Six Grants are provided through the Foundation’s Equality Fund with additional support from the Open Door Fund.
In May 2019 Q Plus started its work as a grassroots, community based, youth led, volunteer run organization with the goal of filling existing gaps in queer youth programming across Connecticut. In March of 2022, Q Plus officially formed as a nonprofit and continued to expand its programming to include weekly youth groups in towns across the state, along with hosting special events like Open Mics and Summer Programs and providing school support in the form of consultations and professional development trainings for staff and faculty and free consultations and visits for Gay Straight Alliances.
Q Plus supports queer youth in the state and continually works to ensure that their work is informed by national research and local individual youth feedback. Thanks to a $50,000 grant from the Equality Fund at the Fundación Greater Hartford Gives, the organization plans to expand the services for existing Hartford area youth groups it currently works with and create new support groups and educational workshops. Foundation funds will also be used to support the salary of Q Plus’s new support services director.
“We at Q Plus are incredibly honored and grateful to be chosen for this grant,” said Q Plus executive director and founder Mel Cordner. “We’re so excited to begin applying these funds to our work in the Hartford area right away! The grant will contribute to social events, support groups, and advocacy workshops held in the Hartford area, as well as to the salary of our new Support Services Director position, which was created based on youth requests for additional support services. Our social groups are vital to queer youth looking to create genuine friendships and build their social and soft skills, which is something virtually all teens can benefit from.”
Q Plus is one of the six organizations receiving a combined total of $200,000 in grants from the Foundation’s Equality Fund. Separately in 2018, donor Joel Roskin established a donor-advised fund, which supports organizations serving Greater Hartford that empower people of diverse sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions to thrive. Combined, the two funds made the 2026 Equality Fund grantmaking possible. Equality Fund grants provide operating support to organizations that increase access to LGBTQIA+ focused and gender-affirming health care, distribute harm reduction kits and free health resources, support social connectedness for queer youth and adults, develop third/community safe spaces, implement queer-centered arts and cultural programming, and advocate for Greater Hartford LGBTQIA+ residents.
With a grant from The Equality Fund in 2024, the Foundation commissioned a Estudio sobre el bienestar de los residentes LGBTQIA+ en asociación con Refugio de datosto illustrate the current state of the LGBTQIA+ community’s quality of life in Greater Hartford. Findings provided in this report were designed to assist organizations and funders in understanding conditions that affect LGBTQIA+ residents’ health and wellbeing to better direct resources and meet the needs and opportunities of this growing community. The study provided disaggregated data to explore LGBTQIA+ residents’ lives at the intersection of other identities including age, disability, race, and ethnicity in relation to their experiences with housing stability, financial security, health outcomes, health access, and a sense of belonging and social connectedness.
Si bien el estudio identificó a Connecticut como un líder nacional en protecciones y recursos LGBTQIA+, el informe también destacó algunos temas recurrentes y recomendaciones sobre formas de fortalecer aún más la comunidad LGBTQIA+ y promover una mejor calidad de vida: a través de un mayor apoyo para los jóvenes queer, un mayor acceso a atención médica de calidad y afirmativa, y la defensa continua de las necesidades LGBTQIA+ en torno a resultados dispares de salud y bienestar.
Las subvenciones otorgadas a través del Fondo de Igualdad se consideraron para organizaciones de Greater Hartford que tienen misiones que apoyan explícitamente a la comunidad LGBTQIA+ o tienen programas diseñados específicamente para abordar las necesidades únicas de la comunidad LGBTQIA+.
The five other organizations receiving Equality Fund grants are:
| Organization Name+D6A1:D7 | Descripción del proyecto | Grant Awarded |
|---|---|---|
| Igualdad Connecticut | Equality Connecticut serves as a policy center and community organizing hub dedicated to advancing and protecting the health and rights of LGBTQ+ people in the state of Connecticut. They plan to hire a Deputy Director, drawing on an emerging leader with an interest in policy who can help lead the development and implementation of Equality Connecticut's policy agenda. This will increase their ability to work with peer organizations, advocate effectively, and engage the community through our organizing activities. In addition, will also allow the Executive Director to expand his focus on organizational sustainability and fundraising development while also working to prepare for our transition to an independent organization in 2027. | $50,000.00 |
| Hartford Gay Men's Chorus, Inc. | The Hartford Gay Men's Chorus, Inc. (HGMC) uses music as a catalyst to foster diversity, community, and change through partnering and volunteering with local nonprofit organizations, performing at events throughout the state of Connecticut, creating music for everyone. The Social Outreach Initiative Project is to enhance the chorus’s outreach initiatives throughout the year. | $15,000.00 |
| Queer Youth Program of Connecticut (DBA: Q Plus) | Queer Youth Program of Connecticut (DBA: Q Plus) supports queer youth in the state and has worked towards ensuring that their work is informed by national research and local individual youth feedback. They plan to expand the services for the existing Hartford area youth groups, new support groups and educational workshops, and the salary of their new Support Services Director. | $50,000.00 |
| El Colectivo de Salud | As one of Connecticut’s longstanding LGBTQIA+-centered health organizations, The Health Collective will continue providing clinic-based services, outreach activities, prevention education, and community engagement efforts focused on improving healthcare access for LGBTQIA+ residents, particularly individuals who are uninsured, underinsured, living with HIV, or experiencing barriers accessing culturally responsive care. | $50,000.00 |
| The People's Saturday School | Queer cultural organizing project, Just Kin, will be running an arts festival and conversation series via podcast. Three study circles will be held through Academy of Collective Care and Accountability: Transformative Justice, Practicing COVID Safety, and Practicing Love. Additionally, funds will support organization-wide capacity with stipends for Development, Finance, and Operations, and People, Culture, and Communications. | $25,000.00 |
| West Hartford Pride Inc. | The Pride Hub will expand upon West Hartford Pride's current programming in the areas of advocacy, providing resources, and working with community partners to develop third spaces for the LGBTQ+ community. | $10,000.00 |
In addition to the 2026 Equality Fund grants, SOGIEcon (the former Hartford-based True Colors) received project funding for its 2027 SOGIEcon event, an annual LGBTQIA+ youth conference, through the Foundation’s Open Door grant opportunity, which provides small grants to fund services and programs for the region’s vulnerable populations. True Colors’ SOGIEcon (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression) is the largest LGBTQIA+ youth conference in the nation. SOGIEcon’s fiscal sponsor, The Health Collective, received the $30,000 Open Door grant to support this upcoming conference, which brings together LGBTQIA+ youth, their peers, allies, family members, educators, social workers, clinicians, clergy and community members to educate themselves, promote connection and support the next generation of LGBTQIA+ leaders. Participants will choose from nearly 200 workshops, performances and activities organized around specific groups and audiences.
The Foundation expects to make additional Open Door Grants to support programs for Greater Hartford’s LGBTQIA+ residents in the coming weeks.
“The Foundation is pleased to provide support for nonprofit organizations that are committed to addressing the needs of Greater Hartford’s LGBTQIA+ community,” said Senior Community Impact Officer Kate Piotrowski. “As we have learned from our LGBTQIA+ Resident Wellbeing study and our discussions with nonprofit organizations and community members, there are a broad range of services the Foundation can support to address resident needs and amplify the strengths for Greater Hartford’s queer community. These grants will continue to strengthen and support our region’s LGBTQIA+ community.”
In June, the Foundation launched the PRIDE Giving Circle, the organization’s fourth giving circle, and a new philanthropic community dedicated to supporting LGBTQIA+ organizations and advancing equity, belonging, and opportunity throughout Greater Hartford. Developed with input from community members, the PRIDE Giving Circle aims to bring together individuals who want to learn about issues affecting LGBTQIA+ communities, connect with others who share a commitment to equity, and collectively invest in solutions through community-driven grantmaking.
To support the Circle’s long-term success, Greater Hartford Gives has committed an initial investment of $250,000 to seed the PRIDE Giving Circle Fund, which reflects the Foundation’s commitment to expanding opportunities for community-led philanthropy and increasing resources available to organizations serving LGBTQIA+ communities.
La Fundación Greater Hartford Gives es una fundación comunitaria, un centro para el cambio impulsado por la comunidad. Impulsamos el impacto en todo el Gran Hartford y sus alrededores, creando conexiones, proporcionando financiación y compartiendo conocimientos. Nuestro objetivo es crear una región inclusiva donde todos prosperen. Juntos, con una sólida red de agentes de cambio, identificamos las necesidades más urgentes de nuestros vecinos e invertimos recursos en iniciativas que eliminan las barreras raciales y económicas y mejoran la calidad de vida. En nuestros 100 años de historia, hemos invertido más de 1000 millones de dólares en toda la región. Únase a nosotros para construir un Gran Hartford lleno de oportunidades. Obtenga más información en greathartfordgives.org.