March 31, 2016
The Spectrum Center was thrilled to have helped organize and support two weeks of events for LGBTQ+ Health & Wellness Week March 13-25. The events offered created spaces in which both students and community members were able to engage and find information and resources that were meaningful, valuable, and useful to their own lives.
This was the first time the Spectrum Center has hosted extensive programming around this particular topic, which takes a look at the intersection of gender, sexuality, and attractionality as it relates to health and wellness. Events addressed a variety of topics centered around the experiences, and issues at the intersection of LGBTQ+ identities & health/wellness, in its many forms.
Various workshops were offered on queer sex education, information on holistic healthcare for LGBTQ+ individuals, legal rights, insurance options, guidance accessing therapy, navigating healthy relationships, yoga sessions, and discussions on self and communal care.
One of the most popular events was hosted in partnership with the UM-Flint. At this event Dr. Yvette Flunder, founder and Senior Pastor of the City of Refuge UCC and Presiding Bishop of The Fellowship, presented a talk on LGBTQ spiritual wellness. It was a great opportunity to reflect and rejuvenate oneself, and others, while working to balance inner needs and everyday demands.
Overall, LGBTQ+ Health & Wellness Week helped to foster relationships and mentoring opportunities through engaging LGBTQ faculty, staff, students, and community members to broaden the ways in which health and wellness is traditionally enacted and conceived, while also providing spaces to seek the proper resources and support to promote wellbeing.
Health and wellness is a truly mental, physical, and spiritual connection and Spectrum Center is proud to have played an active role in celebrating and honoring that, particularly as it relates to LGBTQ+ communities. We look forward to continued programming in the future!