Burning Bowl 2022 Postponed
Burning Bowl 2022 Postponed to March 2022 With heavy hearts, Affinity will be postponing Burning Bowl 2022. We aim to be a place where...
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OUR
IMPACT
What we do.
Affinity’s work focuses on three intersecting areas: health wellness & safety, education and civic engagement.
As queer and transgender people of color living in communities of color, we are subject to violence, poverty, structural racism, ageism, gender-bias, and other barriers to healthy living and being. These issues are heightened when we layer on gender-identity and sexual orientation. Affinity works to engage individuals to define and lead community change by working with them to prioritize issues, develop and implement action plans, and creating opportunities to showcase their leadership.
HEALTH WELLNESS & SAFETY
Focus on achieving positive health outcomes for our community through targeted health education and access to resources.
EDUCATION
CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
Provide our community with access to the resources, skills and information needed to achieve success and break cycles of inequality.
Create opportunities for our community to be part of creating the world that reflects our needs and values.
HEALTH WELLNESS & SAFETY.
The terms “health” and “wellness” have very broad meanings at Affinity. We are looking at community and individual health as well as the health of the institutions that make up our communities, including families, schools, faith communities, and other non-profit organizations. In this area, we develop and participate in activities that include addressing the issue of stigma as a factor in the growing transmission rates of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS, helping to create safe spaces for all youth in schools and throughout the city, focusing on Black women’s health disparities, and working with community to support LGBT families
EDUCATION.
There are a number of ways that Affinity works to provide educational opportunities. Affinity provides GED tutoring, care skills work for older adults, tech talk workshops that instills a technological education to participants. In 2017 Affinity will role out a 50 plus job re-entry education series. As well as a financial management series for all ages.
The Blackprint: A Leadership Series
A Plan for Building the Leadership Capacity of Black LGBTQ+ Women Leaders
CIVIC ENGAGEMENT.
In this area we are focused on building an educated constituency that holds institutions and government at all levels accountable to the will of the people. Our work includes providing educational materials for voting, public statements, policy papers, workshops, community conversations, and public policy advocacy. Marriage equality, anti-bullying legislation, advocating for a humane budget, and immigrant justice are examples of our civic engagement work.
Racism exists within the
LGBTQ+ community.
Affinity organized a protest/press conference with Chicago Black Gay Men’s Caucus and Lighthouse Church to fight back racism at a local bar.
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