The Mission of the Coalition for Aging LGBT – Texas is: Improve and protect the quality of life of older LGBT adults in North Texas through coordination and collaboration for health, housing, advocacy, financial security and social services. The organization serves the four largest counties in North Texas: Dallas, Tarrant, Collin, and Denton. It is estimated through the assistance of the US Census data, and further data analysis from The Williams Institute at UCLA, the population of this four county area of lesbian and gay citizens age 45 and older is at 195,000 and will continue to rise in the next 10 years to over 200,000.
The areas of focus and the priority for the Coalition for Aging LGBT (“CFA LGBT”) in 2019 for the fiscal year just ended June 30, 2020, and looking ahead to fiscal year 2020 which began July 1, 2020 are:
A. Housing/Health
B. Advocacy & Education
C. Social Services
A. Housing/Health:
Initially released in December 2018, the LGBT Friendly Senior Housing Guide (“The Guide”) provides a starting point for identifying a safe, inclusive and friendly environment for LGBT seniors in Senior Living Facilities. Our process focuses on identifying and assessing safe housing and health solutions for members of the community as they move through the aging stages of life. The focus is assessing LGBT cultural competency, providing social engagement opportunities in the retirement community, and ultimately reducing housing and aging related health care discrimination experiences.
2019 FY Status: The Housing Committee identified and connected with key providers in local retirement communities, home care practitioners & hospice providers to begin the next phase of work with these experts in senior living & care; and with experts in LGBT cultural competency training & skills development. Our work is focused on expanding vetted retirement communities listed in “The Guide”, re-vetting existing listings; and, adding information regarding home health care & hospice care to “The Guide”. There exists a need to publish a list of LGBT competent practitioners for North Texas as today it is not clear where there are safe & inclusive service providers. We have, therefore, combined aspects of Health with Housing. We’ve begun digitizing the LGBT cultural competency training to allow flexible & wider training in home & in health care facilities; and, upgrading web access tools to allow easier, friendlier online “Guide” access. In FY 2019 we had accomplished the work through volunteer teams, the CFA LGBT [volunteer] Board of Directors, and were fortunate to have part time paid staff to support this project’s resource needs through generous community grants from the Communities Foundation, the Dallas Foundation & the Texas Pride Impact Fund.
2020+ FY Plans: As we prepare to release the newest version of “The Guide” later this year, we will be re-assessing current facilities & adding new facilities via the assessment process. LGBT cultural competency gaps, once determined for each facility, will be closed through training and support. The LGBT Friendly Senior Housing Guide will be updated as new facilities are qualified, additional resources regarding home health care and hospice support are added; and “The Guide” will be made available immediately, online, as updates are available, with hard copies printed periodically as need. As begun in FY 2019, the digitizing of training materials will allow flexible and wider training in retirement communities; and, upgrading the web access tools will allow easier, friendlier online “Guide” access for senior adults. Much of our work in this area has slowed due to the pandemic, as access to retirement communities has been restricted. We continue to prepare web and assessment tools for home health care and hospice so that when we are allowed to assess these organizations, we’ll be prepared.
2021+ Plans: Although not a focus until 2021 or later, we know of the significant need of getting LGBT cultural competency into the medical schools and hospitals. Graduating students in the medical fields are revealing that LGBT cultural competency & specific expertise is not part of the graduating acumen, & that almost no training is provided to health care workers regarding members of the transgender population. As geriatric transgender medicine is even more unique, inadequate training in today’s academic environment needs to be addressed. We will continue to highlight until we can focus on it.
B. Advocacy and Education:
We have a responsibility to educate both the service providers in North Texas on LGBT cultural competency & eliminating discrimination; and, we have a responsibility to educate the LGBT community on the growing needs & available resources for the North Texas LGBT community.
2019 FY Status: Our education in this year has been achieved in various ways of sharing, teaching and advocating. We held or participated in over 63 advocacy events reaching 649 clients. This included conferences such as Creating Change, seminars and meetings we hosted or at which we presented, and other educational training events that provided social, legal or financial information, in person or virtually. Although most of our events were in person prior to March, we continued our work virtually as the pandemic took hold. We continued to ramp up our partnership work with strong community partners such as Lambda Legal, The Senior Source, The Alzheimer’s Association, Celebration Community Church, the Resource Center, and AARP.
2020+ FY Plans: As we move forward we will continue our virtual events as well as plan to hold our 5th Annual Summit in May 2021, hopefully live, at The Senior Source to bring together both service providers and the LGBT community for a day of delving into the unique needs of LGBT aging.
C. Social Engagement. As with all aging populations, isolation is a significant challenge. However, this challenge is greater in the LGBT community due to family structure and with many individuals relying totally on “families of choice.” Many in the LGBT community have no children. Many in the community have been cut-off from their biological families due to discrimination and a lack of loving acceptance.
2019 FY Status: We have worked to identify and understand available resources that are available to address isolation and encourage general social engagement in the aging community. We have supported extensive work in Tarrant and Denton County for “Let’s Do Lunch” and other monthly/weekly events for isolated seniors where those social activities were unavailable. We’ve partnered with local churches & are supporting food insecurity needs. Through in-person & virtual events, we’ve held or participated in 55 events serving 570 clients over the last fiscal year. The pandemic has severely curtailed the needed “in-person” connections, but our volunteers are steadfast in calling, connecting & virtually reaching out. Our Tarrant County team went above & beyond to provide intense COVID-19 updates & resources for our LGBT seniors.
2020+ FY Plans: We will spend more effort and resources on partnering with organizations across our four county service area to supplement and support existing social engagement programs where we can teach LGBT competency. We will also tap into hospital’s pastoral care office, and the regional university’s schools in social work to create greater resources and expertise.
D. Health. There exists a need to publish a list of LGBT cultural competent practitioners, home health practitioners and hospice providers for North Texas as today it is not clear where there are safe and respectable service providers. We have, therefore, combined aspects of Health with Housing to begin work to be included in “The Guide”.
General needs and plans: In each of our priorities we understand that our fundraising and volunteer recruitment activities must continue to step up so that we are able to build upon our work. The CFA LGBT Board of Directors understands that front-line organization staff is critical to provide the attention needed to complete logistics, and also to recruit a reliable volunteer pool with special skillsets and interests in each of the priorities and disciplines. As an organization, we have made strides in bringing onboard 3 part-time staff to support our Fundraising, Housing, Social Engagement and Advocacy & Education work. We are confident that we will continue to make remarkable progress in each of our key priorities in the coming year.
We were blessed to have 238 volunteers giving over 5400 volunteer hours to the organization during the last fiscal year ending June 30, 2020. Although less than in FY 2018, with the pandemic impact this remains a significant marker of our success.
Our financials were audited in FY 2018 with no findings, and we are completing an audit of the FY 2019 financials at this time. We continue to have a strong balance sheet and cash flow due to generous donations from you, and from The Communities Foundation, The Dallas Foundation, the Texas Pride Impact Fund, North Texas Cares, Black Tie Dinner, Dallas Pride, United Court of the Lone Star Empire, Inc., Texas Instruments, Nordstrom, TROT, Burch Law, the Dallas Wings and the Padilla Gallery. In spite of the pandemic, we continue to touch our clients and make a difference in the lives of LGBT seniors.
You can learn more about our work at www.cfa.lgbt
Respectfully,
The Coalition for Aging LGBT Board of Directors
As of October 5, 2020
Sandy Anderson, Chair
Kim Macpherson, Vice Chair
Rana Spruell, Secretary
Robert Emery, Treasurer
Jaime Esposito, Director
Hope Rivera, Director
Carolyn Roney, Director
John Trevino, Director
The areas of focus and the priority for the Coalition for Aging LGBT (“CFA LGBT”) in 2019 for the fiscal year just ended June 30, 2020, and looking ahead to fiscal year 2020 which began July 1, 2020 are:
A. Housing/Health
B. Advocacy & Education
C. Social Services
A. Housing/Health:
Initially released in December 2018, the LGBT Friendly Senior Housing Guide (“The Guide”) provides a starting point for identifying a safe, inclusive and friendly environment for LGBT seniors in Senior Living Facilities. Our process focuses on identifying and assessing safe housing and health solutions for members of the community as they move through the aging stages of life. The focus is assessing LGBT cultural competency, providing social engagement opportunities in the retirement community, and ultimately reducing housing and aging related health care discrimination experiences.
2019 FY Status: The Housing Committee identified and connected with key providers in local retirement communities, home care practitioners & hospice providers to begin the next phase of work with these experts in senior living & care; and with experts in LGBT cultural competency training & skills development. Our work is focused on expanding vetted retirement communities listed in “The Guide”, re-vetting existing listings; and, adding information regarding home health care & hospice care to “The Guide”. There exists a need to publish a list of LGBT competent practitioners for North Texas as today it is not clear where there are safe & inclusive service providers. We have, therefore, combined aspects of Health with Housing. We’ve begun digitizing the LGBT cultural competency training to allow flexible & wider training in home & in health care facilities; and, upgrading web access tools to allow easier, friendlier online “Guide” access. In FY 2019 we had accomplished the work through volunteer teams, the CFA LGBT [volunteer] Board of Directors, and were fortunate to have part time paid staff to support this project’s resource needs through generous community grants from the Communities Foundation, the Dallas Foundation & the Texas Pride Impact Fund.
2020+ FY Plans: As we prepare to release the newest version of “The Guide” later this year, we will be re-assessing current facilities & adding new facilities via the assessment process. LGBT cultural competency gaps, once determined for each facility, will be closed through training and support. The LGBT Friendly Senior Housing Guide will be updated as new facilities are qualified, additional resources regarding home health care and hospice support are added; and “The Guide” will be made available immediately, online, as updates are available, with hard copies printed periodically as need. As begun in FY 2019, the digitizing of training materials will allow flexible and wider training in retirement communities; and, upgrading the web access tools will allow easier, friendlier online “Guide” access for senior adults. Much of our work in this area has slowed due to the pandemic, as access to retirement communities has been restricted. We continue to prepare web and assessment tools for home health care and hospice so that when we are allowed to assess these organizations, we’ll be prepared.
2021+ Plans: Although not a focus until 2021 or later, we know of the significant need of getting LGBT cultural competency into the medical schools and hospitals. Graduating students in the medical fields are revealing that LGBT cultural competency & specific expertise is not part of the graduating acumen, & that almost no training is provided to health care workers regarding members of the transgender population. As geriatric transgender medicine is even more unique, inadequate training in today’s academic environment needs to be addressed. We will continue to highlight until we can focus on it.
B. Advocacy and Education:
We have a responsibility to educate both the service providers in North Texas on LGBT cultural competency & eliminating discrimination; and, we have a responsibility to educate the LGBT community on the growing needs & available resources for the North Texas LGBT community.
2019 FY Status: Our education in this year has been achieved in various ways of sharing, teaching and advocating. We held or participated in over 63 advocacy events reaching 649 clients. This included conferences such as Creating Change, seminars and meetings we hosted or at which we presented, and other educational training events that provided social, legal or financial information, in person or virtually. Although most of our events were in person prior to March, we continued our work virtually as the pandemic took hold. We continued to ramp up our partnership work with strong community partners such as Lambda Legal, The Senior Source, The Alzheimer’s Association, Celebration Community Church, the Resource Center, and AARP.
2020+ FY Plans: As we move forward we will continue our virtual events as well as plan to hold our 5th Annual Summit in May 2021, hopefully live, at The Senior Source to bring together both service providers and the LGBT community for a day of delving into the unique needs of LGBT aging.
C. Social Engagement. As with all aging populations, isolation is a significant challenge. However, this challenge is greater in the LGBT community due to family structure and with many individuals relying totally on “families of choice.” Many in the LGBT community have no children. Many in the community have been cut-off from their biological families due to discrimination and a lack of loving acceptance.
2019 FY Status: We have worked to identify and understand available resources that are available to address isolation and encourage general social engagement in the aging community. We have supported extensive work in Tarrant and Denton County for “Let’s Do Lunch” and other monthly/weekly events for isolated seniors where those social activities were unavailable. We’ve partnered with local churches & are supporting food insecurity needs. Through in-person & virtual events, we’ve held or participated in 55 events serving 570 clients over the last fiscal year. The pandemic has severely curtailed the needed “in-person” connections, but our volunteers are steadfast in calling, connecting & virtually reaching out. Our Tarrant County team went above & beyond to provide intense COVID-19 updates & resources for our LGBT seniors.
2020+ FY Plans: We will spend more effort and resources on partnering with organizations across our four county service area to supplement and support existing social engagement programs where we can teach LGBT competency. We will also tap into hospital’s pastoral care office, and the regional university’s schools in social work to create greater resources and expertise.
D. Health. There exists a need to publish a list of LGBT cultural competent practitioners, home health practitioners and hospice providers for North Texas as today it is not clear where there are safe and respectable service providers. We have, therefore, combined aspects of Health with Housing to begin work to be included in “The Guide”.
General needs and plans: In each of our priorities we understand that our fundraising and volunteer recruitment activities must continue to step up so that we are able to build upon our work. The CFA LGBT Board of Directors understands that front-line organization staff is critical to provide the attention needed to complete logistics, and also to recruit a reliable volunteer pool with special skillsets and interests in each of the priorities and disciplines. As an organization, we have made strides in bringing onboard 3 part-time staff to support our Fundraising, Housing, Social Engagement and Advocacy & Education work. We are confident that we will continue to make remarkable progress in each of our key priorities in the coming year.
We were blessed to have 238 volunteers giving over 5400 volunteer hours to the organization during the last fiscal year ending June 30, 2020. Although less than in FY 2018, with the pandemic impact this remains a significant marker of our success.
Our financials were audited in FY 2018 with no findings, and we are completing an audit of the FY 2019 financials at this time. We continue to have a strong balance sheet and cash flow due to generous donations from you, and from The Communities Foundation, The Dallas Foundation, the Texas Pride Impact Fund, North Texas Cares, Black Tie Dinner, Dallas Pride, United Court of the Lone Star Empire, Inc., Texas Instruments, Nordstrom, TROT, Burch Law, the Dallas Wings and the Padilla Gallery. In spite of the pandemic, we continue to touch our clients and make a difference in the lives of LGBT seniors.
You can learn more about our work at www.cfa.lgbt
Respectfully,
The Coalition for Aging LGBT Board of Directors
As of October 5, 2020
Sandy Anderson, Chair
Kim Macpherson, Vice Chair
Rana Spruell, Secretary
Robert Emery, Treasurer
Jaime Esposito, Director
Hope Rivera, Director
Carolyn Roney, Director
John Trevino, Director