Program areas at Human Rights Campaign Foundation
Public education, research, and training: the Human Rights Campaign Foundation (hrcf) envisions a world where all lgbtq+ people can participate fully in the systems that shape our daily lives. Through public education, research, policy and practice change, and training, the Foundation's impact can be felt in schools, on factory floors and corporate suites, and in hospitals. It touches lgbtq+ lives from childhood through end-of-life, people of all races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, gender identities, abilities, and religious beliefs, in big cities and small towns, in the united states, and across the globe.all-children all-families (acaf) is the only national program dedicated to lgbtq+ inclusion in child welfare that provides resource development, technical assistance, and training.through acaf's 2022 certification cycle, the team was able to welcome an additional nineteen agencies as partners in this work, bringing the total number of agencies engaged to 138. The group of new participants expands acaf's reach into two new states, Oregon and Nevada. Acaf is now represented in 37 states serving more than 1.2 million children and families annually and employing almost 26,000 professionals. In addition, acaf's 2022 "field forward" webinar series featured a total of 16 offerings including 8 new topics. The team developed the webinar series with an intentional focus on intersectionality, hosting webinars on lgbtq+ inclusion for disabled people and guidance for child welfare practitioners on implementing intersectionality in their daily work. Attendance continues to be high, with over 23,000 hours of professional development provided to more than 10,000 folks representing 49 states - and even some international viewers in portugal, the united kingdom, and australia. Three of acaf's webinars are eligible for continuing education units (ceus) at cost through the national association of social workers.the global partnerships program leverages hrcf's knowledge, expertise and resources to provides capacity-building and leadership development support to lgbtq+ advocates from around the world. In fy23, the global partnership team completed the third year of the global small grants program, distributing 20 grants of up to $5000 to lgbtq+ advocates in 18 countries. The team responded to the russian invasion of ukraine by creating a resource page with background and information about how our members can get involved. We staged a twitter takeover with our partner rainbow railroad and participated in a white house rally to sound the alarm about the crisis. The team traveled to the un Human Rights council to support the renewal of the mandate of the u.n. Independent expert on sexual orientation and gender identity (ie sogi), and hosted a civil society roundtable and a day-long visit to Alabama in support of the independent expert's official fact-finding visit to the united states to report on the state of lgbtq+ Rights in the u.s.the health & aging program (hap) works to inform and fundamentally transform the policies, practices, and cultures of healthcare and aging organizations nationwide as well as to promote awareness of lgbtq+ health and aging concerns. In fy23, the hap team supported gender clinics for youth and the healthcare providers that support transgender and gender-expansive youth and their families when they came under several attacks, facing online harassment escalating to real-life bomb and death threats. The team responded by convening groups of providers and hospital staff several times to identify needs and ways we could be helpful leading to several cross-organizational efforts. In fy23, hap convened a meeting with the department of justice, developed a report on harassment and violence, and a created new video featuring a provider. The hap team also engaged in outreach and technical assistance to long-term care communities with an emphasis on communities serving low-income and/or multiply marginalized older adults to support the participation of nearly 200 communities in the first long-term care equality index which was implemented in 2022. In partnership with sage, the hap team released "an lei guide to finding an lgbtq+ inclusive long-term care community and promoted the resource throughout the year, including conducting a webinar co-hosted by aarp with nearly 500 registrants. The hap team partnered with the alzheimer's association on multiple events such as an online panel on alzheimer's and dementia in the lgbtq+ community and a profile in equality magazine of a lesbian who cared for her partner with alzheimer's.the historically black college and universities (hbcu) program is the only national project that partners with historically black colleges and universities on establishing an lgbtq+ inclusive campus climate. In fy23, the hbcu program resumed their national hbcu leadership summit in person, for the first time since 2019, which included 30 students. In fy23, the hbcu program launched a pilot cohort titled the inclusive excellence initiative with ten (10) hbcus participating. The hbcu program is also excited to have launched the hbcu prep peer educator initiative which had over 10 hbcu students/institutions represented.the hiv and health equity (h&he) program develops public education and capacity-building programs to address the disproportionate impact of hiv on black and latinx communities. H&he secured a multi-million dollar grant from gilead sciences to fund existing hiv and health equity-related projects and create new programming. In fy23, the h&he team conducted five community events and vaccine drives to address the mpox education and vaccination inequities within black and latinx lgbtqia+ communities, particularly gay, bisexual, and other same-gender-loving men. This work allowed us to invest $5,000 directly into priority populations in jackson, ms; dallas, tx; houston, tx; rio grande, tx; and oakland, ca, while strengthening partnerships with key stakeholders and relationships with those communities. The team also graduated sixteen generate fellows from the inaugural cohort. Three graduates stand out for their work during or following the fellowship: one graduate created a support group for young people living with hiv in Florida, another is working diligently on hiv criminalization reform in Idaho and is convening a meeting between activists and state legislators in february, and one graduate recently joined the staff of mobilizing our brothers initiative, incorporated as the director of marketing.the elearning program is translating hrcf's high-quality, best-in-class in-person training programs to virtual settings and greatly expanding its reach across industries as a result. A cross-programmatic team is now coordinating to create elearning tools that will increase understanding and turn policies into practice across a wide range of industries. This includes building a learning management system for the hrc Foundation and developing multiple models for putting new curricula to market (e.g., licensing and fee-for-service options where appropriate). The team conducted a thorough process of selecting a new learning management system (lms) to host hrc Foundation elearning content. A request for proposal process resulted in nine initial lms proposals, three of which were invited to do trials with the hrcf team during which participants tested out various functionalities on both the learner and administrator sides of each system.the financial health & economic empowerment program works to provide culturally responsive education and resources to multi-marginalized lgbtq+ adults ages 18 to 30 to support their efforts to navigate biased systems and gain increased economic stability. The team further defined the new educational resource being developed. The team contracted with pryco solutions, a poc and woman-owned instructional design firm, on content development and program design. Dr. tamarah moss, an assistant professor from bryn mawr college, joined the team to assist with the evaluation process. The team deepened its engagement with tmobile and secured additional funding from wells fargo. T-mobile has agreed to partner with hrc during the pilot implementation by providing a path to employment at t-mobile for pilot program participants. Wells fargo funding is supporting the expansion of the team and programmatic efforts. The team established a community-centered approach to program development by engaging community-based organizations and community members through the program's advisory and community councils. Council meetings were held throughout fy23 and council members offered input on a variety of programmatic decisions, from developing program guiding principles to selecting a name and branding for the course and finalizing curriculum topics, and defining learning objectives for each course module.
Federal and state advocacy: in addition to general public education on the importance of lgbtq+ inclusion in municipal, state, and federal law, hrcf made a grant under section 501(h) of the internal revenue code to the Human Rights Campaign (hrc). The grant from hrcf to hrc allowed financial support for direct lobbying activities such as advocating for federal legislation that will provide explicit, consistent protection from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, credit, education, federal funding, housing, jury service, and public accommodations (the equality act) and legislation that will improve the safety and health of the lgbtq+ community.
Communications and media: hrcf works to build understanding and awareness of the lgbtq+ community by telling our stories to the american public through the mainstream press. Hrcf also maintains a presence in the lgbtq+ media to help educate, inform, and engage our community. Hrcf works to share our stories through our website, our publications, and a variety of online outlets, email and social media.
Other program services