The results of a citywide data collection that surveyed the needs of Chicago's LGBT community are scheduled to be unveiled to the public June 27. Conducted by Morten Group and powered by The LGBT Community Fund (an initiative of the Chicago Community Trust), the findings of the Chicago LGBT Community Needs Assessment will help determine how to dispense at least $500,000 to best serve the needs of the community.
Through online surveys, community drop boxes, focus groups and individual interviews, the Morten Group collected data from more than 2,000 Chicagoans of various sexual orientations, gender identities, ages, races, socioeconomic backgrounds and residential areas who identified with the LGBT community.
The assessment acknowledged five key needs based on participant rankings from most to least in terms of the urgency with which the government should address each issue. Starting with the most urgent, they are: 1) affordable health and services care; 2) employment; 3) access to government benefits, rights and services; 4) discrimination; and 5) community safety and violence.
Regarding the ordering of these five needs, the report determines that, like most people, LGBT individuals are most concerned about meeting their most basic and practical needs such as healthcare, employment and access to government services, and that sexual orientation and gender identity, by way of issues including discrimination and inequality, serves to compound these issues.
Morten Group President Mary Morten, who spearheaded the assessment along with Project Manager Keisha Farmer-Moore, said that she believes the findings of the assessment provide evidence to both underscore and dispel some of the generalizations made by and about the LGBT community.
"I think [the ordering of these needs] clearly indicates that despite the fact that we're an underrepresented group of people and despite the fact people try to make us seem 'different,' we still have the same needs as the larger population," she said.
In addition to the five needs, the assessment highlights seven common themes found throughout the range of data collected: 1) senior needs; 2) similarities between youth needs and senior needs; 3) family needs; 4) needs of the unemployed and underemployed; 5) diversity within the community; 6) impact of the recession on the community; and 7) the need to focus financial resources on existing services and underserved areas.
When Morten and her team launched the data collection last fall, she said she was most interested to hear what LGBT seniors and youth had to say, and in many respects they turned out to voice similar concerns.
Both seniors and youth expressed a need for housing, resources, employment and healthcare support, though youth also said they felt unsafe navigating their community and felt targeted by police.
Youth also reported feeling as if they're not taken as seriously by and don't receive equal respect from the LGBT community. Morten said these findings did not surprise her, and she hopes this will be a wake-up call for those who work with youth to listen to their thoughts, concerns and ideas.
"We need to give them access; we need to give them a voice," Morten said. "What I have found is we're not listening at the end of the day … They were happy to be asked [through the assessment] what their opinion was and be included as far as getting their concerns on the table."
Morten Group sat down with all the data and responses in various capacities from the end of December through April and worked with Loyola University's Center for Urban Research and Learning (CURL) to analyze the data and compare it with existing studies as well as U.S. Census data.
In doing so, Morten Group discovered another defining feature of the LGBT Community Needs Assessment: the greater inclusion of single people.
"We make assumptions that everyone will be in a relationship or even wants to be in a relationship in this community," Morten said. "We have not made provisions in some cases for single parents and others who for a variety of reasons are not coupled with someone. I'm very happy that we have a chance to hear from people who are not traditionally surveyed in data collection efforts."
Morten also said she was also proud of the group's concentrated efforts to improve the diversity of the participant sample, as a quarter of the way through the process their responses came predominantly from white gay males.
"We figured out very quickly that we needed to move some resources to some different parts of the city to increase our outreach—our community engagement if you will—in those parts of the city, namely the South and West sides," she said.
Jim Alexander, co-chair of The LGBT Community Fund Steering Committee, said the committee is very pleased with how the assessment turned out, specifically in that regard.
"Mary and her team have done a phenomenal job in constructing the survey as well as going above and beyond to dig deep into the community and get a response wide variety of people. They've provided a base on which The LGBT Community Fund can construct its ongoing work."
Some of the survey and data-card responses echoed the idea of expanding to other parts of the city as many participants expressed a need for further outreach, services, support and resources on the South and West sides. Their responses highlighted the well-known problem that LGBT life in Chicago revolves around the North Side.
As such, one of the assessment's conclusions is that increased funding allocation needs to occur throughout the city.
One participant quoted in the assessment said the following regarding the need for more local services:
"Many people are still afraid on the South Side. Bottom line, people are there and they need services. Services closer to the people … Many are uncomfortable coming up to the North Side because it's out of their comfort zone. I refer people to [addiction rehabilitation center on the North Side] all the time and they don't go because they don't feel comfortable even though it's right off the El."
How the LGBT Community Fund chooses to use the funds will be determined over the course of the next three years as steering committee members analyze the data from the assessment.
Alexander said the committee is in the early stages of looking at the data. The next big step will be determining the priorities, guidelines and procedures that need to be in place that will ultimately determine how funds are spent. This process would likely begin at the steering committee's quarterly meeting in August with the hope of making some of the decisions public in the final quarter of 2012.
To view the assessment, visit www.cct.org or www.mortengroup.com .
