Santa brought early Christmas presents to numerous LGBT nonprofits that will help community centers, people living with HIV/AIDS, seniors, and others as the Horizons Foundation announced its latest round of grant recipients.

Patricia Kevena Fili, executive director of the Lighthouse Community Center in Hayward and development director at the AIDS Project of the East Bay in Oakland, commented on the $5,000 grants received by each organization.

"The money for the Lighthouse is huge for us. Our budget is $50,000. I'm the first staff – the first executive director we've ever had. We're trying to get our feet off the ground."

Kevena Fili expressed gratitude for Horizons' unrestricted grant award to the Lighthouse center. "Our ultimate goal is to be a catalyst for the LGBTIQ community in southern Alameda County. The reality is that we struggle to actually serve Hayward, let alone the other parts of Southern Alameda County, but we're very committed to fulfilling our mission as we're moving forward."

The Horizons Foundation held a reception Tuesday, December 12 for recipients of its 2006 community issues and LGBT senior services grants. Twenty-eight organizations received community issues grants totaling $190,000. Four organizations received LGBT Working to Increase Services to Elders grants, totaling $150,000.

Community issues grant awards were funded in part by grants from the California Wellness Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Horizons Foundation's LGBT Community Endowment Fund. The LGBT WISE grants were made for the first time this year through Horizons' new partnership with the California Wellness Foundation. The awards will increase the capacity of LGBT organizations in the Bay Area to provide services to LGBT seniors.

Jewelle Gomez, program officer at Horizons, spoke to the Bay Area Reporter about the grant-making process. She said that this year, Horizons was able to provide about 30 percent more funding than it did last year, thanks to the gift from the wellness foundation for the seniors program, as well as a gift from the Hewlett Foundation for its performing arts grant program.

Horizons approves grants using a peer panel process. Members of the peer panel meet to review applications and work with staff to make recommendations to the board of directors, which makes the final funding decisions.

"The Bay Area has a very lively and diverse LGBT community," said Gomez. "There are always new organizations popping up É One of the things that we do is suggest that LGBT organizations apply for general operating support." She said that general operating support funding and unrestricted funding is very difficult for nonprofits to find.

"Most foundations push for projects, so then organizations find themselves running around trying to create projects for foundations as opposed to just being able to pay their salaries, or they're trying to build salaries into projects," Gomez said. "We want to be able to fulfill their basic needs so they can do the projects that will strengthen the community and not be creating projects just to suit funders."  

AIDS Project of the East Bay is currently in the process of merging with the HIV Education and Prevention Project of Alameda County. "We don't have grants actually to pay for medications for our clients and we serve all of the HIV-positive people who actually come in from Alameda County. We don't turn anyone away," Kevena Fili explained.

"Lab fees and medications that are not covered under the AIDS Drug Assistance Program are a huge gap for us and it creates a deficit so we have to try to get unrestricted funds to try to cover that, so that's really going to be a big to help a lot of our clients, the majority of whom are people of color as well as transgender folks," she said.

AIDS Project of the East Bay and HEPPAC are merging in order to consolidate services, and create long-term sustainability in order to ensure that their clients' needs are met.

San Francisco's Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center received a $17,000 Horizons grant. Jodi Schwartz, executive director, explained: "In working with LGBTQQ youth, the Horizons funding is particularly important, as is our other foundation funding because they really are able to be our most innovative dollars. Horizons dollars are really critical to complete the kind of support that we need to be responsive to the ever-changing needs of LGBTQQ youth."

She said that LYRIC has received about $75,000 in funding from Horizons since 1992.

LYRIC's long-term goals include helping LGBTQQ youth define the movement and set the vision for the LGBT community. "What LYRIC is about is bringing youth voices into the work both within the LGBT community and within the larger social justice community," Schwartz said.

Lyon-Martin Women's Health Services provides health care and support services to women and transgender people who lack access to quality care because of their sexual or gender identity, regardless of their ability to pay. Lyon-Martin received a $6,500 grant from Horizons, which is the first part of a renewable grant. The unrestricted funds will be used for the agency's HIV services.

According to Dr. Dawn Harbatkin, medical and executive director of Lyon-Martin, the funding will help support a drop-in lunch group that acts as an entry for patients to begin to access the full range of services available.

"The Horizons funding has had a tremendous impact on Lyon-Martin," said Harbatkin. "In 2006, only 27 percent of our uninsured patients were able to make any contribution toward the cost of their care and 84 percent of our patients are uninsured.   General operating support, like this Horizons grant, allows us to continue to offer care regardless of ability to pay."

Chris Weber, development director at the Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center in San Jose, which received a $40,000 LGBT WISE grant from Horizons, said that the center would use the funds to expand one of the many programs they run for LGBT seniors. The funds will be used to provide a second day of lunch and activity per week for seniors. The program currently serves an average of 35 seniors each week.

"We're really looking to expand the DeFrank center to being across the South Bay and the Silicon Valley," said Weber. "We are the only LGBT community center in the Silicon Valley and we really need to boost our profile. We stand for leadership, advocacy and support of the community and it will be important for us to take steps to continue to grow in those three areas."

In addition to the community issues and seniors grants, Horizons has grant cycles for HIV/AIDS, scholarships, and field of interest funds.

For more information, including a complete list of grantees, visit www.horizonsfoundation.org.