The organization says needs assessment will help inform future programming and events
Windsor-Essex Pride Fest is calling on the LGBTQ community to complete a survey that will help shape how the organization serves the community.
Pride Fest president Wendi Nicholson said the goal of the survey is to find what Windsor-Essex's LGBTQ community needs, specifically the most vulnerable members.
"We need to know what they need before we move forward with our different programming and activities," she said.
Pride Fest received funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation's Resilient Community Fund, which helps non-profits meet community needs, to gather data on the community and address those issues through a "needs assessment survey."
The needs assessment survey isn't the first time Pride Fest has done a community survey, Nicholson said, but the last one they did was six or seven years ago.
"Every time we do them, a little bit more comes out of them," Nicholson said.
David Lenz, who is charge of community development for Pride Fest, said the organization wants as many people to participate as possible, "but there are specific people that we do want to target."
The organization wants data on the LGBTQ community's most vulnerable people, including seniors, youth, trans and non-binary people, people with disabilities, new Canadians, people from diverse backgrounds, people experiencing homelessness.
"These people have different needs," he said.
Data from survey will better address regional LGBTQ needs
"Having more information helps make better decisions and that's exactly what the needs assessment for Pride Fest is going to accomplish," Windsor-Tecumseh MP Andrew Dowie said at the survey's announcement.
He said the survey will be an opportunity to improve the lives of Windsor-Essex's LGBTQ community members.
Windsor-Essex Pride Fest is able to run the needs assessment survey thanks to a grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation's resilient communities fund. (Darrin Di Carlo/CBC)
Lenz said it's important to have as many LGBTQ people participate in the survey as possible.
"The more people we get completing the survey, the better the data we get," Lenz said.
Lenz said that when Pride Fest applies for grants, they base their applications off of data from Toronto — but the survey will give information on its own community.
"Wouldn't it be nice if we actually had Windsor-Essex information for a change?" he said.
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Windsor-Essex Pride Fest is funded in part by a generous