Women Forward LGBTQ+/TGNC Anti-Violence Grants

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Women Forward NYC LGBTQ+/TGNC Grant Application

The Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes (OPHC) seeks grant proposals for projects that support LGBTQ+/transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) serving organizations that address anti-violence needs, including social determinants of safety (e.g., economic mobility, health, and housing stability) as part of Women Forward NYC.

Background: Women Forward NYC

In January 2024, Mayor Eric Adams announced Women Forward NYC, a $43 million, 42 initiative living action plan for gender equity. Women Forward NYC, under the leadership of the Adams administration, is a unique public-private partnership with leaders in community organizations, philanthropy, business, academia, and civic engagement. The action plan employs a holistic approach to address immediate needs, tackle long-standing disparities, and deepen New York City’s longstanding leadership in advancing women’s issues. Women Forward NYC, with a special emphasis on supporting historically marginalized populations, focuses on interventions in three key areas:

  1. Economic Mobility
    • Build pipelines toward higher-wage, in-demand career pathways
    • Improve financial literacy and access to financial resources
    • Dismantle barriers to work and increased incomes
  2. Health
    • Address inequities in sexual, chronic, and reproductive health
    • Reduce Black and Brown maternal mortality rates
    • Improve access to comprehensive medical treatment
    • Enhance mental health education and outreach
  3. Public Safety & Housing Stability
    • Increase initiatives that reduce violence against women, LGBTQ+ women, nonbinary New Yorkers, and women of color
    • Expand interventions to prevent domestic violence and support survivors
    • Provide a continuum of services for low-income families to keep them in their homes or accelerate their leave from shelter and back into their communities

Addressing Violence Against the LGBTQ+ Community

Data from the NYPD shows that violence against the LGBTQ+ community has been on the rise in New York City. In 2023, there were 140 anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes reported in New York City, increasing 25% from 2022 1. Some parts of the LGBTQ+ community also report higher rates of violence. At a national level, transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) people experience higher levels of violence compared to cisgender people 2, and bisexual people face higher levels of domestic violence compared to straight people 3. Intervention is urgently needed to address bias and violence against the LGBTQ+ community.

As part of Women Forward NYC, the Adams administration hosted a roundtable discussion in August 2024 addressing violence against the LGBTQ+ community in partnership with the Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes, Community Affairs Unit, Unity Project, Commission on Gender Equity, Mayor’s Office to End Gender-Based Violence, NYC Commission on Human Rights, the Mayor’s Office of Equity and Racial Justice, and the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice. The roundtable convened NYC LGBTQ+ community leaders—especially organizations run by or serving transgender, gender non-conforming, and nonbinary (TGNC) people—to discuss anti-violence efforts for LGBTQ+/TGNC people in NYC.

This convening provided a space for collaboration between advocates and City government. The participants defined violence broadly, both discussing physical violence and social determinants of safety including, but not limited to: 

  • Religious intolerance 
  • Poverty 
  • Lack of affirming housing/shelter spaces 
  • Intimate partner violence 
  • Lack of affirming care/culturally competent healthcare workers  

Grant Details

To support projects addressing violence against the LGBTQ+ community, the Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes (“OPHC”), will grant funding to up to three projects to NYC-based organizations, in amounts ranging from $10,000 to approximately $13,000. Co-applications between multiple organizations for a collaborative project can request larger aggregate amounts of funding.

To receive funding, organization must have PASSport and NYC’s Payee Information Portal (PIP) accounts.

Required project specifications:

  • Projects must focus on addressing violence against the LGBTQ+/TGNC community, by pursuing an intervention designed to result in a reduction of physical violence (e.g., intimate partner violence) or institutional violence (e.g., lack of affirming health care or housing spaces).
  • Project scopes must fit into the grant range available. If the scope exceeds available funding, applications must describe what other funding sources will supplement the project.  

Optional, not required project specifications:

  • Proposals that collaborate with New York City government and improve New York City government’s capacity to support the LGBTQ+ community.

Application

Interested parties must fill out the attached application form, providing contact, project, and budget information by 11:59pm January 31, 2025.

Review, Function, and Funding

Applications will be scored blindly by an evaluation committee comprised of City employees.

Evaluation criteria:

  • Clear logic model connecting the proposed intervention to a measurable reduction of physical or institutional violence.
    • Proposals must clearly demonstrate how they fit into one or more of the following categories. Please note proposals can address more than one of the following categories.
      • Economic Mobility
      • Health
      • Public Safety & Housing Stability
  • Clear nexus to supporting LGBTQ+/TGNC communities.
  • Realistic, tangible deliverables resulting from the proposal.
  • Ability to accomplish the proposed deliverables by June 30, 2025 with the funding available.
  • Only completed applications will be considered. Submission of an application does not guarantee funding.

Award notification and post-award process:

  • Official notification of application status and award decisions will be sent via email from the Mayor’s Office, through OPHC@cityhall.nyc.gov
  • Awardees are required to submit receipts and invoices after the completion of the funded project, in addition to a closing report reviewing the description of process execution, evaluation of key performance metrics, and documentation of deliverables. The City will provide a template for the closing report to grant awardees.
  • Grant recipients will receive half of the allocated funding at the beginning of their project time, once they have finalized all official contracting documents, and then the second half of funding upon completion of the project (by June 30, 2025). 

Please submit all questions and/or requests for clarification by 5PM on January 20, 2025, via email to WomenForwardNYC@cityhall.nyc.gov. Responses will be provided no later than 5PM on January 27, 2025, and will be posted on this same site.

Go to the grant application.

Question and Answers

This section will be updated as questions are submitted via email.

  1. NYPD - Hate Crimes: Dataset containing confirmed hate crime incidents in NYC (2019-2024). Data retrieved from NYC Open Data
  2. DOJ - Violent Victimization by Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (2017-2020). Report derived from "Violent Victimization by Sexual Orientationand Gender Identity, 2017–2020"
  3. Ibid.