PROGRAMING WITH YOUR INPUT
PROGRAMING WITH YOUR INPUT
C.O.T.T.O.N.’s programs form a comprehensive ecosystem of care, community, and liberation for Black LGBTQ+ people across the Bay Area. Rooted in Black queer feminist traditions, our work is designed to sustain life at every stage — from crisis intervention, to community building, to long-term leadership and economic power.
The Black LGBTQ+ Sexual Health & Healing Hub
A culturally competent, trauma-informed, sex-positive healthcare ecosystem designed specifically for Black queer and trans people who avoid traditional clinics due to stigma, racism, transphobia, and past harm.
The Hub operates as a centralized home for all sexual health, harm reduction, and survival-support services. It addresses health holistically by integrating medical care, spiritual wellness, community care, safety, and economic empowerment.
NAVIGATE • Health, Housing, Community Stabilization & Case Management
Hub for Youth Development, Intergenerational Healing, and Black Queer Person/Family Support
This pillar centers the brilliance, safety, and long-term stability of Black LGBTQ+ youth, families, and lifelong learners. It houses programs that strengthen leadership, build literacy and creative expression, support families of all kinds, and ensure that every Black queer person has access to knowledge, culture, and community rooted in liberation.
NURTURE • Education, Youth, & Family Building
Hub for Housing, Crisis Response, Re-Entry, and Stabilization for Black LGBTQ+ People
This pillar ensures that Black LGBTQ+ people have access to safe housing, crisis support, health navigation, and re-entry resources that affirm identity and honor dignity. It meets people where they are — especially those who avoid mainstream systems — and connects them with culturally grounded care, case management, and healing-centered stabilization.
CULTURE • Third Space Creation & Black Queer Joy
Third Spaces, Kinship Building, Creativity, and Collective Joy for Black LGBTQ+ People
This pillar builds the physical, cultural, and spiritual environments where Black LGBTQ+ people can breathe, connect, create, and dream without surveillance or harm. It centers joy as strategy, community as medicine, and third spaces as essential infrastructure for liberation. Through art, cultural memory, gathering spaces, and intergenerational kinship, this pillar nurtures the environments where Black queer life thrives.
ORGANIZE • Advocacy, Community Defense & Leadership
Hub for Community Power-Building, Political Education, Accountability, and Rapid Response for Black LGBTQ+ People
This pillar strengthens the political power, safety, and leadership of Black LGBTQ+ people. ORGANIZE ensures that Black queer and trans communities have the structures, skills, and protections needed to defend ourselves, shape policy, hold institutions accountable, and build long-term movement leadership.
It centers self-determination, community defense, transformative political education, and Black trans leadership as essential tools for liberation.
THRIVE • Wellness, Skill-Building & Economic Power
Hub for Wellness, Workforce, Food Justice & Economic Liberation for Black LGBTQ+ People
This pillar strengthens the long-term stability of Black LGBTQ+ communities by providing culturally grounded wellness services, skill-building opportunities, food access programs, and pathways to financial independence. THRIVE empowers our people to move beyond survival and build full, liberated lives — rooted in healing, creativity, community care, and economic power.