Increasing access to affirming care. Working with the communities we serve. Getting better together. As Equitas Health rolls out its 2026-29 Strategic Plan, our revised mission statement is our renewed commitment to you.
With input from more than 700 patients and community supporters, Equitas Health crafted a new strategic plan that protects and improves the quality of patient care. This feedback will inspire us to protect vital services, defend your healthcare rights, and continue cultivating trust.
Key highlights of the plan include themes for improving our core services and community engagement efforts. It lays out a framework for navigating funding and policy challenges. It emphasizes excellence in patient care, operations, and financial sustainability. And it recommits the agency to equity, inclusion, and community partnership.
Click here to read our 2026-29 Strategic Plan.
Familiar Challenges, New Era
Equitas Health continues to draw inspiration from the everyday Ohioans who banded together more than 40 years ago in response to the AIDS epidemic. When the government couldn’t or wouldn’t act, the LGBTQ+ community leaned in to provide vital care, dignity, and comfort. Facing today’s political and social headwinds, it’s time to lean in, once again.
The challenges our founders faced in the 1980s persist today: discriminatory policy and law, funding cuts and programmatic restrictions, and insurance and legal barriers. Facing an increase in anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment, state and federal actions have affected access to gender-affirming care and vital public health efforts like harm reduction. Even though advances in HIV treatment offer hope, community health still suffers from the effects of stigma and unfair policies.
LGBTQ+ people continue to be disproportionately represented among cases of HIV/AIDS and also have higher rates of suicide, depression, hypertension, obesity, cancer, substance use, and other health conditions relative to non-LGBTQ+ people. These disparities cut across income and health insurance coverage.
Preparing for the Unknown
In 2025, Equitas Health faced a 25 percent reduction in funding to its statewide grant that supports HIV-related case management and services in 80 of 88 Ohio counties. This steep funding cut, along with other funding and regulatory restrictions, guided the agency’s leadership as they considered how best to steer the agency forward amid increased hostilities toward LGBTQ+ people.
The plan contemplates priorities for two possible scenarios:
- The organization receives adequate funding and support to expand its footprint and services across the state.
- External pressures force services to contract.
While aiming for the first scenario, the plan will help agency leaders make sound decisions for the people we serve if funding and government regulations forced even more reductions in services.
In either case, the agency’s strategic plan for the next three years centers quality care, customer service, and value. Our patients face heightened challenges in a stressed economy and culture shifting against affirming care. In response, Equitas Health is prepared to counter these obstacles by prioritizing person-centered, culturally humble care in the modalities the people we serve need most.
Getting Better Together
Equitas Health offers affirming care for everyone who seeks it. At our health centers in Akron, Cincinnati, Columbus, and Dayton – and now Toledo – people of all genders and racial/ethnic backgrounds gain access to care teams that understand the needs of the LGBTQ+ community, people living with HIV/AIDS, and other people that traditional healthcare systems have left or kept out of care. And at program offices across Ohio, we help people improve their health outcomes by guiding them to community resources and helping them overcome barriers.
We invite community supporters to review our three-year plan and join us as we continue advocating for civil and human rights and improved healthcare solutions for the people we serve. Our work continues until good health no longer depends on race or class, education or ZIP code, gender identity or sexual orientation. Let’s get better together. 🔥
IGNITE ACTION
- Learn more about Equitas Health’s 2026-2029 Strategic Plan: Better Together online here.
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