This Summer, Equality Federation partnered with organizations and leaders across the nation in a new project called Our Tomorrow.  This project was created to help LGBT organizations and funders engage with each other and the LGBT community to be sure all our voices are lifted up as we begin to chart the course ahead in our work to secure full equality.

One of the biggest parts of the this project was gathering the hopes and fears of LGBT people in all of the communities we call home. And, who better to engage with these individuals than Federation members working in the states?

We partnered with seven of our state-based organizations: Empire State Pride Agenda, Equality California, Equality Florida, Equality Illinois, Equality Ohio, Equality Texas, and Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition. These groups conducted outreach at almost 30 Pride festivals and other city/community events, connecting with community members to ask them to take a survey to share their hopes, fears and ideas for the future of the LGBTQ community to help make tomorrow better for all of us.

The groups raffled off Ipads, took photos, and used social media to highlight and promote the responses they received. The Our Tomorrow campaign served as an opportunity and ice-breaker for conversations between state-wide groups and community members, and was an excellent brand awareness opportunity for them. It also was a great way for statewide groups to train new volunteers and staff to speak with community members.

One of our members, Equality Florida, used the surveys at 9 events across the state. Following the campaign, they told us:

“We love this survey. It has sparked so many valuable conversations with members and pride attendees and we feel like its a unique vehicle with which to collect stories and discuss the future of our movements. We would like to create something similar to use at our fall pride events, too, so that we can keep having these important in-depth conversations.”

Having a campaign for all our groups to rally around as a cohesive movement was exciting for us, especially following a nationwide marriage decision. Our Tomorrow provided a virtual hub for post-marriage conversations that people were eager to engage in. We can’t wait to find out the results from the campaign, and to see how we can use these to shape the work ahead.

In the coming months Our Tomorrow will be analyzing the data from the thousands of survey responses received from across the country.

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