Queer Detainee Empowerment Project

The Queer Detainee Empowerment Project (QDEP) is a post- release support, detention center visitation, direct service, and community organizing project that works with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Queer, Two Spirit, Trans, Gender Non- Conforming, and HIV+ immigrant prisoners and their families currently in detention centers and those that are recently released from detention centers nationally. We provide direct social service support to folks in the New York area, but provide other forms of support to immigrants that are incarcerated nationally.

QDEP works to create a world where Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, queer, Two Spirit, Trans, Gender Non- Conforming, and HIV+ detainees/undocumented/immigrant folks can pursue what their own vision and dreams of success is in their lives without fear of structural violence or violence due to their race, status, sexual orientation and or Gender Identity/Gender Expression.

The Queer Detainee Empowerment Project assists folks coming out of immigration detention in securing structural, health/wellness, educational, legal, and emotional support and services. We work to organize around the structural barriers and state violence that LGBTQI detainee/undocumented folks face related to their immigration status, race, sexuality, and gender expression/ identity. We are committed to assisting folks in building lives outside of detention, to breaking down the barriers that prevent folks from building fulfilling and strong lives, and to keeping queer families together by demanding an end to deportations/ detention/ policing. We believe in creating a narrative of thriving, not just surviving.

QDEP is growing! So we’re looking for the right person to support the organization, our restructuring, and our growth. This is especially during a time when we’re needed more than ever, and our expansion of services and infrastructure development is working to reflect that.