An initiative seeking to promote opportunities and equality for LGBT seniors recently got a big boost to its infrastructure.
The LGBT Elder Initiative is the recipient of a $35,000 grant from the Philadelphia Foundation, the largest grant the group has received since its 2010 launch.
The funding comes from the Foundation’s Oscar H. and E. Ida Iucker Memorial Fund and will “enable the Elder Initiative to help support and sustain the lives of LGBT older adults in Delaware Valley,” LGBTEI co-chairs Heshie Zinman and Terri Clark said in a joint statement.
Specifically, the funding will be used to support the creation of a strategic plan and the decision-making process surrounding which legal status, such as 501(c)(3), the organization should pursue.
LGBTEI communications chair Ed Bomba said the organization has hired consulting firm Fairmount Ventures to spearhead the planning process and “to evaluate all of our options and help us determine what’s best to help us move forward and meet our mission.”
Since the initiative does not have an official legal distinction yet, it could not directly receive the funding from the Philadelphia Foundation, so the Center for Advocacy for the Rights and Interests of the Elderly stepped in as fiscal sponsor to accept the money.
The new grant will be essential in helping the organization continue the important work it has already begun, Bomba said.
“I think we’ve made a great impact in terms of bridging the gaps between the aging and LGBT organizations and those organizations and LGBT seniors to get LGBT seniors access to the care and services they need,” he said.
The LGBTEI was founded by an assortment of volunteers from both the LGBT and aging-services communities and, in its year-and-a-half in operation, has led such efforts as a survey of local LGBT elders to evaluate their needs.
The study revealed that seniors are most concerned about physical and emotional health care, as well as housing, case-management services and social networking.
“The LGBTEI is working to assure that these concerns are met so that LGBT older adults can live vibrant, creative and mutually supportive lives,” Zinman said.
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].
