Recorded presentation

Jodi Sperber, MSW, MPH, GLBT Health Access Project, JRI Health, 130 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02116, 617-988-2605 x201, jsperber@jri.org, Stewart Landers, JD, MCP, John Snow, Inc., 44 Farnsworth Street, Boston, MA 02210, and Anne Marie Silvia, Office of HIV/AIDS, Rhode Island Department of Health, 3 Capitol Hill, Providence, RI 02908.

In 2002 the Rhode Island Foundation contracted with John Snow, Inc. (JSI) to conduct the Rhode Island LGBTQ Community Scan, a comprehensive survey designed to better understand the composition, capacity and needs of Rhode Island ’s LGBTQ communities. Rhode Island is the first state to attempt to more fully describe its statewide LGBTQ communities.

The scan provides vital information, facilitating the community’s efforts to build the infrastructure of LGBTQ-serving organizations, identifying strategies for reaching isolated or "invisible" groups and creating bridges among different LGBTQ communities as well as between LGBTQ communities and "mainstream" institutions. Specifically, this report focuses on the Rhode Island LGBTQ community’s demographics, the resources it has to contribute to the state and its current political and cultural priorities.

Data from the scan reveals the following:

•Individuals within these communities are long-term residents; active participants in the labor force; geographically distributed; diverse in age, gender and ethnic and racial background; serve in the military; and often self-identify as parents and partners.

•LGBTQ communities experience discrimination and prejudice in public and private settings. Ensuring safe schools for youth is a high priority for LGBTQ communities. When asked to rank top service-related priorities, ensuring safe schools for LGBTQ youth consistently ranked as number one, regardless of respondents’ race, age, gender or sexual orientation.

•LGBTQ-focused organizations are typically newer, rely heavily on unpaid staff and have budgets under $50,000. These organizations have more difficulty responding to the increased demands and needs of a growing and diverse community.

Learning Objectives: After this session, participants will be able to

• Identify the composition, capacity and needs of Rhode Island's LGBTQ community
  
• Describe the top priorities of individuals and organizations within the state
  
• Discuss the methods chosen to implement this state wide survey effort

Keywords: Community Research, Gay

Related Web page: www.rifoundation.org/equity_action/

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

Recorded presentation