To address this need, AsylumWorks formed PRISM (Pride Refugee & Immigrant Support Meet-Up) to build an alternative inclusive, safe, and affirming peer community for LGBTQ+ refugees, asylum seekers, and other immigrants seeking safety from violence. PRISM works to foster spaces in which LGBTQ+ immigrants feel comfortable being themselves and can also participate in community-building activities that expand their social support in a new country and support their mental health and well-being via a facilitator-led psychosocial peer support group.
2) What do you find most meaningful about the work that you do with the LBTQ+ community in the Greater Washington area? What are you most ‘proud’ of?
PRISM is open to all AsylumWorks clients who identify as LGBTQ+, including alumni, waitlisted clients, along with other local LGBTQ+ asylum seekers who reside in DC, Maryland, or Virginia. This impact is far-reaching and enables group members to connect with the greater DMV community, as well as fellow group members. With each new member, our PRISM group inches closer to our vision of community-based support group where members with shared identities connect, grow, and support each other.
3) As a nonprofit partner, tell us about how funding that you’ve received from The Community Foundation has helped you achieve your goals?
The funding that we have received has made it possible to offer metro cards to PRISM group members to remove the cost barrier for attendees to move around the city, especially for our monthly dinners and in-person Pride Month events, such as tie dye t-shirt making and marching in the DC Pride Parade. An attendee reflects: “Hi! I want to thank you again. The metro card is helping me a lot. I started meeting the [immigration] lawyers and I am using it to go to school like to keep my visa status active till I submit my asylum applications. Thank you so much.”
4) What do you wish that more people understood about the LGBTQ+ community?
A person fighting to explore their identity is so brave. In addition to the complexity of navigating their identity, LGBTQ+ asylum seekers face significant challenges to overcome in new cultural, linguistic, and societal contexts as they seek to navigate complex immigration systems. There are innumerable barriers, and everyone has their own unique journey.