The Latine Connection: A Summer of Deepening Roots

Over the past months, our team has deepened engagement with Baltimore's Latine community through direct services, partnerships, and culturally responsive programming.

In May, we hosted the second edition of **Cafecito y Conversación**, a social and resource-sharing event led by Quinn, one of our Latine outreach coordinators, where community members were able to come together and share experiences regarding race, colorism, and gender and sexual identity — both in their home countries, in the case of those who were born abroad, and here in the United States. The event had a strong turnout and opened the floor for future conversations and partnerships focused on uniting Baltimore's communities, particularly the city's Black and Latine populations, given their status as the largest and fastest-growing groups in the city, respectively.

We have also continued to support **Salem Methodist Church**, an openly queer-affirming, majority-Latine congregation, on Fridays, where we assist in providing free food, clothes, Narcan, and personal hygiene and sexual health resources to the East Baltimore community. Our partnership with Salem Methodist remains central in our effort to unite and uplift the Latine community, bringing awareness to issues around behavioral health, gender and sexuality, and personal care.

Looking ahead, we are looking forward to the launch of **Mujeres Empoderadas**, a Spanish-language women's group starting next month led by our newest team member, Lucy. The group will meet twice a week and focus on health education, stress management, knowing your rights, and mutual aid. The goal isn't just service delivery; it's building relationships so that individuals and their families know they have an advocate they can trust and are supported in reaching their goals. We invite all women in the community to join us — your voice and experiences will shape this space. To register or learn more, contact our office and ask for Lucy.

**Summer 2026 update.** Throughout the summer, our efforts to strengthen outreach and collaboration with the Latine community and the region's other Latine-serving organizations will continue in full force. Beginning in July, PCOM will be working alongside the BCHD's Latine-focused HIV-prevention group, **Solo Se Vive Una Vez**, to form a streamlined system that will allow qualifying patients from the group's client list to receive further testing — namely for Hepatitis C — as well as harm reduction training through the Pride Center of Maryland's AmASSI Center, all made available in both English and Spanish. Through this partnership, our slate of wellness services will not only reach more members of our community across the city but also reach them where they are, reducing barriers to care. Apart from health-related efforts, we also hope to host our **third edition of Cafecito y Conversación** — our safe space for LGBTQ/SGL* Latine social connection, resource sharing, and consciousness-raising — before the summer's end. We look forward to seeing you all there!

We're beyond excited to continue our outreach and build on what works: meeting people where they are, in spaces they trust.

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**En español.** A lo largo del verano, nuestros esfuerzos por seguir fortaleciendo el acercamiento y la colaboración con la comunidad latine y con otras organizaciones de la región que atienden a la población latine continuarán con fuerza. A partir de julio, PCOM trabajará junto con el grupo de prevención del VIH del BCHD, «Solo Se Vive Una Vez», para crear un sistema optimizado que permita a los pacientes Latines de la lista de clientes del grupo recibir más pruebas, específicamente para la hepatitis C, así como capacitación en reducción de daños a través del Centro AmASSI del Pride Center of Maryland; todo ello disponible tanto en inglés como en español. A través de esta alianza, nuestra gama de servicios de bienestar no solo llegará a más miembros de nuestra comunidad en toda la ciudad, sino que los alcanzará allí donde se encuentren, reduciendo las barreras de acceso a la atención. Además de las iniciativas relacionadas con la salud, esperamos organizar nuestra tercera edición de «Cafecito y Conversación», nuestro espacio seguro para la conexión social, el intercambio de recursos y la concientización de la comunidad LGBTQ+ latina, antes de que termine el verano. ¡Esperamos verlos a todos allí!