Annual Appeal Waves Ahead - Dona a Waves Ahead Puerto Rico 2024
Dear Friend of Waves Ahead,
This year, we witnessed both resilience and the growing needs of Puerto Rico’s LGBTQ+ community. Your generous support and the dedication of our staff and volunteers have allowed Waves Ahead to expand our services and strengthen our reach. Yet, increased anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric threatens our progress, presenting new challenges to our community on a daily basis.
While we have made strides in providing vital education and mental health supports, the urgent need for safe, and discrimination-free services remains unmet. Currently, we are the only direct provider of mental health services to the LGBTQ+ community, for free. Plus, our plans for developing and implementing are the only ones in the country as there is no dedicated housing program for LGBTQ+ older adults in Puerto Rico; underscoring the critical importance of your continued support to raise awareness and build solutions.
Puerto Rico’s aging population faces unique hardships—economic insecurity, insufficient healthcare, high levels of anxiety and depression, and the lingering impacts of natural disasters that have damaged homes and disrupted lives. LGBTQ+ seniors encounter additional barriers, including discrimination, social isolation, and limited family support. These challenges amplify mental health struggles, with safe, stable housing being crucial for their well-being.
Key Challenges Facing LGBTQ+ Seniors in Puerto Rico:
1. Economic Strain: High poverty rates and limited retirement savings make an affordable housing unit impossible.
2. Natural Disasters: the long-standing impact of hurricanes, earthquakes, and health crises have further limited housing availability and disrupted essential services.
3. Discrimination: LGBTQ+ seniors often face bias when seeking housing, leading to difficulties in finding safe and inclusive living spaces.
4. Mental Health: The stress of unstable housing contributes to increased anxiety and depression, particularly among those who have faced lifelong marginalization.
5. Limited Programs: No housing initiatives exist for LGBTQ+ seniors in Puerto Rico, plus limited to no services focused on their mental health well-being.
Waves Ahead is the only direct provider, focused on the mental health well-being of LGBTQ+ seniors. And despite these challenges, your support has enabled us to make remarkable progress. In 2024, Waves Ahead committed over $355,000 to assist more than 1,150 individuals, a 35% increase in mental health services provided. Other milestones achieved this year include:
1. Securing a landmark agreement to renovate a housing development for LGBTQ+ individuals in the towns of Isabela and in the Caimito area of San Juan. After all set and done, these two sites will provide 42 one-bedroom supportive housing units.
2. Advancing the construction of Soraya’s Community, Puerto Rico’s first shelter exclusively for the LGBTQ+ community and those escaping violence. Plus, this community will include a new community center, transitional housing units plus permanent apartments; all focused on the LGBTQ+ elders.
3. Launching community programs focused on restorative justice in the Maunabo and Cabo Rojo area.
At Waves Ahead, everyone deserves dignity, especially the seniors who have fought for our rights. Meeting their needs is a community effort; we cannot do it alone.
Your contribution empowers us to create brighter futures for those who have given so much. Please donate today to help sustain and expand our life-changing programming.
We need your contributions today!
Together, we can change lives. Together, we can express our pride. Together, we can build a stronger and more inclusive Puerto Rico for everyone. Be part of this by supporting Waves Ahead today.
Thank you for your unwavering support. Together, we will uplift and empower Puerto Rico’s LGBTQ+ community.
With gratitude,
Wilfred W. Labiosa, PhD
Executive Director
SPECIAL GIFT: All donations received by December 31, 2024, of $60 or more, will receive the Waves Ahead official pin (limited series). Please send your mailing address with donation.
For more information and details, contact us at waves@wavesahead.org or call us at 787-940-8851. We accept legacy endowments and gifts.
www.wavesahead.org
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