Addressing LGBTQ domestic violence in Oregon
Lupita Mendez facilitates the Bradley Angle LGBTQ Healthy Relationship classes
During the 2010 granting cycle Pride Foundation awarded a grant to Bradley Angle, a domestic violence prevention organization located in Portland, Oregon, for its one-of-a-kind LGBTQ Healthy Relationship classes.
As Board Chair at Bradley Angle, prior to joining Pride Foundation, I experienced for myself how a specific program, personally significant to me, benefited from a Pride Foundation grant – just like so many other grants have benefited important work all over Oregon. As I travel the state and meet donors, volunteers, scholars and grantees, I look forward to learning more about the impacts all of our grants, because I am sure each story will be as meaningful as the grant to Bradley Angle has been.
The classes that are funded through this grant are open to anyone who self-identifies as LGBTQ, teach participants how to recognize, prevent and interrupt domestic violence, and focuses on learning one’s own values, boundaries and expectations, and how to communicate those to a partner.
Lupita Mendez, winner of the Mariposa Award from Portland Latino Gay Pride for her work facilitating these classes tells me:
“I think that the LGBTQ community sometimes struggles with how to build healthy relationships. Dominant cultural messages have consistently told LGBTQ folks that their relationships are inherently unhealthy and wrong, and healthy LGBTQ relationship role models can be very hard to find. As a facilitator, it has been so exciting to see so many people graduating the class feeling empowered to be in charge of their own choices, and I can only hope that it will have a ripple effect on others in their communities.”
While domestic violence services can tend to be female-centric, over one-third of the participants in the last two 8-session series of classes were male and/or trans- identified. I’m particularly proud of the fact that, in comparison with other Bradley Angle services, this program is reaching an incredibly high number of those of the male gender. It’s amazing see such an interest among all sexes and genders in creating healthy, communication-filled, loving relationships.
I’m also delighted that participant feedback from the LGBTQ Healthy Relationship classes has been overwhelmingly positive. One participant shared: “Finding a safe space to interact with other queer survivors who can relate to my story has been very helpful in knowing that I am not alone in my struggle.”
Nineteen total graduates couldn’t agree more, and all of us at Bradley Angle will be working diligently to offer more Healthy Relationship classes to both the LGBTQ and straight communities in the future.
(PDF is a flyer for the Healthy Relationship class)
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