Welcome to Proud & Supported
Proud & Supported is a project to support LGBTQ+ people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. LGBTQ+ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, and more. The project is funded by the New York State Developmental Disabilities Planning Council. The project will last 3 years.
The organizations working on the project are:
- Autistic Self Advocacy Network
- Burton Blatt Institute
- National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals (NADSP)
Learn more about the organizations
The project will offer training and resources to these groups:
- direct support professionals (support workers)
- people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD)
- family members of people with IDD
- anyone else who wants to attend
The project will talk about things like:
- What being LGBTQ+ is
- The different ways people can identify and present themselves
- What different kinds of discrimination against LGBTQ+ people there are
- What stereotypes are and why they are bad
- How to find community and support
The project will support people through things like:
- Online trainings about how to support LGBTQ+ people with IDD.
- Providing Easy Read and plain language resources on different topics for LGBTQ+ people with IDD.
- In-person trainings, when it is safe to have in-person trainings. These trainings will be in New York State. The trainings will be for support workers. The trainings will talk about how to support LGBTQ+ people with IDD.
We called the project Proud and Supported. Because we want LGBTQ+ people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to feel proud of who they are. Proud to be a self-advocate, and proud to be part of the LGBTQ+ community. We want everyone to feel supported. Supported as a self-advocate, and supported as a LGBTQ+ person. That is our goal.