Dear Friends and Family: Howard Brown Health Center has proudly served Chicago’s LGBT community and its friends for more than 35 years. Our top priority is always serving our community, and we understand that to do this well, transparency is a must. We offer this letter as the first of many steps we are taking to earn your trust and confidence under our new leadership. It is a great honor to serve you as President and CEO of Howard Brown. Our leadership team and I are excited about the changes we’ve implemented during the past 60 days. We are dedicated to creating a sound future for Howard Brown and have already accomplished a lot in a short period of time. We also want to reiterate our commitment to transparency by providing direct insight into what’s going on here at Howard Brown, and the initiatives we are taking to make this health center one of the pre-eminent health centers, not only in the country, but in the world. In order to provide better transparency, we’ve been working with outside auditors and consultants to get a full understanding of what took place prior to my joining the team. With that in mind, we concluded an internal investigation of our federal grants, including those from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Despite some compliance questions, the investigators concluded that no funds were misappropriated for personal gain. As we await the NIH’s response, we will continue to address any final questions and make the necessary changes to improve our infrastructure to be as efficient as possible. We are proud of the continued scientific integrity of the research at Howard Brown. It is unquestioned, unparalleled and consistently ongoing, with the NIH and with many other national research institutions. We recently finalized our annual, external audit through June 30, 2009. We are learning from our past mistakes, enabling us to emerge from this challenge as a stronger organization. Our leadership team made difficult, yet necessary, decisions that impacted our personnel and other major expenses ─ without materially altering our services ─ and we will continue to streamline our operating expenses to improve our financial health and ensure the sustainability of our important work. Looking toward our future, we reviewed and revised our strategy for the coming years to ensure that we have sound finances for the long term. Our goal is to reengage our community, expand our capacity and improve our collaboration with community partners. We are excited to announce our exploration of a strategic alliance with the Center on Halsted, another outstanding LGBT organization. As we work more collaboratively with our allies, be assured that Howard Brown will remain the Midwest’s primary LGBT health center, and we will continually strive to increase its significance and reputation throughout the country and globally. In fact, we are currently working with federal funders to pursue additional resources to become a more robust and comprehensive healthcare institution and, ultimately, to expand our capacity to better serve our community. Howard Brown is poised for renaissance and rebirth. We are revitalized, reenergized, and ready to move forward. We ask that everyone stay tuned for more great news, and we look forward to welcoming the entire community into our space during an upcoming open house series early this fall. Please watch our website, Facebook page and your email for more announcements. Very truly yours, Jamal M. Edwards, Esq.
President & CEO
Vice President & Chief Program Officer Joe Hollendoner
wins the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's
Community Health Leader Award!Congratulations to Joe and to all the amazing staff
at the Broadway Youth Center!
Howard Brown Health Center
offers FREE anonymous rapid HIV testing every day.
For a complete schedule of testing times and locations,
please click here.
Join LifeLube, Project CRYSP, and the Chicago Developmental Center for
AIDS Research (D-CFAR) for this FREE community event! What’s Love Got To Do With It?
Is it okay to stop using condoms with my boyfriend? Tuesday, September 21, 6pm
Center on Halsted Discover the link between relationships and HIV infection, and learn ways to
have the sex you want and stay healthy. Please click the image to RSVP now.
Howard Brown Health Center's
THInC Program Empowers Transgender Clients.
Click here to read all about it in
the Chicago Tribune!
Introducing THInC,
Howard Brown Health Center's
program to empower and support trans clients
who wish to access hormones.Click here to learn more.
Click here to read Hormone FAQs.
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NEWS: Chicago Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts,
Cubs outfielder Tyler Colvin, and
Cubs play-by-play announcer Len Kasper
presented Ed Schwartz, Howard Brown's
Director of Corporate & Foundation Relations,
with a grant in support of the agency’s
Domestic Violence Program.
NEWS: Howard Brown Health Center
offered the American Psychiatric Association (APA)
a comment on its proposed revision to the diagnosis
of Gender Identity Disorder (GID) that is included
in the 'Sexual and Gender Identities Disorders'
section of The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM).Click here to read the complete response.
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deliver the excellence in care
that every person deserves.
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"If you want to see how to do it right,
then come here."--Illinois Governor Pat Quinn,
speaking at Howard Brown Health Center September 26, 2009
Howard Brown Health Center:
Celebrating 35 Years of Caring for the LGBT Community
Donate today!Click here for: Donations and Locations and Hours Our three Brown Elephant locations are now open more hours to make shopping and donating easier and more accessible! Lakeview
Monday - Friday
11:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Saturday & Sunday
11:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. Andersonville
10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. daily Oak Park
10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. daily
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