COMMUNITY WEBINAR
Non-Profi ts Discuss COVID Challenges, Work-Arounds
Wide-ranging virtual conference explores pandemic’s impact on LGBTQ community
The panelists on Gay City News’ webinar conference “Rising to the Challenge: Non-Profi ts in the Age of COVID,” (top) Paul Schindler, Carmen Neely, Floyd
Rumohr, (center) Emmett Findley, Ineke Mushovic, Sean Coleman, and (bottom) Alex Roque.
BY MATT TRACY
Leaders at several nonprofi
t groups serving LGBTQ
New Yorkers huddled
together for a Gay
City News virtual conference on
June 30 to discuss how the coronavirus
pandemic has impacted
their organizations.
Gay City News’ Zoom event,
called “Rising to the Challenge:
Non-Profi ts in the Age of COVID,”
touched on some of the most critical
areas affecting the organizations
in the coronavirus era, including
funding, operations, and
demand for services, as well as
how the groups have been able to
improvise and adjust to the new
realities brought on by the sudden
crisis.
The event’s participants were
Alex Roque, president and executive
director of the Ali Forney Center;
Carmen Neely, co-founder and
president of Harlem Pride; Floyd
Rumohr, CEO of Brooklyn Community
Pride Center; Sean Coleman,
founder and executive director
of Destination Tomorrow;
Emmett Findley, communications
director of God’s Love We Deliver;
and Ineke Mushovic, executive director
of Movement Advancement
Project. Paul Schindler, founding
editor-in-chief of Gay City News,
moderated the discussion.
While the leaders elaborated on
many of the most acute challenges
facing their groups and clientele,
there were also some unique developments
that came with the sudden
shift to virtual programs. Rumohr
said the Brooklyn Community
Pride Center saw hundreds more
people than usual attend virtual
offerings — including folks from
outside of the borough — and some
other non-profi ts, like Destination
Tomorrow in the Bronx, similarly
saw upticks in attendance. Those
organizations attributed the increase
in part to the relative ease
of attending events online, and Rumohr’s
team capitalized on the virtual
aspect even further by offering
online internships.
Coleman and Rumohr also said
their respective groups were wellequipped
to make the changes to
virtual-focused services.
GAY CITY NEWS
“Within days, we were up and
running with everything from AA
groups to transgender and gender
non-conforming support groups,”
Rumohr explained.
Coleman added, “We had the infrastructure
in place so we could
take many of our programs and
services virtual. But myself and
both of my directors came down
with COVID-19-like symptoms, so
it complicated the process as we
were trying to pivot into this digital
world… We did it — it took a lot but
we were able to accomplish it.”
At the same time, several organizations
encountered issues such
as access to technology for members
who did not have the necessary
equipment or Internet access
in their homes. Coleman said 20
percent of people in a particular
class facilitated by Destination Tomorrow
were unable to attend the
sessions because they lacked accessibility.
That dilemma prompted
Destination Tomorrow to launch
a fundraiser dedicated to raising
money to support those without
digital access.
At the Ali Forney Center, which
serves homeless queer youth,
Roque said his team has seen a 60
percent increase in online engagement
in mental health services, a
25 percent increase in substance
services, and a 35 percent increase
in crisis care. But his team
simultaneously had to make adjustments
on the fl y while juggling
the responsibilities that come with
housing as many as 157 queer
youth on any given night. The facilities
across the city where those
youth are housed obviously had to
remain open as everyone in New
York struggled to fi nd safe ways
to socially distance during a pandemic.
“For our young people, that option
of home — that comfort of
home, that safety of home — does
not exist and in all cases it’s a retraumatizing
of their experiences,”
Roque said. “It’s a reminder of how
much they have lost and how much
they have been denied because of
their identity.”
While the Ali Forney Center
typically sees many clients coming
from outside of the New York City
metro area, reductions in travel
and the shuttering of college campuses
meant that many incoming
clients during the pandemic have
been youth who previously resided
at their shelters or transitional
housing and were forced to return
when their dorms were closed.
Roque reported that his organization
has seen an “incredible outpouring
of support” despite taking
fi nancial hits in the process, but
he anticipates that the organization
will absorb bigger losses — especially
drops in private funding
— because numerous events have
had to be cancelled due to the pandemic.
“We’re a $15.5 million organization
and we’re looking at roughly
a $1.5 to $2 million loss… largely
half of our private money, which
is $5.5 million,” Roque said.
Funding has become a dilemma
in different ways for Neely and the
team at Harlem Pride, which celebrated
its 10-year anniversary
➤ NON-PROFITS & COVID, continued on p.19
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