In an effort to gain community input, the Public Health Management Corporation will host a town-hall meeting for transgender communities on Sept. 16, from 6-8 p.m., at Arch Street Methodist Church, 55 N. Broad St., to discuss the recommendations from a recent needs assessment completed by PHMC. The purpose of this event is to hear as wide a cross-section of voices as possible from transgender and gender-non-conforming persons on the proposed recommendations. Attendees will be able to comment on the recommendations and suggest additional ones that may be missing. After this public comment event has taken place, the report will be completed and sent to community-based organizations, the mayor’s office, City Council and other elected officials and institutions at the city and state level.
As a community activist and researcher, I have come to realize the value of collecting data on specific populations to advocate for necessary services and help shape health policy. In this age of budget cuts and healthcare reform, among other challenges, it is more critical than ever to have data to support why certain communities need specific services to improve health outcomes. A concrete example of this is the data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau every 10 years, the next one being in 2010. According to the 2010 Census Bureau’s Web site, “Census data are used to distribute Congressional seats to states, to make decisions about what community services to provide and to distribute $400 billion in federal funds to local, state and tribal governments each year.” (http://2010.census.gov/2010census/) This underscores why it’s important for us to not only complete the Census Bureau’s forms that come to our residences, but also why other surveys are important. The bottom line is, if what you’re asking for is not documented in some concrete way, you will have a much more difficult time demonstrating the need and securing funding to address it.
Over the years, there have been a number of needs assessments conducted to identify the experiences and needs of transgender and gender-non-conforming persons in Philadelphia. Unfortunately, I think many communities feel frustrated when these kinds of things are done and recommendations are made and nothing seems to change. People give of their time to take these surveys, tell their friends about them and hope that, maybe this time, they will see something different. Each time these kinds of initiatives occur with no real changes seen by communities, it makes it increasingly difficult to engage the community the next time around.
My hope is that with this current initiative, we will see change take place as a result of activists, allies and stakeholders who are invested in transgender communities using the data collected from this needs assessment to improve programs and services. As an activist in Philadelphia’s LGBT community and an ally to transgender communities, I want to do my part to support these efforts. I think it’s important that we keep in mind that systems don’t change overnight, and the advocacy we do today may not result in changes for several months, or even a year or more. However, the alternative of doing nothing leads to no change at all and, in some cases, services and programs become less effective or, worse, are cut altogether.
I hope you will attend this town-hall meeting because, as a transgender or gender-non-conforming person living in Philadelphia, it’s your right to have your voice heard.
This event is also open to allies of transgender communities. For more information on this event, contact me at (267) 765-2352 or at [email protected].
Lee Carson is a research associate at the Public Health Management Corporation.