Scholarships
LGBTQIA+ Scholarship Fund
The Nic Pagano LGBTQIA+ Scholarship Fund was created to enable ongoing assistance for families and individuals in the LGBTQIA+ community in need of financial help after accepting and surrendering to treatment and a comprehensive education in sober tools due to a substance use disorder.
One month before his accidental death due to fentanyl poisoning on July 2nd 2021, Nic and his parents, Karen Marks and Rich Pagano were eating lunch near the sober house that he was residing in at the time when the conversation turned to the plight of the LGBTQIA+ community, its fear of being ostracized plus an assumption of lack of communal inclusion when considering treatment. Nic, leaning to an eventual career in social work, singled out the transgender community in particular for its marginalization.
The Release Foundation in New York and Caron Treatment Center in Pennsylvania have partnered in the creation of the Nic Pagano Scholarship Fund which is based at Caron Treatment Center. This scholarship aims to improve access to care for the LGBTQIA+ community.
Since its inception in the fall of 2021, the Nic Pagano LGBTQIA+ Scholarship Fund has awarded over 30 financial scholarships to clients in need of substance use treatment. Services also address stigma, heterosexism, internalized homophobia, and discrimination as well as addiction. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that when compared with the general population, the LGBTQIA+ community is more likely to "have higher rates of substance abuse" and the National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that the LGBTQIA+ community is at least 2-3 times more likely to develop a substance use disorder. Together with Caron Treatment Centers and Karen and Rich Pagano, we are working to provide the life-saving access to treatment this community deserves.