About

Mission

The Northeast Ohio LGBTQ+ Community Needs Assessment initiatives aim to identify and address the most pressing needs of LGBTQ+ communities across Northeast Ohio through a comprehensive, inclusive, and community-led series of studies.

Vision

Our vision is to create a healthier, safer, and more equitable future for LGBTQ+ communities across Northeast Ohio by understanding the unique needs of community members and working collaboratively toward solutions through community-driven recommendations, partnerships, and investment. We also envision expanding this initiative beyond Northeast Ohio to become a statewide and eventually national model for LGBTQ+ community needs assessment and action.

Purpose

Community needs assessments are valuable tools for gathering, understanding, and disseminating information about the health and well-being of a community. Through the Greater Akron, Greater Cleveland, and Greater Mahoning Valley LGBTQ+ Community Needs Assessments, this initiative seeks to identify gaps in services, barriers to health and well-being, and opportunities for investment, collaboration, and systems change impacting LGBTQ+ communities across Northeast Ohio.

By conducting comprehensive LGBTQ+ specific community needs assessments across 12 counties, this initiative provides critical insight into the experiences and priorities of LGBTQ+ individuals living in urban, suburban, rural, and small-town communities. The information gathered through this work is intended to support healthcare systems, nonprofit organizations, public health agencies, educators, policymakers, funders, advocates, and community leaders in developing culturally competent programs, services, and policies that address the unique and evolving needs of LGBTQ+ communities.

This initiative represents an essential step toward ensuring that systems, services, and opportunities are accessible, equitable, affirming, and effective for LGBTQ+ people throughout Northeast Ohio and beyond.
 

Goals

• Increase awareness about public health and quality-of-life issues impacting LGBTQ+ communities across Northeast Ohio
• Gather demographic and community health data on local LGBTQ+ populations
• Describe the status of LGBTQ+ communities holistically across multiple dimensions of community life
• Strengthen partnerships and inter-organizational collaboration throughout local and regional public health systems
• Build a long-term community data infrastructure capable of supporting ongoing LGBTQ+ advocacy, funding, programming, and systems change efforts

Values

• Inclusivity and diversity in every phase of the project
• Intentionally capturing inclusive data to avoid misrepresentation of marginalized populations
• Ensuring equitable distribution of resources
• Engaging community members outside of the traditional ‘gayborhood’
• Addressing the history of gentrification and exclusion in LGBTQ+ communities

We envision growing this initiative beyond Northeast Ohio to become a state-wide assessment for the LGBTQ+ community, addressing the unmet needs identified in this report. Moving swiftly from assessment to action is critical to ensure that this compilation of community input is utilized to its fullest potential by organizations committed to building a diverse and inclusive local LGBTQ+ community infrastructure that addresses the ever-changing needs of the LGBTQ+ community.

A Foreword and About the Program Director

To say I am honored to have had the opportunity to lead Ohio’s first series of LGBTQ+ specific community needs assessments is truly an understatement. What began as a local effort in Greater Akron evolved into a regional initiative spanning 12 counties across Northeast Ohio and a model across the state of Ohio, centering thousands of voices and experiences from LGBTQ+ community members living in urban, suburban, rural, and small-town communities alike.

I have proudly worked and advocated alongside LGBTQ+ communities in Ohio for more than a decade, and the opportunity to help facilitate this work has been one of the greatest honors of my life. Growing up in Salem, Ohio, and serving others through organizations such as Interact and Key Club is where my passion for community engagement and public service first began. Finding the LGBTQ+ community later in life was transformative for me personally, and this initiative became an extension of that journey.

This work would not have been possible without the countless LGBTQ+ community members, leaders, advocates, allies, organizations, organizers, and stakeholders who provided unwavering support throughout this process. Across Akron, Cleveland, the Mahoning Valley, and beyond, you welcomed me into your spaces, trusted me with your stories, and walked alongside this work with openness, honesty, and vulnerability. We continue to stand on the shoulders of generations of LGBTQ+ people who fought tirelessly to make this work possible.

Spending years investigating the disproportionate burden of physical, mental, behavioral, economic, legal, social, and political challenges impacting LGBTQ+ communities has been both eye-opening and deeply personal. Facilitating these assessments consistently challenged me to confront my own internalized homophobia, religious trauma, and lived experiences as a gay man growing up in Northeast Ohio. At the same time, this work created space for difficult but necessary conversations about the strengths, divisions, challenges, and hopes that shape our communities today.

Through this initiative, I leave with a renewed sense of hope, a deeper appreciation for the complexity and beauty of LGBTQ+ communities across Ohio, countless lifelong friendships, and an even stronger belief that our communities deserve systems, services, and opportunities built with us rather than for us.

Most importantly, we know this work cannot end with the publication of a report. Moving swiftly from assessment to action is essential to ensuring that the voices, experiences, and priorities shared throughout this initiative are transformed into meaningful change. These assessments were never intended to simply document challenges; they were designed to help build stronger, healthier, safer, and more inclusive LGBTQ+ communities for generations to come.

Forever in Service,
Andrew M. Snyder, BSN, MPH (he/him)

Meet The Research Team