Who We Are
The Bros in Convo Initiative (TBICI) is a Black Queer lead community-based organization in Orlando, FL providing gay and queer individuals of color in Central Florida with capacity building, community resources, emotion and mind wellness, health education, life skills building, linkage to HIV/STI prevention and treatment services, and peer support. TBICI is fiscally sponsored by Miracle of Love, Inc.
Our Mission
To provide comprehensive health and wellness education, linkage, and peer support to Central Florida’s gay and queer communities of color.
Our Story
TBICI was founded in 2017 with the mission to provide comprehensive health education, HIV prevention, and peer support to the populations most affected and impacted by health disparities in Central Florida (Orange, Osceola, and Seminole counties): Gay and Queer individuals of color. We approach our mission holistically by affirming the whole being; thus our programs and services are grounded in emotion, mind, and physical wellness interventions.
To date, The Bros in Convo Initiative (TBICI) has provided:
❏ COVID-19 pandemic response to 246 BIPOC LGBTQ+ individuals (food, transportation, PPE)
❏ Emotion and mind wellness support to 25 BIPOC individuals living with HIV
❏ Fresh, healthy meals and kitchen essentials to 50 BIPOC individuals
❏ Gender affirming chest binders to 25 non-binary, gender fluid, and gender non-conforming individuals
❏ Health education to approximately 5,500 gay and queer BIPOC
❏ HIV testing to 1,350 primarily BIPOC, LGBTQ+ individuals
❏ HIV status Neutral Peer Support to 500 gay and queer BIPOC
❏ Life skills development to 75 gay and queer BIPOC
❏ Linkage to HIV status neutral preventive care to 600 gay and queer BIPOC, 375 of whom were connected to Ryan White and Speciality Healthcare Services
❏ PrEP Peer Navigation and Support to 50 gay and queer BIPOC
In 2018 and 2019, we expanded our capacity-building programming to include Building Leaders of Color (BLOC), a leadership development training for people of color living with HIV in collaboration with the Florida Department of Health. Participants received mentorship, skills, and tools for becoming actively engaged in planning bodies and other efforts to address the goals of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy. We also co-launched a Lunch and Learn Academy, a series of six monthly HIV education sessions open to community members of color (including those living with HIV).
In 2020, we expanded our community programming to include S.T.Y.L.E: Strength Through Youth/Young Adults Living Empowered, a life skills program for gay and queer BIPOC ages 18-35 and Y.A.L.P.: Youth/Young Adults Living Positively, a peer-led emotion and mind wellness program for BIPOC living with HIV regardless of gender identity and sexual orientation.
In 2021, we launched our PrEP Peer Navigator program that expands access and utilization of PrEP services by and for gay and queer BIPOC living in Central Florida. We expanded Mesa de Cocina, a health and nutrition program in partnership with QLatinx, providing BIPOC with no-cost access to fresh groceries, kitchen essentials, meal cards, and online cooking classes. We also increased empowerment and healing of BIPOC non-binary, gender fluid, and gender non-conforming individuals living in Central Florida through our launch of Flower Boi Blooms (FBB), a Trans-led initiative that provides no-cost gender-affirming chest binders.
New and strengthened strategic partnerships were crucial in responding to the pandemic, specifically for LGBTQ+ communities. The Bros in Convo Initiative (TBICI) is proud to be a member of the One Orlando Alliance, a coalition of over 40 service-based organizations that provide LGBTQ+ specific programs to the Central Florida LGBT+ community. We are also a proud member of the Central Florida LGBTQ+ Mutual Aid Network, supporting those most marginalized during the COVID crisis: LGBTQ+ individuals, undocumented individuals, and BIPOC.
As our local community continues to grow, so do the programs and services that TBICI provides. We remain dedicated to building community, educating, and empowering gay and queer individuals of color living in Central Florida when it comes to their emotion, mind, and physical wellness.