During the period between September 2006 and April 2007, a team of five first-year graduate students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Public Health, conducted an Action Oriented Community Assessment (AOCA) with lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, and intersex women and transgender men of Wake County. An AOCA involves understanding the collective dynamics and functions of relationships within a community, and the broader community structures that promote health status improvement and well-being. More specifically, an AOCA attempts to identify and explore the strengths, needs, and assets of a community by understanding and integrating secondary data, and internal and external perspectives regarding the community. In this AOCA of Wake County LGBTQI-women and trans-men, Beth Bruch of the Lesbian Resource Center (LRC) and Jan Muller of Triangle Community Works (TCW) served as co-preceptors for the student team. In this role, preceptors act as liaisons and facilitate the student team’s process of developing rapport with and gaining entrée into the community. Preceptors are also responsible for providing the team with advice regarding culturally sensitive and appropriate methodology and interaction with the community. Information gathered throughout the AOCA process was presented to the community at a forum held on April 21, 2007 in Raleigh, N.C. Several strengths and assets that characterized the community were presented, including 1) the ability to mobilize and offer support in times of need, 2) extensiveness and rich diversity within the community, 3) the support of several affirming spiritual/religious communities, and 4) several opportunities for action, networking, and socializing. The community forum also provided a space in which prioritized community themes (or needs) were discussed in small groups with the goal of developing action steps for positive change. All participants at the community forum were initially provided the opportunity to discuss the following broad topics: 1) community needs, 2) health care, 3) racial and ethnic division, 4) ageing and ageism, and 5) divisions between LGBTQI-individuals. However, due to limited attendance at the community forum, the student team and forum attendees decided to focus the small group discussions on the three themes concerning community needs, racial divisions, and LGBTQI divisions. All prioritized themes and their corresponding action steps are summarized below: There is a need within the community for a safe and affirming gathering space that could lead to more interactions between diverse sub-communities. Establish an “umbrella” group with representatives from various organizations and any other individuals interested in working to establish a safe and affirming gathering space. Create a planning committee. Make a resource listing of organizations along with contact individuals. Disseminate the information discussed and gathered in group and at greater forum. Six individuals from the group committed to taking responsibility for these action steps. A listserv will be established and all individuals in attendance will be given the contact information (i.e. email address) for all other individuals in attendance. Racial divisions and racial segregation exist within the community of LGBTQI-women and trans-men. Talk to executive board members at various LGBTQI-friendly organizations regarding the need to pro-actively encourage racially diverse leadership and ensure culturally affirming space for people of color. Individually take responsibility to speak out against racism when it is heard or seen. Individually take ownership of racial identity and knowledge regarding other racial and ethnic communities. Form alliances and coalitions with women/people of color-led organizations and those that do anti-racism work. Engage members of existing groups regarding methods for making social spaces more inclusive and welcoming for people of color. Have small group dinner discussions with friends and inner social circle regarding white privilege and racism. Segregation and divisions exist in the broader LGBTQI community between gay men, lesbian and bisexual women, and trans-identified individuals. Make a commitment to talk to all community forum participants and share information regarding services, etc. Explore ways to reach out to all members of the broader LGBTQI community through new technological advances (including the internet, facebook/myspace, listservs, and online games). Connect individual groups present at the forum and begin developing opportunities and forums for collaboration. Network with others by attending various social activities within the broader LGBTQI community. There is a need for physical and mental health care providers that are sensitive to the issues faced by LGBTQI-women and trans-men. Information regarding these providers and their services should also be easily accessible to the community. (Please note: An insufficient number of community forum participants selected to participate in the small group discussion on healthcare, thus action steps for this theme were not developed.) Aging and elderly individuals in the community face the challenges of ageism, isolation, minimal support, exclusion from the broader community, and discrimination in health care facilities. (Please note: Community forum participants did not choose to participate in the small group discussion on ageing and ageism, thus action steps for this theme were not developed.)Master of Public Healt
