The GLBT Community Projects Fund, a special grant making initiative of Dade Community Foundation,  in collaboration with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (based in Washington, D.C.) announces the completion of its fourth cycle of grant awards, totaling $150,000. The Fund is managed by the Foundation with the leadership of a community advisory committee. The Fund's purpose is to advance education and public awareness with respect to GLBT issues and to support the local GLBT community. In 2005, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force assumed leadership for two of Greater Miami's signature events for the GLBT community: the Winter Party Festival, held in March, and the Miami Recognition Dinner, held each Fall. Two-thirds of the net proceeds raised by these events is contributed to the Fund for grantmaking. The 2008 GLBT Community Projects Fund grantees are:

American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Florida, Inc. - $10,000 - To assist in the retention of the field coordinator who coordinates with other GLBT groups in the area, ACLU chapters and over 35,000 members across the state.

Camposition, Inc.  - $5,000 - To provide capacity building by obtaining audited financial statements in order to solidify and increase outreach programming for the GLBT community.

Equality Florida Human Rights Education Project, Inc. - $16,000 -  To ensure the implementation of the statewide anti-bullying law that was recently passed by creating a coalition of legal experts, local school district stakeholders, youth and youth advocates to push for comprehensive programs to address bullying that will not leave LGBT students without adequate protection.

Family Resource Center of South Florida, Inc. - $15,000 - To support the GLBTQ Foster Care Program, which will recruit expressly GLBTQ-affirmative foster parents who will be trained and monitored. Will also develop and facilitate MAPP (Model Approach to Positive Parenting) classes that educate foster parents to deal with sexuality issues.

Florida International University - $3,000  - To provide programming and outreach efforts with a focus on bringing awareness and education on LGBT issues and concerns to the FIU community, with an emphasis on the LGBT student population at the Biscayne Bay campus. 

Foster Care Review, Inc. - $10,000 -  To host a symposium for the child welfare community regarding issues related to GLBT youth in the foster care system and to produce e-newsletters that will be widely distributed on topics relevant to GLBT youth in foster care.  

Miami Beach Gay Pride, Inc. - $5,000 -  To support Rites of Passage, a partnership between Pridelines and FuturePoint, a nonprofit organization that empowers young people to achieve greatness personally, socially, academically and professionally through innovative youth development and leadership program that specifically targets LGBTQ youth and their straight allies ages 13-20.

Performing Arts Center Trust, Inc. - $5,000 -  To support artist fees for the presentation at the Arsht Center of 1,000 Homosexuals, a story of Anita Bryant's 1977 crusade against gay civil rights.

Pridelines Youth Services, Inc. - $25,000 - To support programming and build capacity by designing and implementing a mission-based system for raising sustainable funding from individuals and expanding the organization's base of lifelong donors using the BenevonTM Sustainability plan.

Safe Schools South Florida, Inc. - $15,000 - To support the expansion of trainings for administrators, counselors, teachers, staff and students on LGBTQ youth issues.

SAVE Foundation, Inc. - $16,000 - To create the climate needed to facilitate the adoption of domestic partnership policies in municipalities throughout Miami-Dade County.

Switchboard of Miami, Inc. (Helpline) - $15,000 - To maintain the GLBTQ Suicide Awareness Initiative hotline and create a GLBTQ Helpline at Switchboard of Miami to do referrals across a spectrum of services, creating a one-stop place to go to for GLBTQ referrals.

Switchboard of Miami, Inc. (Virtual Community Center) - $5,000 - To support 'A Community Study of a GLBTQ Virtual Community Center,' a proposed six-month study that will examine whether a combination of online community, 24/7 Helpline, and existing service providers could be packaged into a Virtual Community Center.

Tigertail Productions, Inc. - $5,000 - To support SpeakOut, a modified version of WordSpeak, which offers writing and speaking workshops and poetry slams where teens perform their work. SpeakOut will bring NYC-based lesbian writer and spoken word artist Staceyann Chin to work with GLBT teens at Pridelines and at Safe Schools South Florida's in-school programs.

YES Institute - $10,000 - To provide courses on communication, gender, and gender transitioning to medical students and professionals, to secure quality medical care for transgender youth and adults, and to build a network of medical providers for transgender patients in the area.

Jerry Chasen, Esq.,
GLBT Advisory Committee Chair