Every day, LGBTQ+ Ohioans walk through the doors of community-based organizations looking for more than a program or service; they are looking for a place where they are safe, understood, and connected to people who can help.
At the LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland and Colors + Youth Center, we see these needs across the lifespan. LGBTQ+ adults may need affirming mental health and recovery support, help meeting basic needs, or opportunities to reconnect with community, while LGBTQ+ youth may need trusted adults, supportive peers, help navigating school or family challenges, and safe spaces to build confidence and belonging.
Together, our organizations increasingly serve as a front door to a wide range of needs by connecting LGBTQ+ adults, youth, and families with health and wellness services, mental health support, basic needs assistance, education, mentorship, leadership opportunities, creative expression, and affirming community.
The LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland serves approximately 6,400 people each year through direct services and reaches more than 18,000 through education and outreach. Our work encompasses health and wellness, behavioral health and recovery, youth and older adult programming, basic needs assistance, community building, education and navigation. At Colors+ Youth Center, young people and their families seek social programming, leadership development, mentorship, workforce readiness, arts and creative expression, mental health support, and safe opportunities to build relationships with peers and trusted adults.
The demand we experience is not occurring in isolation. Local data tell us why these supports matter.
The Greater Cleveland LGBTQ+ Community Needs Assessment, completed by 1,653 LGBTQ+ respondents, documents significant health, safety, and economic disparities. Respondents reported high levels of depression (58%), anxiety (53%), PTSD (24%), suicidal ideation (21%), and self-harm (12%). Beyond mental health, 30% had experienced food insecurity, 24% housing insecurity, 32% workplace discrimination, and 55% worried about their safety or acceptance in parts of Greater Cleveland because of their LGBTQ+ identity.
For LGBTQ+ youth, the need for safe and affirming environments was especially clear: all surveyed youth ages 12–17 reported identity-based bullying. Youth also identified mental health resources, stronger anti-bullying protections, trained educators, supportive schools, GSAs, and creative and recreational spaces as priorities. These concerns align with broader findings that 25% of LGBTQ+ students surveyed experienced discrimination in educational settings and 93% had to find LGBTQ+-inclusive sexual health information on their own.
Our organizations are expected to provide accessible, relationship-based support while maintaining the staff, facilities, systems, partnerships, and infrastructure needed to do that work well. When affirming health and social-service options are limited, we also help adults, youth, and families navigate referrals, waitlists, transportation, insurance, and unsuccessful connections to care
At the same time, funding often prioritizes crisis response over prevention.
Yet supports such as belonging, trusted relationships, mentoring, leadership, creativity, recreation, peer connection, and safe community spaces are critical to helping LGBTQ+ people, especially young people, thrive before a crisis occurs.
Recommendations
- Pass the Ohio Fairness Act.
- Enforce nondiscrimination protections in essential services.
- Expand the affirming behavioral-health and recovery workforce.
- Improve confidential sexual-orientation and gender-identity data collection.
- Provide flexible, multi-year funding for LGBTQ+ organizations.
- Strengthen partnerships across community, education, health, and government systems.
- Invest in LGBTQ+ youth prevention, belonging, and social supports.
- Remove barriers to confidential mental-health support for youth.
- Increase funding for youth-focused peer-support organizations.
- Simplify state grant applications and reporting requirements.
The state government cannot meet every need by itself. Neither can community organizations. But Ohio can decide whether the systems supporting LGBTQ+ people make it easier or harder for them to find safety, health, stability, and belonging.
How will you partner with LGBTQ+ Ohioans and the organizations they already trust to make that possible?
We are ready to be part of that work.
Sincerely,
Phyllis Harris (She | Her), Executive Director, LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland
Malik Swisher (He | Him), Executive Director, Colors+Youth Center
