Our Vetting Process

• Does the provider have an active physical and/or web address?

• Has the provider hosted events and/or updated online content within the past 6 months?

• Is the provider responsive to email and/or phone outreach? 

• Our trained volunteers deploy a multi-tiered vetting process to assess whether or not a service provider is generally ‘LGBTQ+ affirming’.   

• Step #1: Is the organization’s mission to serve the LGBTQ+ community (e.g., an LGBTQ+ center)?
• Step #2: If ‘no’ to the above, our Resource Team looks at different factors / questions based on the type of organization:
  • Religiously affiliated organization (e.g., Catholic Charities, Salvation Army, a church or congregation, etc.);
  • Organization who “serves everyone” or is “open to all people in need” (e.g., a food pantry, an overnight shelter, etc.);
  • A medical/healthcare organization (e.g., a hospital, medical clinic, health center or healthcare system, etc.);
  • An immigrant-focused organization (e.g., a non-LGBTQ+ specific organization providing immigrants with English as a second language classes, or legal services, etc.);
  • Other (ie., none of the above accurately describes the organization)
•  Examples of things we look for include:
  • Anti-discrimination policy that clearly states banning discrimination for both sexual orientation and gender identity
  • LGBTQ+ community events or services (e.g., support groups, Pride month events on calendar)
  • Does your organization/clinic have experience working with members of the LGBTQ+ community?
  • Does your organization have any openly LGBTQ+ staff members? Do they receive the same benefits and policies as non-LGBTQ+ staff members? (e.g., family leave care; dependent policies; healthcare coverage)
  • Does your staff participate in any LGBTQ+ specific trainings and certifications?

With our history in LGBTQ+ asylum, our organization was founded on the belief that every LGBTQ+ person deserves the safety and freedom to live authentically. We believe that achieving LGBTQ+ equality requires transgender justice, racial justice, refugee justice, reproductive justice, language justice, and more.

As a result, in addition to satisfying our general LGBTQ+ affirming verification criteria, we look for (prefer but do not require to be listed on InReach) organizations who are ‘led by’ and/or have services ‘focused on’ serving historically marginalized LGBTQ+ communities. 

For example, we look for organizations who are led by those with relevant lived experience for LGBTQ+ people facing discrimination and persecution, such as organizations who are: 

• Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) led 
• Black led 
• Immigrant led 
• Trans led  
• *Note: We hope to add new ‘led by’ categories in the future. 

We also look for organizations who provide services that are focused on serving a specific marginalized LGBTQ+ population(s), including: 

• Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) community 
• Immigrant community  
  • Asylum seekers
  • Resettled refugees 
• LGBTQ+ youth 
  • Trans youth 
• Spanish speakers 
• Trans community 
  • Gender nonconforming community
  • Trans men and the transmasculine community 
  • Trans women and the transfeminine community
  • Trans youth 
• *Note: As our organization’s capacity grows, we hope to add new LGBTQ+ communities in the future.  

Yes! We encourage the direct service providers listed on InReach to register for a free attorney/law student or non-legal service provider user account in order to add and edit information about their own organization and services.

All users are also encouraged to register for a free InReach user account in order to share public ratings (one to five stars) and written reviews on listed direct service providers’ profile pages to help share public feedback with other community members.