The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #43349

Jeffrey B. Becker, MPH MS, Columbia University Schools of Public Health & Social Work, 2201 Amsterdam Ave., Apt. 5D, New York, NY 10032-2547, 212-781-9821, Ato168th@nyc.rr.com and Rev. John James Magisano, M Div, Collaboration Project - NYAC, New York AIDS Coalition, 231 West 29th Street, Suite 1002, New York, NY 10001.

According to various studies, alcohol use is significantly higher in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) population than in the general population. The alcohol industry provides under-funded LGBT and HIV/AIDS service organizations with a great deal of “philanthropic” funding, justifying this spending as marketing and advertising. However, the conflicts between advertising imperatives of the alcohol industry and the public health mission of community-based organizations generate clashing messages to the recovering LGBT community. A prime example of this conflict is community-based organizations that provide substance abuse treatment and prevention services being forced by fiscal realities to not only accept alcohol money, but to place company logos and brand symbols in their outreach materials, banners and advertisements, and to serve their products at public events. Such practices create hazardous atmospheres for those struggling with alcoholism, forcing them to choose between recovery or community involvement. This presentation will examine how stakeholder activism by the LGBT recovering community can minimize the harm of mixed messages sent by accepting alcohol industry funding. The process of implementing a harm-reduction approach to alcohol funding policies is discussed as a method to initiate the construction of model policies which protect both the integrity of the community-based organization and its mission, and its ability to raise sufficient funds. The SpeakOUT LGBT Voices For Recovery program of the New York City LGBT Community Center is used as a model of a community adversely affected by institutional funding practices making its voices heard at the policy-making levels of these institutions.

Learning Objectives:

• ¨ To identify potential conflicts in LGBT community organizations’ acceptance of alcohol money.
• ¨ To identify ways that LGBT people in recovery, who are adversely affected by certain institutional funding decisions and practices, can advocate for changes at the policy-making levels of these institutions.
• ¨ To conceptualize and articulate what a harm-reduction approach toward alcohol funding might mean for community-based organizations, and how such an approach might be constructed.

Keywords: Community Response, Funding

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.