Programs & Support for the LGBTQ+ Community

 

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JFCS is proud to offer a safe, welcoming, and inclusive environment for members of the LGBTQ+ community throughout their lives. We have created a place where sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression can intersect to be embraced, affirmed, and celebrated.

The experience of exploring one’s sexual orientation or gender identity can be simultaneously liberating, empowering, and frightening. Some of those difficult feelings can range from isolation, confusion, and anxiety to depression and loneliness.  But you’re not alone; others have taken the same path and found acceptance and peace. JFCS can help. We are proud to offer…

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PROJECT RAINBOW FOR LGBTQ+ YOUTH

Project Rainbow is a safe, affirming, and fun monthly gathering for LGBTQ+ youth and their allies. During the school year, we offer separate monthly groups for tweens in grades 6 – 8 and teens in grades 9 – 12. Upcoming gatherings: Teens – Tuesday, December 5 at 6:00pm on Zoom; Tweens – Wednesday, December 6 at 6:00pm on Zoom. To RSVP and request the Zoom link, please contact Emily Witmier, LAC at (856) 424-1333 ext. 1415 or ewitmier@jfedsnj.org. Project Rainbow is presented in collaboration with the Katz JCC. Grant funding provided by the Camden County Board of Commissioners and the Raymond & Gertrude R. Saltzman Foundation. 

LGBTQ+ AGING WITH PRIDE

Looking for a welcoming and supportive community for LGBTQ+ seniors? Look no further! Aging with Pride offers a safe space for older adults to connect, share experiences, and build lasting friendships. We understand the unique challenges faced by LGBTQ+ seniors and we’re here to provide a space where you can be yourself and find support. Our group offers a diverse range of activities and resources to help you feel engaged and connected. Join us and discover the power of community! Aging with Pride meets on the second Friday of each month at the Katz JCC. To learn more or RSVP, please contact Reva Farenback-Brateman at (856) 424-1333 ext. 1184 or  rfbrateman@jfedsnj.org.

Sponsored by the Timothy Rice Estate and Elder Law Firm (TREEL).

COUNSELING

Our Faye Manger Counseling Department offers therapeutic counseling and mental health support for LGBTQ+ individuals and families. Our licensed therapists can address sexual orientation, transgender issues, gender identity, family conflict, bullying, anxiety, coming out, and depression. To get started, please call (856) 424-1333 or fill out a Request Service E-Form

TRAINING

In partnership with with Keshet / JFCS Philly, we can offer cultural sensitivity training and parent workshops. To learn more about training opportunities, please contact Beth Wynne, Associate Executive Director, at bwynne@jfedsnj.org.

 

LGBTQ+ RELATIONSHIP VIOLENCE*

Abusive partners in LGBTQ+ relationships use all the same tactics to gain power and control as abusive partners in heterosexual relationships — physical, sexual or emotional abuse, financial control, isolation and more. But abusive partners in LGBTQ+ relationships also reinforce tactics that maintain power and control with societal factors that compound the complexity a survivor faces in leaving or getting safe. 

Tactics of Power & Control

  • “Outing” a partner’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Abusive partners in LGBTQ relationships may threaten to ‘out’ victims to family members, employers, community members and others.
  • Saying that no one will help the victim because they are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, or that for this reason, the partner “deserves” the abuse.
  • Justifying the abuse with the notion that a partner is not “really” lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (i.e. the victim may once have had/may still have relationships, or express a gender identity, inconsistent with the abuser’s definitions of these terms). This can be used both as a tool in verbal and emotional abuse as well as to further the isolation of a victim from the community.
  • Monopolizing support resources through an abusive partner’s manipulation of friends and family supports and generating sympathy and trust in order to cut off these resources to the victim. This is a particular issue to members of the LGBTQ community where they may be fewer specific resources, neighborhoods or social outlets.
  • Portraying the violence as mutual and even consensual, or as an expression of masculinity or some other “desirable” trait.

For more information on our Project SARAH Domestic Abuse Program, call 856-424-1333 and ask for SARAH. All calls are confidential. 

* Information provided via the National Domestic Violence Hotline website.

 

JFCS NON-DISCRIMINATION POLICY

All JFCS clients have a right to be treated with dignity and respect; free of all discrimination, including that which is based on race, age, sex, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, national origin, or disability; and not subject to any verbal, sexual, emotional, or physical abuse; or harsh or unfair treatment. To the extent possible, JFCS will make every reasonable accommodation to serve you consistent with our programs and services.

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