Ron Guillard, left, and Roger Wedell

From Staff Reports

Texas Pride Impact Funds, a statewide community foundation with a mission to “secure the future for LGBTQ Texans by inspiring giving and investment to expand opportunities and enrich communities,” will hold its first town hall meeting Wednesday, June 13, from 6-8 p.m. at the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center Auditorium, 600 River St. in Austin.

The meeting is open to the public, and seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

The purpose of the town hall TPIF officials explained, is to share the findings from the organization’s comprehensive study of the state’s LGBTQ population and disparities in services to the community, ranging from health care to senior programs.

The program will also include a panel discussion featuring community leaders Liz Elsen, M.ED., director of the UT Gender and Sexuality Center; Kathryn Gonzalez, operations and program director for Out Youth; Priscilla A. Hale, director of allgo; Loretta Holland, executive director of Waterloo Counseling Center, and Chuck Smith, CEO of Equality Texas.

TPIF board member Ron Guillard said TPIF officials are “are thrilled to kick off our Texas town hall initiative in our state capital. … We’re excited to share our findings from the first needs assessment of Texas’ LGBTQ community, and to raise awareness about the gaps between needs and services provided in important areas like health care accessibility and food insecurity.”

Guillard said the Austin event will be the first of many town halls that TPIF intends to hold throughout the state. Those meetings, he said, “will serve as a catalyst for connecting philanthropists with organizations that deserve our support.”

TPIF announced the completion of the first-of-its-kind needs assessment survey earlier this year. It was conducted by a research team from The University of Texas at Dallas to inform TPIF’s grant priorities and the organization’s inaugural grant-making cycle, which is currently underway.

Preliminary findings point to disparities in areas including health care accessibility, senior and youth support programs, employment and social support in non-urban areas, board member Roger Wedell said.

“The study provides critical insight into the disparity between the needs of LGBTQ Texans, and what service organizations currently are equipped to provide,” Wedell said. “We learned that more than half of respondents delayed medical care, and that 40 percent of those polled had experienced food insecurity in the last 12 months. These and other societal issues are exacerbated among LGBTQ people of color and transgender Texans.

“With help from supporters, we’ll be able to address these gaps by funding the organizations that are serving our LGBTQ community.”

The study also revealed several broader issues, Wedell said, adding that responses made it clear that the issues of racism, sexism and gender normatism are negatively impacting the Texas LGBTQ community and are considered threats to this community’s well-being and future.

“These issues are complex and not easily fixed,” Wedell said. “In some ways, they reflect larger social issues within our state and nation.”

Guillard added, “TPIF has a long-term goal of creating opportunities for conversation and perhaps conducting additional study in order to more clearly understand the dynamics at work, and then to make that information available and hopefully to fund strategic responses.”

Wedell and Guillard pledged that while it was the first, the 2017 needs assessment survey won’t be the last.

Those attending the town hall in Austin will receive a copy of TPIF’s first publication, “IMPACT! Texas, Statewide LGBTQ Community Needs Assessment,” which is a 36-page summary of the 2017 study. Both the summary publication and the research team’s full report will available on the organization’s website on Wednesday, June 20.

For information visit TXPIF.org.