Daniel Downer (Photo courtesy Downer)
ORLANDO | Daniel Downer, founder and executive director of The Bros in Convo Initiative, is parting ways with the organization after holding the title for five years.
Bros in Convo is a Black, queer-led grassroots organization that focuses on building community through education and empowering gay and queer individuals of color living in Central Florida, according to its website.
Downer says his time at Bros in Convo has been fulfilling but it’s time for new leadership to take over.
“I think the most exciting thing is to bring their perspective, talents, skills, their flavor to how they can help further the mission and the vision of the organization,” he says.
Bros in Convo was started in 2017 with the mission to provide comprehensive health education, HIV prevention and peer support to the populations most affected and impacted by health disparities in Orange, Osceola and Seminole Counties’ gay and queer individuals of color. While Downer is passionate about the work he began with Bros in Convo, being the executive director of an organization wasn’t something he had planned on.
“Being an executive director was not something that I necessarily envisioned for myself,” he says. “But I think at the core of what it is, you have to have that heart. You have to have that passion and I definitely have that heart and that passion.”
The organization is dedicated to cultivating an environment where diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging are not just valued but celebrated.
Downer says he is looking forward to the future of the organization as there are new faces, innovative ideas and services to come. As for his personal work he plans to continue his work as a diversity, equity and inclusion practitioner.
“I’m looking forward to being able to provide support not only locally but in national DEI efforts,” Downer says.
As a nonprofit that Black LGBTQ+ leaders lead, Downer is proud that Bros in Convo is still present in Orlando. He says the organization has built a community that feels like home.
“I hope what people see with The Bros in Convo Initiative is just how unapologetically Black we are,” Downer says. “How unapologetically gay, queer, nonbinary we are. It is interwoven into every aspect of our organization because without community there is no us; without community, there is no me.”
Downer will be formally resigning as executive director on May 31. He says he will support the board and the organization’s fiscal agent, Miracle of Love, as they identify a new individual to assume the role.
Miracle of Love is a nonprofit community-based minority HIV/AIDS organization, and it is the oldest in Central Florida, according to its website.
“[Miracle of Love] will also be stepping in the interim time, in the case there are any gaps between me leaving and not being able to identify someone,” Downer says. “I feel very hopeful that the organization is in great hands between my board as well as our fiscal agent.”
For more information on The Bros in Convo Initiative, visit BrosInConvo.org.
