AUSTIN — A West Side group dedicated to the health and wellness of LGBTQ+ Chicagoans is expanding to offer mental health services at no cost.
TaskForce Prevention and Community Services announced in late May the introduction of free LGBTQ+-affirming, bilingual mental health therapy for youth, adults, couples and families. Therapy services are currently offered on Tuesdays as the organization works to scale up the program.
The Austin-based organization at 9 N. Cicero Ave. has served West Side LGBTQ+ youth since 1990, offering wellness programs, medical services including HIV testing, sexual health resources, a food pantry, workforce development and more.
Last year, the organization became the first community group to lead Chicago’s Pride Parade. TaskForce leaders hope that adding therapy will further the organization’s history of culturally competent care by decreasing another barrier to mental healthcare access and removing stigma for LGBTQ+ West Siders looking for therapy.
Leaders at TaskForce also said that the free therapy is expected to remove especially burdensome hurdles for people who are uninsured, undocumented or coming from out of state, as the organization has grown to be a regional hub for LGBTQ+ resources.
“Being an LGBT organization on the West Side of Chicago has been like a mecca,” said Reyna Ortiz, programs director at TaskForce. “LGBT people come from all over the city to TaskForce. They come because we have resources that have been tailored to LGBT people.”
TaskForce Prevention and Community Services announced the introduction of free LGBTQ+-affirming, bilingual therapy for youth, adults, couples and families. Credit: Provided
The addition of therapy follows the organization’s history of offering social support specialized for Black and Brown West Siders who identify as LGBTQ+, with services often provided by members of the community.
That includes a queer Black doctor on staff, lawyers who are queer and trans and now the new therapy program being led by Annette Sandoval, who is a Hispanic, bilingual trans woman and a licensed therapist. Sandoval is currently the sole provider for the new therapy program.
Growing up in Gage Park, Sandoval didn’t have resources on the South Side while navigating her personal journey of gender identity, she said. To access mental health resources, she had to travel to Stroger Hospital in the Illinois Medical District. This experience motivated her to pursue a career in mental healthcare.
“The biggest thing is truly understanding the person, where they’re at in life and where they’re at when talking about their identity,” said Sandoval, who has a private practice that predates her joining TaskForce. “How they feel may never align with their identity at birth, and they could understand this from the age of 4. They might not remember many other things, but remember that because it’s a trauma for them. They remember the exact moment that they understood themselves to be transgender.”
TaskForce Prevention & Community Services at a previous Pride Parade. Credit: Provided
Sandoval emphasized that TaskForce’s therapy program needs to be culturally competent for the LGBTQ+ community as well as wholistic for their needs or issues that extend beyond gender or sexual identity.
“Trans folks have a lot of moving pieces, too,” Sandoval said. “The same moving pieces that anybody else does: addiction, divorce, couples decoupling, sexual layers, sexual health, all of those are things.
“A lot of times, [therapists] are just looking at the trans identity instead of what’s happening to them existentially, because they’re having all of these other things because they’re normal folks. They just happen to be trans.”
Therapy sessions with Sandoval are offered on Tuesdays, as organization leaders said they are looking to expand to host group therapy sessions as well as bring in additional providers. For those interested in scheduling an appointment, visit TaskForce’s website.