Brave Space Alliance

Brave Space Alliance (BSA) is an LGBTQ+-focused center on Chicago’s South Side that provides affirming and culturally competent services for all who enter its doors. Founded in 2017 to address the significant gap in programs, resources, and community spaces centering trans and gender-expansive people, particularly on the South Side, BSA exists to meet essential needs with dignity, care, and connection.

Rooted in its Four Pillars of Dignity, which include Health, Housing, Food, and Identity, BSA provides holistic services that strengthen individual and collective well-being. Through these pillars, the organization offers preventive and behavioral health services, HIV/STI testing and treatment, housing support, food access and justice programs, assistance with essential items, and community-based events and supports that affirm self-expression and personal agency.

BSA is recognized locally and nationally as a vital community anchor: a place where LGBTQ+ people, especially those most impacted by systemic inequities, can access care without judgment, experience belonging, and build power together.

As BSA grows, it remains guided by its founding belief: that liberation is built collectively through care, dignity, and the creation of brave spaces where all people can thrive. In the years ahead, BSA will continue to build power alongside community by broadening its reach, forging new partnerships, and continuing to create spaces where all people are supported and affirmed.