We Are Afro Pride!
Community Partners & Collaborations
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Florida Department of Health Broward
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Aids Healthcare Foundation
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The Smile Trust
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Our Fund Foundation
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Center for Black Equity
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It's All Grief
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Amethyst Mental Health Agency of Broward
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What's Your Elephant
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Ft. Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce
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The Mckenzie Project
History of Afro Pride Federation, Inc
Afro Pride Federation Inc is a community organization that was founded in 2020. (Yes! Right in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic). The organization was founded by South Florida native Damon Jones (Clinical Psychotherapist) and Donald Gunder (LGBTQ community organizer). The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic not only highlighted how African Americans and the Afrocentric communities were disproportionately affected by COVID-19 but the pandemic also highlighted issues involving exclusion, racism, and discrimination in multiple areas of life needed to survive & thrive (healthcare, mental health, social exclusion, economic exclusion). The African American & Afrocentric LGBTQ+ community represent a smaller percentage of the African American population and related subgroups that endured additional injustices due to the intersection of being Black, BIPOC, & Afrocentric, and LGBTQ+. Injustices such as societal violence, economic hardships, unaffordable healthcare, access to housing, access to mental health & substance abuse services, mistrust in healthcare, exclusion, systematic racism, and multiple types of discrimination.
We understood in our efforts to eliminate the disparities in South Florida that people of color in the LGBTQ+ community face, we must acknowledge the following:
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Policies agendas that address members of this community must consider intersections of race, class, sexual orientation, gender, and gender identity
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Community-driven leadership that highlights a needed change towards the transformation of our economic & social relationships that act as systematic barriers and play a huge role in disproportionately high rates of needs and lack of current community resources in the Black, BIPOC, & Afrocentric LGBTQ+ community in South Florida.
We understood that it would take a community effort to advocate for change, pursue economic justice, and create safe places to heal, celebrate self-love, and save human lives. The community-influenced South Florida Afro Pride Federation, Inc community organization was founded with the aim to execute its mission.