SMILING RAINBOW LGBTQ COUNSELING: JOURNEY SO FAR
That journey began on February 19th, 2019, with the launch of a Facebook page Smiling Rainbow LGBTQ Counseling. Initially, the core purpose of that platform was to provide affordable online counseling services, skill development, and create meetup scopes for LGBTQ community members. Right from the beginning it was A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE & NOT AN NGO and I wanted to establish it as a social enterprise. After four and half years, I had to make a few changes to that platform to make it a self-sustaining platform.
Here, I’ll be sharing all those changes along with our journey so far. During my Master’s study, I came across many members of the LGBTQ community. While I was collecting data to write articles on LGBTQ issues in India I observed a few LGBT issues that need intervention. The very first issue was mental health counseling services, proper career counseling, and creating meetup opportunities for LGBT community members.
Mental Health & Relationship Counseling Services By LGBTQ Friendly Doctors:
It’s been almost four years since then, and we noticed most of the callers are men and financially independent. Even most of the women callers also fend for themselves. Therefore, the free online counseling services that we have been providing so far are unnecessary. From now on free online therapy for mental health will be only available to teenagers. We will be teen counseling free of cost. That’s because these teenagers feel a serious need to talk to someone but can not afford any counseling services. For the rest of the callers, we will be offering affordable online counseling. Here apart from counseling, you can also book counseling from LGBTQ-friendly doctors.
Affordable Legal Counseling For LGBTQ:
Secondly, the career counseling option was dropped. Based on our observation most of the callers of the Smiling Rainbow LGBTQ Counseling are self-independent and they don’t need any such support. The most astonishing fact is despite the stress, anxiety, depression, bullying, harassment, and rampant homophobia most of the members of the LGBTQ community are doing great professionally. After careful consideration, we have included an affordable legal counseling section instead of career counseling. Our platform has been providing low-cost legal services to LGBTQ community members for the last one and a half years.
Exciting Online & Offline Meetup Events For LGBTQ:
Thirdly, arranging safe meetup scopes for the LGBTQ community members. The desperate need for like-minded community members is a necessity for LGBTQ community members. Based on our observation we have designed a very careful program for meetup. Our entire program is divided into two formats: Online Meetup and Offline Meetup.
Online Meetup Events for LGBTQ: Most of our callers are desperate to be part of LGBTQ meetup groups. However, privacy is a great concern for them. To ease the situation we have introduced our weekly online meetup sessions where like-minded people would come online and spend some time to know each other without compromising their identity.
Offline Meetup Events for LGBTQ: The next stage is offline or in-person meetup. Here you can meet in person with the members of your LGBTQ meetup group over coffee, lunch, and dinner. Apart from meetups, we would arrange exciting and affordable tours for the LGBTQ community members.
Are you ready to take things to the next level? Smiling Rainbow LGBTQ Counseling is back with a new avatar. I believe, together we can create a platform where we can combine our skillsets, knowledge base, and available resources to help each other safely and effectively. Our objective is to create a resourceful community for LGBT people that by and large is beneficial for the entire society.
Firstly, the privacy of our callers is of utmost importance to us and we never compromise with that aspect. We collect the bare minimum personal details from the clients that we need to proceed with the counseling sessions.
Secondly, we collect client information with the consent of the client and we never store and share those information with any third party.
Thirdly, we never compromise with the privacy of our clients. Even during counseling sessions, clients are allowed to turn off their cameras. We only record case histories anonymously for research and analysis purposes, and also to spread awareness in society.
Fourthly, Smiling Rainbow LGBTQ Counseling is not a non-profit entity and we would always give first preference to our paid callers only.
Since the beginning, our platform has attended hundreds of individuals via telephone. That alone proves the need for similar media in our society.
I urge you all to please support our platform and let’s create a wonderful resource for society. Join the platform, spread the word among your circles, and support it in any way possible.
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