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Building a Healthy Gay Community
As a community, we take care of each other by volunteering our time, supporting healthy behaviors among our friends, and contributing financially to organizations like Gay City.
Despite the economic uncertainty that continues to affect us all, Gay City has continued to provide a variety of much needed programs and services to gay men and the LGBT community as a whole. While budgets and services continue to be reduced or eliminated entirely, the needs of the gay community – our community, your community – continue to grow. Your support towards our efforts remains a valuable and vital piece of our sustainability. Help us to continue being a force for change in our community by supporting us now.
Your financial assistance is particularly important, as Gay City’s programs are only partially funded by government grants. In fact, the demand for our services currently outweighs grant resources. To make up for this difference, over 40% of our budget comes from private sources, including individual donations.
Your donations ensure that everyone seeking help from Gay City can receive it.
Health, Life, and Community
At a time like this, it is imperative to strengthen health and wellness services for gay & bi men. Our community has a history of supporting healthy lifestyles, and even with today’s challenges, we can continue to lower rates of HIV infection, smoking and drug use.
Gay City is the leading community-based provider of free, anonymous HIV and STD testing as well as free Hepatitis A & B vaccinations in King County for men who have sex with men. Thanks to your investment, Gay City continues to expand its reach in meeting the needs of LGBT individuals in Seattle and King County.
We continue to reach historically marginalized, underserved, or high risk populations: 65% of those tested this year are low income, 40% are people of color, 41% are 30 or younger, and 37% are uninsured. We’re making a real difference in our community by being able to connect these men to the resources that they will need to stay healthy as well as a community that can support them.
Building a healthy community is about more than gay men caring for gay men. It’s about gay men serving the broader LGBT community, and challenging the notions of who gay men are, and whom they care about. It’s about housing and staffing the LGBT Resource & Referral Line and Gay City LGBT Library. It’s about partnering with Rosehedge/Multifaith Works, Seattle Counseling Service, and Seattle Area Support Groups on the Shift Peer Recovery Network, a support program for LGBT individuals in recovery. It’s about partnering with Jewish Family Services and ARC of King County on the Caregiver Support program in order to address some of the needs of LGBT elders. It’s about continuing to offer programs such as these that touch the members of our community in a variety of ways.
An Expanded Vision
Gay City was founded in response to the needs of the community, and we’ve grown and changed based on those changing needs. The recently completed Seattle LGBT Commission Report of Needs Assessment Survey demonstrated that the needs of the broader LGBT community are immediate and real. The top recommendations from the report included: support for an LGBT Community Center in Capitol Hill; support for transgender individuals to achieve financial self-sufficiency through stable employment in jobs providing a living wage and benefits, with opportunities for advancement; funding for LGBT homeless youth specific services; funding LGBT specific senior programs; and, re-evaluation of public safety to encourage reporting of harassment and discrimination.
Our expanded vision includes expanding our space. As such, we are preparing to move next door, where we will be able help to deliver on several of the recommendations report through the increased ability to provide services based on the expansion of our facilities. Some examples of this include: expanding our over all space to more than twice the size of our current footprint, allowing us to provide drop-in space and services; doubling the available space for Gay City Wellness Center, increasing our ability to offer a variety or screening, counseling, and other health support services; tripling the size of the Gay City LGBT Library, and providing it with retail frontage and street access; develop the LGBT Resource & Referral Center as part of our Gay City LGBT Library services; adding additional community meeting space; and, adding a multipurpose assembly space with potential for variety of possible uses, including: theatrical productions, film screenings, spoken word events, musical performances, visual art installations, readings, writing workshops, seminars, community meetings, and private events.
Gay City Needs Your Support
Gay City is the only gay community based provider of HIV/STI testing and counseling in King County. We are also the only organization in our region primarily dedicated to nurturing the comprehensive health of gay, bi, and trans men. As state budget cuts continue to grow, your support will become even more vital.
You have the power to make an impact. You have the ability to influence the health and future of the gay community by making a contribution to Gay City Health Project.
Gay City Health Project is a 501(c)(3)non-profit organization and your gift is tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law.
