SIROW receives nearly $4M in federal grants to provide services for LGBTQ+ Youth

SIROW was recently awarded two federal grants through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) that will benefit LGBTQ+ youth and others.

The 3-year Family Pride Initiative is a $1.2M grant that aims to reduce disparities and improve mental health outcomes for LGBTQ+ youth in Tucson and southern Arizona by providing counseling, education, and resources for LGBTQ+ youth and their caregivers, training counselors and other providers, and facilitating broader social change and acceptance of LGBTQ+ youth through a public awareness campaign.

Spectrum+ is a 5-year $2.5M grant whose goal is to provide culturally driven comprehensive sexuality education, HIV and HCV testing and counseling, substance use and co-occurring disorder screening and treatment, HIV prevention navigation services, and HIV care to LGBTQ+ Black, Brown, and Indigenous youth and young adults and their peers ages 12-24 in Pima and Maricopa Counties. 

Family Pride Initiative and Spectrum+ build upon more than two decades of SIROW-led programming supporting LGBTQ+ communities. SIROW’s long-standing partner, the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation (SAAF), will collaborate on both new projects, while El Rio Health will partner on Spectrum+ and Dr. Russ Toomey of the UArizona Norton School of Ecology on Family Pride Initiative.   

Read the University of Arizona’s full length press release here. Also check out 12New’s and KVOA’s coverage of the projects! For more information, contact cwaters2@arizona.edu.