A local LGBT and HIV/AIDS advocate focusing on Latinx youth engagement was recently selected for a national leadership-development program.
Francisco Cortes, the youth-program coordinator at GALAEI, is one of 10 people selected for the second class of the HIV 360° Fellowship Program, managed by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, the educational arm of the national LGBT organization. Cortes, 25, has served in his role at GALAEI for about two-and-a-half years; he has been affiliated with the organization for about five years, having initially served as an intern while earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology, with an LGBT-studies focus, from Temple University.
The fellowship program, supported by funding from the Elton John AIDS Foundation, launched last year to provide individualized training and support to young professionals working to stem the tide of HIV/AIDS in hardest-hit communities: gay and bisexual men of color, trans women of color and LGBTs living in the South. Participants will receive leadership- and organizational-development training, nonprofit-management coaching, mentorship and a grant for their respective nonprofit to advance their work.
“Through their dedication, creativity and hard work, these activists are changing lives, expanding opportunity and combatting the stigma and discrimination facing so many people living with and affected by HIV in the U.S.,” said Mary Beth Maxwell, HRC senior vice president for Programs, Research and Training. “We look forward to working with them over the coming year and into the future as they continue to speak out, act up and bring an end to the HIV and AIDS epidemic once and for all.”
Cortes and the other fellows gathered in Washington, D.C., for their first retreat last month and will reconvene again in June in Atlanta and back in the nation’s capital in December.
The first training focused on the fellows getting to know one another, and doing a deep dive into their own work and goals.
“We thought a lot about where we stand as leaders in our agencies and in the community, and then what the needs of our organizations are,” Cortes said. “I’ve been through a lot of trainings and conferences, but this was definitely the most impactful from the get-go. Going through a worksheet evaluating where I stand as a manager and brainstorming ways I can be more effective in my duties was awesome and definitely something I’m taking back to the organization.”
When asked about his personal and professional goals for the fellowship, Cortes laughed that he hopes to take away “a million things.”
Strategizing how to take GALAEI’s youth program to the next level is chief among them, he said.
“At the end of the day, I want to come back to GALAEI and apply the work and the knowledge I received through this fellowship to grow this program. In the last year, I’ve really been thinking strategically about how we can expand the program because the need is there, and the quality of the work at the organization is there. So now we’re thinking about how we can build the infrastructure to grow the program.”