June marks the start of Pride Month; A celebration of life and resiliency for the LGBTQ+ community. Here at Nord, we believe that mental health professionals have a role to play in social justice and advocacy. Therefore, emphasizing our commitment to service LGBTQ+ individuals this month in honor of Pride is a way for us to represent ourselves as providers of inclusive mental health services, address the mental health needs of members of this community, and to advance the rights of marginalized people.
As an organization, there are many ways that we are working to advance our own individual and collective commitment to supporting our LGBTQ+ clients, employees, and community members. Some of these steps include: creating a committee of staff dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion, continuing our commitment to being a SafeZone trained agency, offering ongoing trainings to our staff to stay up to date on best practices in our field regarding the treatment of LGBTQ+ individuals, and examining our own policies and procedure to walk the walk of equity and inclusion as a community agency.
To find out more information about contributing, volunteering, and being a part of the LGBTQ+ Community in Lorain County through the Lorain County LGBTQ+ and Allies Task Force, visit facebook.com/lclgbtq or call (440) 574-0393. To participate in Pride Events throughout the month of June visit https://lgbtcleveland.org/pride/
And finally, to learn more about Pride and the important history of the original celebration at https://www.adl.org/education/resources/tools-and-strategies/lgbtq-pride-month-and-education-resources
