Julio Flores didn’t have a traditional educational path into public health. He went straight from high school into volunteer and full-time work. Nevertheless, in recent years, he has becoming a formidable force for queer advocacy in Chicago.
Now, he’s in his fourth year as program director for Alliance, the branch of the Public Health Institute of Metropolitan Chicago supporting LGBTQ+ youth. He’s spent the greater part of the last decade supporting LGBTQ+ youth around Chicago, and hopes to continue bridging the gaps in care.
Flores, originally from Mexico, came to the United States when he was 11. Due to being undocumented, he wasn’t able to go onto college right after high school. His sister pushed him to volunteer alongside looking for a job. Flores began working at an HIV prevention clinic in his town, Milwaukee, and developed an interest in working in health care.
Once he moved to Chicago, he began working at Howard Brown’s Broadway Youth Center in 2018—his first role working with LGBTQ+ people specifically—and he’s remained working in advocacy ever since.
He considers his five years at BYC to be the “school” of his career, where leaders like former director Latonya Maley “poured into” him by giving him the space to learn and ask questions. He said his time at BYC also opened his eyes to the unique challenges young people face.
“It made me realize how difficult and challenging this world can be for young people,” Flores said. “Especially young people who not only have the potential, but they really want to find success in life or just have a happy life, and how there’s so many barriers.”
He said working with youth made him see how adults often are part of the problem, instead of helping youth find solutions. Flores said he often goes back to the question of, ‘How can I eliminate as many barriers as possible?’ when doing work today.
Most importantly, he’s learned to ask himself, “What kind of ancestor do I want to be?”
“We often talk about [how] our ancestors did all of this for us,” he said. “We’re able to do everything that we do because of them. But at the same time, it’s like, what is it that I need to do? How do I want people to remember me? … What is the impact that I want my existence to have not only in my generation, but hopefully in the future?”
Flores has now been the Alliance Program Director at PHIMC for over three years. He discovered the role when he was getting ready to depart from BYC—after experiencing burnout, he realized he was “no longer the right advocate at this moment”—when a LinkedIn connection sent him the opening.
He said he appreciated how the position would work more proactively than reactively— such as by providing skills and tools to people beforehand, so they know how to advocate for themselves if they should end up in crises.
One of his favorite accomplishments has been getting to work on Action Camp, a five-day camping retreat for young LGBTQ+ community leaders. He said he’s seen young people completely come out of their shells and stay connected with each other long after camp, and be inspired to continue their activism. Workshops at camp are led by other young people, as well.
Flores has also worked on the Youth Leadership Summit, where the Youth Advisory Board hosts a day of workshops and activities for youth leaders. He also assists with Gender-Sexualities Alliance related work to get groups registered in the GSA network and form agendas or fundraising plans.
“That has been something very nice to do because I have been able to connect with schools and groups in very small communities and rural communities where I wouldn’t have thought that they would want to create a GSA, but they do,” Flores said. “It’s super cool to see queer people exist everywhere.”
Working with queer Latino youth, Flores is acutely aware of what resources are missing. He said one area of improvement includes being mindful of all types of Latino immigrants—many, especially in Chicago, are geared towards Mexican or Puerto Rican cultures. However, this may miss cultural or linguistic differences in other Central or South American countries.
“I think as a community, there is room for us to be able to learn a little bit more,” he said.
He also said young people face anxiety and depression, as well as suffer from traditional Latino ideas around mental illness and therefore don’t seek out help. He said those outdated ideas—such as needing to speak Spanish and not feeling “Latino enough” for not being able to—are creating complex issues for youth.
“That shouldn’t be the case, right?” he said. “From my perspective, we should be looking at it in the lens of, ‘We’re all a little bit different and that’s completely okay. Also some people need a little bit more care, and that’s completely okay.’”
In the past three years, Flores himself began going to therapy and became more in tune with how to navigate different systems as a gay immigrant man. It has made him realize he wants to focus more on the social work aspect of public health, leading him to pursue his master’s in social work this fall at University of Chicago.
He said the experience allowed him to further question what he wants to bring to the field during his career.
Flores’ main goal at PHIMC is to make sure safe spaces continue to exist for young people and those of all ages. He hopes to continue working with Action Camp and making sure LGBTQ+ youth can foster those connections.
“I want to become the glue between different communities,” Flores said. “But also being able to create systems that are more just for everyone, where people feel seen, valued and supported.”