Maine Justice Foundation awards grants for LGBTQ+ justice and equity
The Maine Justice Foundation awarded grants from its inaugural LGBTQ+ Fund to five Maine organizations.
The LGBTQ+ Fund supports education and advocacy aimed at achieving access to justice and equity for individuals identifying as LGBTQ+.
The fund supports organizations serving members of the LGBTQ+ community by forging social, systemic and economic solutions to combat discrimination and bias against LGBTQ+ individuals and groups in Maine.
“Supporting advocacy efforts for just, equitable communities and LGBTQ+ rights is a strategic investment in creating a society that values and celebrates diversity, where all individuals can thrive, contribute and live authentically,” said Dana Eidsness, a senior anti-hunger policy advisor with the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future.
The foundation said it will issue five grants for $10,000 each. They are the largest grants to date that the fund has issued to organizations, and the most organizations supported in a single year.
The grantees and the projects supported are:
- National Association of Social Workers Maine: Create a free training certificate program offered for behavioral health clinicians and students across Maine to develop skills in working collaboratively with families, schools, primary care and ancillary providers to better wrap around care for LGBTQ+ individuals.
- Maine TransNet: Expand work providing cultural competency training to medical and mental health care providers working within the LGBTQ+ community.
- Alfond Youth & Community Center: Support Folks Organizing Reform for Queer Spaces program, which includes a social club for LGBTQ+ teens, professional development to members and the Maine Queer Convention.
- Equality Maine Foundation: Conduct a feasibility study for an Equality Maine LGBTQ+ legal aid clinic.
- OUT Maine: Support efforts in building inclusive schools through an integrated school climate program to implement best practices of inclusive school environments.
“This award will allow us to develop and deliver LGBTQ+ clinical competency trainings at no charge to social workers, counselors and clinicians across Maine,” said Christopher McLaughlin, executive director of the National Association of Social Workers Maine. “Enhancing provider confidence and competence in working with the LGBTQ+ community is essential in ensuring that some of the most vulnerable citizens of Maine receive the highest quality of clinical services at a time when this community needs these services the most.”
The mission of Maine TransNet is to support and empower transgender people to create a world where they can thrive, said the organization’s co-executive director, Bre Kidman.
“As we continue to expand our training and our outreach to providers, we are excited to narrow the gap between LGBTQIA+ people in need and the affirming, culturally competent care they seek,” Kidman said.
FORQS is an LGBTQ+ advocacy and social club for teens at the Alfond Youth & Community Center, the nation’s only combined YMCA and Boys & Girls Clubs. FORQS has held the Maine Queer Convention, its largest and most impactful event, for the past two years. The convention offers LGBTQ+ youth and their allies, school and nonprofit staff, and community members with a safe and supportive environment to discuss issues, plan advocacy work, receive professional development training and forge new friendships. The convention is hosted annually in March at the Alfond Youth & Community Center’s flagship campus in Waterville.
Avery Ryan, teen programs coordinator and a FORQS advisor, said the funding will be used to expand the convention from a central Maine educational opportunity to a statewide conference.
EqualityMaine is the oldest and largest statewide organization dedicated to creating a fair and just society for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer Mainers, said Heide Lester, the organization’s development director.
“With this support, a feasibility study for an LGBTQ+ legal clinic will consider the needs of queer people across all demographics and around the state, with a particular focus on people of color, transgender people and low-income Mainers,” said Lester.
The LGBTQ+ Fund of the Maine Justice Foundation was formed by seven founding donors in 2016. The first grants were awarded in 2019. The fund’s advisory committee issued a request for proposals and reviewed applications.
“We hope to bring more equity and fairness to this community through the programs to which grants have been made,” said Judith Fletcher Woodbury, board president of the Maine Justice Foundation.
The Maine Justice Foundation, founded in 1983 as the Maine Bar Foundation, is the state’s leading funder of civil legal aid and is committed to ensuring access to justice for all Mainers.
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