We’re always looking for the innovative, the bold, and the good in people. Recently, our client The Elevate Prize Foundation—known for their mission to “Make Good Famous”—distributed millions of dollars to 10 deserving and diverse social entrepreneurs working to solve pressing issues around the globe. Jayaram Law’s Zahreen Ghaznavi caught up with one such winner, Alexander Roque, President and Executive Director of the Ali Forney Center, on his organization’s mission and challenges, and how they are working toward change for LGBTQ+ youths across New York City while setting the precedent for likewise efforts elsewhere.
Zahreen Ghaznavi
Tell us a little bit about the Ali Forney Center and the amazing work that it’s doing.
Alexander Roque
The Ali Forney Center is named after Ali Forney, a gender non-conforming gay youth who was forced out of his home due to family rejection. Ali ended up in the foster care system where he experienced more abuse and rejection, and ultimately ended up on the streets where he felt safer than he did in the systems that were designed to protect him. The mission of the Ali Forney Center (AFC) is to protect LGBTQ+ youths from the traumas of family rejection and the harms of street homelessness.
Currently AFC serves over 2,000 homeless LGBTQ+ youths each year with emergency and transitional housing programs and wraparound services. We serve over 300,000 meals annually across 18 service and housing sites, employ a team of nearly 250 staff, and operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Our doors do not close—not for hurricanes, holidays, or a pandemic.
ZG
Tell us about how you further address the critical needs of the youth you serve.
AR
Our work is rooted in mental health services helping our clients overcome the trauma of family rejection and street homelessness. We first address mental health needs, medical needs, and substance abuse needs through therapy and treatment—all onsite through our medical and mental health clinic. Once a young person is stable (in most cases once they are housed), we work on educational and career needs through our classroom which offers full-time high school equivalency programs (or support if a client wishes to be enrolled in traditional schooling). We also offer support in pursuing higher-learning options including assistance with college visits, applications, financial aid, and more. We also offer over 30 credentialing programs in culinary arts, meal handling certification, home health aide services, and many others.
Youth are typically in our care for three years, starting with street outreach, then wraparound support services through our Drop-In Center, and Emergency and Transitional Housing. On average, 77% of our clients are in school, 99% are employed, and 75% graduate and do not return to the homeless housing system.
ZG
Congrats on winning The Elevate Prize! How did you find out that you had been nominated and then won?
AR
A board member reached out to me about the application urging me to apply for the work we do. The Elevate Prize application process was very thorough and allowed me to spend time reflecting and honoring the work we do with a new perspective. I learned that I won by phone, after learning more about the other finalists. Given the incredibly impactful work the others are doing as well, I was incredibly surprised.
ZG
How did you originally get involved with the Ali Forney Center?
AR
I have been a part of non-profit work my entire life. I know firsthand the impact this work has on a recipient of services; I grew up in an agency that provided for me when my parents couldn’t. I went on to work for the agency and have spent my entire life in non-profit service—first on the program side providing services, and then for 15 years as I ran development and fundraising efforts. I was recruited to join AFC almost 12 years ago and my job was to build the agency’s funding capacity and footprint in the community. When I joined, our annual budget was just under $4 million, with very few beds and limited staffing and service hours. Over the years, AFC has grown to become the largest and most comprehensive provider of services and housing for homeless LGBTQ+ youths in the United States with a budget of over $16 million.
ZG
The COVID-19 pandemic has turned so much upside down for so many organizations – in NYC, the fights over where to house homeless individuals were disappointing to me and distracting from the main issue. Did any of that affect AFC’s work?
AR
Yes, very much so. Sadly, we work with the most marginalized of the marginalized. Issues that affect homeless advocacy, services, placement—to name a few—disproportionately affect our work as our youths face the same issues as homeless populations, as well as challenges due to homophobia, transphobia, and identity-based hate and discrimination. Simply put, our kids are often an afterthought and always last at the table. We have to fight for their visibility.
ZG
How has COVID-19 generally affected AFC’s work?
AR
The pandemic has placed immense strain on staff’s mental health, emotional wellbeing, and work life. Administratively, we’ve dealt with the great challenge of covering the increased expenses of the pandemic as best as possible. Keeping staff and clients safe during this time has been very challenging. There’s been very little guidance on how to operate our programs and services and we’ve had to figure things out. We’ve sadly lost staff and clients during the pandemic.
Perhaps the greatest devastation of the pandemic was, for our clients, the realization that they are not welcome at home—no matter what. We see this during the holidays when families come together; our clients are reminded that their families want nothing to do with them because they are LGBTQ+. It’s very painful, and during the holidays we have the greatest number of violent incidents, substance abuse, mental health crises, and suicidal ideation. It’s a very dark time for our clients and the same was true during the pandemic. Our clients suffer both on the streets and in systems, and live in great peril while knowing that their families are within reach but refusing to keep them safe, provide for them, or love them because of who they are.
ZG
Outside of COVID-19, what general challenges does AFC face in its work? If you feel comfortable speaking to any particular legal issues that you face, please let us know.
AR
Among our greatest challenges is funding, fundraising, and ensuring that the city, state, and federal systems that are supposed to provide our homeless populations include our population. In general, public funding only provides for about 70% of the actual costs to operate our agency. As such, we have to fundraise to meet the gaps in our annual budget.
Secondly, we face challenges in awareness of these issues and our work. Many people are unaware that some families reject their children, force them into conversion therapy, and abuse them emotionally because of their identity—it’s very damaging. We must understand that this is child abuse. Homophobia and transphobia is child abuse.
From a legal-services perspective, we face challenges with advocating for our clients. Previously, our clients could only access our services until they turned 21 years old. We spent nearly a decade pushing for New York City and New York State to raise the age limit to 25. So many of our young people were being forced into the adult shelter system. We face legal challenges in advocating for our transgender and gender nonbinary youth to have access to affirming medical care without parental consent. Our youth also face a number of their own legal challenges in their lives.
ZG
AFC’s youth advocacy program seems particularly amazing. Can you talk a little about that program? What are its origins and what is it hoping to accomplish?
AR
Fundamentally, our work is not to tell our youth what life to have, how to live, or what to do. Our work is rooted in keeping them safe and providing them with the tools they need to rebuild their lives and live a life of their choosing. Our work truly centers their voices, their lived experiences, and their desires. As such, we honor this by providing advocacy education, training, and work for them to find their voices to lead their peers and advocate for their community.
We launched this work over 15 years ago when the city and the state kept cutting funding from the homeless services budgets. We needed legislatures, city officials, and the community at-large to hear from our youths directly. Over the years, this body of work has been vital in adding beds and funding, including the addition of 24 hour Drop-In Centers across our city; increasing the age cap for youth to access services (from 21 to 25); and fighting against discriminatory policing (stop and frisk, walking while trans, and more). The work ahead is largely focused on transgender and gender nonbinary care, and for increased funding for more beds and services. At the core, this work is very empowering for our clients to be a part of. It’s also healing for them to know that their voices matter.
ZG
What are ways that we can help AFC in its mission and work? Are there organizations similar to AFC in other cities around the country? For those readers in NYC, what volunteer opportunities are there at AFC?
AR
There are many ways to be involved. We urge people to learn about homeless youth issues in their community; we’re not the only ones doing this work and we can all use your help. The Get Involved section on our website has so many options to help locally. We have a robust volunteer program that includes beautifying our sites, creating special events for our clients, serving a meal, and more. We also have a list of providers across the United States that we work with: currently 40 other agencies in the US and about seven or so outside of the United States.
Donations are always needed. Donations of money, goods (things like socks and underwear), or small-denomination gift cards to businesses that are open 24/7 help to keep kids off the streets and safe overnight.
Above all, we ask everyone to use their voices to tell our story, to disrupt homophobia and transphobia, and to affirm for homeless LGBTQ+ youths that no matter what their parents believe there are people in this world who believe there is nothing wrong with who they are, and that they are worthy of a home, safety, and love.