Good morning everyone!

You’ll notice a lot of changes happening on our website. Little by little we’re building a database full of local (meaning Rock County) information under “General Resources”. As much as possible, we’re reaching out to local businesses, organizations and providers. Unfortunately Rock County still lacks a lot of resources and we recommend organizations outside the county.

We’ve been working on this as time permits for the last year or so, but haven’t gotten very far. We’re making it a focus, and we could use your help. There are two ways to help:

1. If you know of any organizations, businesses or providers that are LGBTQ-trained and friendly, please let us know by emailing us at outreach@therubyproject.us.

2. We will soon be contacting many area organizations, businesses and providers to inquire about their experience with the LGBTQ-community, how their paperwork and HR policies are stated, etc. We’ll be developing the questionnaire soon, and would love community input. One complaint we’ve heard in the past, for instance, is that most medical intake forms ask for a mother’s and father’s name. This undervalues our families with same-sex parents. A better way to gather this information may be to ask for Parent/Guardian One, and Parent/Guardian Two. If you’ve run across a situation similar to this, we’d love your input! You can email us at outreach@therubyproject.us.

As always, Ruby takes its cues from our community. Because of that, your voice really does matter!