The Rainbow Bialystok Association was established in July 2018. Currently, we are a group of 15 people, working for the benefit of non-heterocisnormative residents_ of Bialystok and Podlaskie province, especially youth. Currently, the most important area of our work is psychological assistance to LGBTQIAP people.

Since 30.11.2020, we have been providing emergency psychological counseling for LGBT+ people and their relatives through a hotline open 2h/week and a 24/7 e-mail helpline, which have attracted interest from the beginning.Our goal is to expand the number of counseling hours and increase its accessibility, especially for people from rural areas and small towns in Podlasie.

Among our other achievements to date are:
– running a support group for LGBTQIA youth,
– co-organizing training in psychological support for LGBTQIA people for psychologists and psychotherapists working in Bialystok,
– organizing the 1st Equality March in Bialystok in July 2019 and the 2nd MR in October 2021,
– activities to integrate the LGBT+ community in Bialystok e.g. karaoke, speed friending,
– educational activities e.g. screenings of films on human rights issues, including those of non-hetero-cisnormative people, combined with panel discussions,
– activities that increase the visibility of LGBTQIA people in public spaces combined with educational aspects, e.g. in July 2020, a billboard campaign in Bialystok with flags of each LGBTQIA orientation/identity combined with a description of the symbolism of flags, orientations and identities in the social media of Rainbow Bialystok,
– trainings to improve the quality of our activist work, such as anti-flagging workshops.

The association is taking steps to maintain the continuity and regularity of its offerings.