CHICAGO – The LGBT Community Fund, an initiative of The Chicago Community Trust, is pleased to announce a bilingual discussion forum and presentation of the Chicago LGBT Community Needs Assessment at the National Museum of Mexican Art, 1852 West 19th Street, Chicago, at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, October 2, 2012.
Conducted by The LGBT Community Fund at The Chicago Community Trust in partnership with Morten Group and Southwest Youth Collaborative, the event is the second in a series of several data presentations throughout various Chicagoland neighborhoods, and the first to be conducted bilingually (English/Spanish). Needs assessment data was initially released to the public in a press briefing at Howard Brown Health Center on June 27.
The evening will include remarks from representatives of The Chicago Community Trust and Southwest Youth Collaborative, followed by a presentation of the data and a question-and-answer period with Mary Morten of Morten Group and Dr. Keisha Farmer-Smith, Principal Investigator. Prue Beidler, Co-chair of The LGBT Community Fund, will serve as moderator of the event.
“Serving as a member of the research team was an extraordinary experience,” said Alicia Tellez Vega, Executive Director, Southwest Youth Collaborative. “The diversity of participants and the wide range of community members represented make the information extremely relevant and powerful. We are committed to collaborating with The Chicago Community Trust and Morten Group on getting the needs assessment data to all communities, especially the southwest side, which often does not obtain access to information and resources for the LGBT community.”
The Steering Committee of The LGBT Community Fund, an identity-focused fund of The Chicago Community Trust, commissioned the needs assessment to obtain information on the needs of Chicagoland’s LGBT community in order to allocate funding in a way that effectively addresses those needs. Morten Group conducted the assessment from October through December of 2011 with the assistance of over 60 community partner organizations (including the National Museum of Mexican Art) and individual leaders.
Data collection for the LGBT Community Needs Assessment began on October 7, 2011, and ended on December 22, 2011, concluding an 11-week field period. Results were analyzed from January through April of 2012 by Morten Group’s LGBT Community Needs Assessment Project Team.
The project was conducted in two distinct phases. Phase I consisted of a comprehensive online survey that was completed by over 1500 individual community members. The survey was made available in both English and Spanish, and paper copies were provided to those without internet access. In addition, partner organizations placed community drop boxes in their buildings, where over 300 individuals filled out brief data cards responding to questions about the community’s most critical needs. Data cards were made available in English, Spanish, Chinese, Hindi, Korean and Vietnamese.
Phase II of the needs assessment consisted of in-depth telephone interviews with over 50 leaders in the LGBT community, as well as 15 different focus groups throughout the Chicago region. Many focus groups were designed for particular demographic groups, such as youth, senior citizens, Spanish speakers, suburban residents and undocumented individuals. The needs assessment sought to cast a broad, inclusive net over the Chicagoland area by incorporating the voices of LGBT community members from diverse neighborhoods, cultural backgrounds, ages, and socioeconomic levels.
The Chicago Community Trust began The LGBT Community Fund in 2010 with a $500,000 matching challenge grant. The Steering Committee of the Fund will oversee a fundraising campaign that plans to raise $1 million over the next three years to match the Trust’s challenge grant. The Steering Committee will distribute the $1 million over the same time period to nonprofits serving Chicagoland’s LGBT community; the Trust’s $500,000 will go towards a permanent endowment benefitting the LGBT community.
Via press release
