Three years ago, a group of local LGBT individuals made a personal and financial commitment to give back to their community. Recently their dedication and hard work has paid off.
KINDRED is an African-American LGBT giving circle that was created to uplift the African-American LGBT community by gathering financial and talent resources. The current members of KINDRED are Anna Bavier, Nicole E. Cozier, Earl Rodney Holman, Nicole Ho-Sang, Stacey R. Long, Aisha Moodie-Mills, Danielle Moodie-Mills and Michael Smith.
“I joined the other members of KINDRED to increase our impact in the community,” says Anna Bavier, co-founder of KINDRED, “I saw the need for the community to be supported by members who look and have similar backgrounds as they do.”
On September 17, KINDRED presented the executive director of SMYAL, Andrew Barnett, with a donation of $13,000. SMYAL supports and empowers lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region. The group chose SMYAL for their first gift because they recognized the significant number of African-American LGBT youth who are served by and benefit from the efforts of SMYAL.
The group’s ultimate goal is to empower their community from within, nurture themselves as philanthropists, and honor organizations and people working to enhance the lives of black same-gender-loving people in the District.
