Listening, Learning, and Showing Up in Service of the LGBTQ+ Community
By Daniel Vaillancourt
As the longtime Palm Springs-based community health center welcomes 2026, it continues to look outward, guided by the voices, needs, and leadership of the LGBTQ+ community it was founded to serve. And it all starts with The Chase on February 21.
As DAP Health enters 2026, it finds itself doing what it has done for more than four decades: listening, learning, and responding alongside the local queer community. From its earliest days, the nonprofit has understood that meaningful health care is not delivered from the top down, but built in collaboration shaped by lived experience, trust, and mutual accountability especially within LGBTQ+ populations.
Founded in 1984 by volunteers responding to the AIDS crisis, DAP Health emerged from grassroots activism and collective care. What began as a lifeline for gay men dying of AIDS and their loved ones has grown into one of the nation’s most respected community health centers, now serving tens of thousands of patients across Southern California, a scale that brings both opportunity and responsibility to get care right.
That growth has brought valuable lessons about how systems must evolve while staying accountable to the communities that built them. It has been about responsibility to adapt, to expand, and to better meet the evolving needs of the diverse communities that have come to rely on us.
Early 2026 reflects that ongoing commitment. A series of events, programs, and service expansions are underway not as milestones to celebrate in isolation, but as opportunities to deepen partnerships, raise critical resources, and ensure care remains affirming, accessible, and responsive.
The season begins with The Chase
DAP Health’s year will open with the 32nd Annual Steve Chase Humanitarian Awards, affectionately known as The Chase, on Saturday, February 21, at the Palm Springs Convention Center. Presented by Desert Care Network, the gala returns to its historic February timing, a reminder of the event’s origins and the community spirit that has sustained it for more than three decades. The first-ever annual fundraiser was known as Heartstrings and debuted on Valentine’s Day 1994.
Proceeds from The Chase including raffle ticket sales for the chance to win a diamond bracelet valued at $50,000, generously donated by El Paseo Jewelers directly support DAP Health’s medical and support services, from HIV specialty care and sexual wellness to mental health, primary care, and gender-affirming services.
This year’s Community Service Award will honor former Palm Springs mayor Lisa Middleton, whose leadership has long reflected values DAP Health holds close: inclusion, housing stability, and public service grounded in integrity. Headlining entertainment by The Temptations will add a celebratory note all while underscoring the event’s deeper purpose, to sustain care that saves lives.
Named for the late Steve Chase, the openly gay interior designer and philanthropist whose generosity helped DAP Health survive its earliest years, the affair is less a showcase than a gathering point, one that invites the community to come together in service of one another.
Dining Out For Life turns meals into medicine
Shortly after The Chase, DAP Health’s focus will turn to Dining Out For Life Greater Palm Springs, taking place on Thursday, April 23. Now in its 22nd consecutive year locally, the international campaign transforms everyday meals into direct support for people living with or affected by HIV.
Restaurants across the Coachella Valley partner with DAP Health by donating 30% to 110% of their day’s total sales, a model rooted in collective action and shared generosity. Diners, business owners, team members, volunteer ambassadors, and media partners all play a role, reinforcing the idea that community health is a shared responsibility.
In 2025, 65 participating establishments raised nearly $300,000, with every dollar staying local to support HIV prevention, education, and care. The success of Dining Out For Life belongs not to DAP Health but to the restaurants, volunteers, diners, and advocates who continue to show up in full force to turn the one-day annual occasion into care for their neighbors in need.
Pride as health care
For DAP Health, participation in Pride celebrations is guided by listening to LGBTQ+ leaders and organizers who understand that visibility, joy, and affirmation are essential to health. Research supports what the community has long known: connection and belonging are protective factors for mental and physical well-being.
Throughout 2025 and 2026, DAP Health has strengthened partnerships with Pride organizations throughout Southern California. That includes proudly participating as Platinum Sponsor of Cathedral City LGBT+ Days this coming March 6-8.
At each event, DAP Health shows up at the invitation of community partners, sharing resources, offering education, and listening to feedback about how care can be improved. The goal is not visibility for its own sake, but fostering continued trust, accountability, and ongoing dialogue.
Expanding sexual wellness and OB-GYN services
Listening to community needs also drives DAP Health’s clinical expansion plans. In partnership with the North County LGBTQ Resource Center in San Diego County, a new sexual wellness clinic and pharmacy will open on their Oceanside campus in early 2026, extending services shaped by years of patient input and community collaboration.
The clinic will reflect years of patient feedback and community input, offering care designed to reduce barriers rather than replicating traditional models. Services will include free HIV and STI testing, free STI treatment, free PrEP and PEP (including long acting injectables) for HIV prevention, free DoxyPEP for STI prevention, and care always delivered without stigma or shame.
DAP Health is also expanding access to inclusive OB-GYN services. Its Palm Springs Family Health practice is relocating to the Sunrise campus, where providers trained in culturally competent care will serve a large swath of the local population, including lesbians and pre-operative transgender men, communities that have consistently shared concerns about discrimination and barriers in traditional health care settings.
These changes reflect lessons learned directly from patients: that preventive care works best when people feel safe, respected, and understood.
Honoring the past while shaping the future
DAP Health’s approach to the future remains rooted in remembrance. Each year on World AIDS Day, the organization partners with artists, advocates, and peer organizations to honor lost lives and acknowledge the work still yet to be done.
Recent observances included its December 1, 2025, display of AIDS Memorial Quilt panels honoring late queer activists Pedro Zamora of “MTV’s The Real World” fame, pop artist Keith Haring, and others. A candlelight vigil, plus national virtual programming developed in collaboration with Philadelphia’s Mazzoni Center, also attracted many community members. These moments were about the organization’s responsibility to carry history forward with humility and resolve.
More than services, a shared ecosystem
Progress happens because of organizers, volunteers, providers, and advocates who often work behind the scenes, holding DAP Health accountable and pushing it to do better. From Pride organizers and restaurant owners to health systems and LGBTQ+ organizations, progress is made together.
In 2025, DAP Health joined a national consortium of fellow AIDS service organizations and LGBTQ+ health centers to share advocacy strategies and mutual support during this challenging political climate where so many from the queer community feel shunned or outwardly attacked.
Internally, many of DAP Health’s 1,000 team members identify as LGBTQ+, ensuring lived experience continues to inform care. Community support also flows through the nonprofit’s four Revivals thrift stores, where 100% of proceeds are reinvested into services shaped by community need.
Housing, too, is part of this shared ecosystem. Vista Sunrise I and II on the Sunrise campus provide stable, affordable housing for people affected by HIV/AIDS and chronic illness, reinforcing DAP Health’s long-held belief that health begins with dignity and security.
A clear through line
From The Chase to Dining Out For Life, from Pride partnerships to expanded clinical services, DAP Health’s early 2026 activities share a clear through line: listening, learning, and building alongside the LGBTQ+ community.
For DAP Health, the work ahead will be measured not by scale or recognition, but by whether community members feel heard, respected, and better served. That work continues, guided by listening first and acting with humility.
