It’s like the UPS commercials say: it’s all about logistics. For Latinos Salud, the non-profit agency that just wrapped up their 15th year serving as South Florida’s premiere LGBT community-based clinic, focusing on logistics is a form of activism.
“We reduce barriers,” said Rafaelé Narvaez, co-founder of the agency. “Services only serve if you can get them when you need them.” Latinos Salud stays open later than any other HIV/STD agency or clinic in the state, to 9 PM nightly. They make it easy to book appointments on-line or over the phone, and they also take walk-ins.
To their loyal members, Latinos Salud represents a safe space, one that many think of as their second home. And the number of community members who find their way to Latinos Salud as patients or clients has been growing—a lot.
Even through the COVID years, Latinos Salud’s impact steadily grew. In the past four years, the agency has nearly tripled the number of gay Latinos and other LGBT community members it serves. To keep up, over the past three years, the agency tripled its space in Wilton Manors, and added a new location in North Miami.
Now Latinos Salud is opening the doors to its newest location, a huge upgrade for their clients in SW Miami.
“We believe that access is activism,” said Executive Director, Dr. Stephen Fallon. “That’s our priority. The community’s needs outstripped the space that we’d been renting in Westchester these past five years.”
Senior Health Program Manager, Johnathan Medina reviewed the strain that the enormous increase in demand had put on the agency’s small SW location. “First, we had to move staff permanently out of offices and put them desk-to-desk in the common area, so we could use those rooms for more screening, counseling, and patient sessions. Then we had to convert our conference room, and finally even convert a closet!”
Fallon noted, “We started our search for a new SW home over a year ago. We found plenty of bargain-priced, frumpy spaces for lease or sale – at the back of a crowded mall, or down the end of a desolate, industrial side road. But these would not facilitate the community’s access.”
Was there enough parking? Is the location easy to get to, defined by their SW Miami service area that covers roughly from Kendall to Doral? Even the number of bathrooms and positioning mattered: “Let’s not be squeamish: we check for sexually transmitted diseases by sampling bodily fluids. No one wants to have to carry their pee specimen cup from a common hallway bathroom past shoppers in a mall, or past office clerks in a corporate condo,” Fallon said.
At last, pure chance led them to just the right spot. Latinos Salud opens the new location this month, with four times the space of their prior Westchester rental, and dozens of free parking spaces.
Since Latinos Salud is much more than just a clinic, Medina proudly noted the large event space in the new location, perfect for the agency’s free community events that are sprinkled throughout the year: yoga and self-defense classes, movie and game nights, drag pageants and dance offs, food bazaars, and holiday photo shoots. (The agency also brings groups to events off site: kayaking trips, field days, beach clean-ups, historical walks, and many more.)
Fallon concluded, “Investing in the resources that make services more inviting and accessible to the community right now? That’s activism.”
Call (786) 801-1803 or go to www.LatinosSalud.org or just walk in. The new SW location is at 8946 SW Bird Road, Miami, FL.
Contet: OutClique Staff Writer