About the Rainbow Heights Club
Rainbow Heights Club, located in Brooklyn, New York, is an advocacy program
for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender consumers requiring mental health
services. We provide socialization, support, peer advocacy, and a safe place
to take the next step on your road to emotional recovery and wellness.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people who also experience major mental illness face many difficult challenges. In hospitals, clinics and day treatment programs, they may feel uncomfortable talking about their identities and experiences as LGBT people. Maybe this has happened to you.
You may have hidden your sexual identity from other consumers, or from your doctor, nurse or therapist. You may have felt alone, scared or misunderstood. Similarly, in LGBT community centers and other environments, you may have been reluctant to talk about the parts of your life that have been affected by your mental illness and recovery, because you were afraid that other people in the community would not understand or accept you.
At Rainbow Heights Club we provide a supportive and encouraging environment where you can be fully yourself and begin to heal.
Activities and Services We Offer
We offer:
- support
- friendship
- social interaction
- games
- movies
- one-on-one computer tutoring
- one-on-one career counseling
- benefits and entitlements counseling
- cooking groups
- Double Trouble in Recovery groups
- respect
- acceptance
- and, empowerment.
We serve a light dinner daily at 4 pm (suggested donation $1).
We are not a mental health clinic. Instead, Rainbow Heights Club picks up where your psychiatrist or therapist leave off, by providing a place where you can share your experience with staff and consumers who understand where you're coming from. The Club is growing, and we need your input, energy and ideas!
If you choose to, you can share your ideas, help to shape new programs, do outreach to agencies and potential club members, work on writing and producing our newsletter, and help to create the kind of club you've always wanted to be a member of. You can also just relax and enjoy the atmosphere of acceptance our club provides.
As a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender person who has also experienced a major psychiatric disorder, you've had more than your share of stigma, prejudice, misunderstanding and fear. Our club offers you the acceptance, respect and safety you have always deserved. We look forward to sharing our club with you - but you have to take the first step.
I'm interested! How do I become a member?
Thank you for getting to know us better.
Now we’d like to get to know you better.
Call (718) 852-2584, or e-mail us at info@rainbowheights.org. No fee is required.
To become a member, you must be referred by either your therapist or psychiatrist. He/she should call or email us. Your therapist or psychiatrist will need to provide us with a copy of your psychosocial assessment. Please feel free to fax that information to us at: 718-875-5496. The fax should be sent to our Director of Member Services. We will then make an appointment for an Initial Screening session with you, where we’ll tell you a little bit more about our program and give you a tour. But we also understand it's not easy being "out" to providers. So if your therapist or psychiatrist doesn't know you're LGBT, contact us and we can figure out a way to work around that.
Initial Screening appointments are available only on Wednesdays and Thursdays, 12:30PM – 4:30PM .
After the initial screening, we will set up another appointment for a formal intake with a member of our Peer Specialist staff. At that time, we’ll also ask you to sign a Release of Information form along with a Membership Contract. And then you’re in! You’re a member! Not too hard, right?
We're located at 25 Flatbush Avenue, between Fulton and Lafayette, on the fourth floor.
That's right next to the Nevins Street subway stop on the 2, 3, 4, 5 trains and a block away from the DeKalb Avenue stop on the B, Q, M, R trains.
We look forward to welcoming you to Rainbow Heights . Get to know us!
If you have any questions,
please contact us at:
718-852-2584, or e-mail us at info@rainbowheights.org.
Our fax number is 718-875-5496.