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The LGBT Foster Care Project Administration for Children's Services Foster Care Agencies Upcoming Events Adoption & Parent Recruitment Youth Information Acknowledgments

Project Overview

The LGBT Foster Care Project is a collaborative project between the Center and the New York City Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) along with select foster care agencies. This project trains foster care agencies so that they can provide safe, high-quality and sensitive services to LGBT youth and LGBT parents in the foster care community. The overall purpose of the LBGT Foster Care Project is to partner with NYC foster care agencies to create a safe and welcoming environment for all youth in foster care and the adults who wish to take care of them. Through completion of the project, participating foster care agencies will meet the ACS requirements that fall under the guidelines of LGBT inclusiveness and cultural competency.


The project is designed to:

 

• Enhance services for LGBT youth in foster care


• Assist foster care agencies in developing more inclusive environment and programming through initiatives such as trainings for all levels of staff


• Increase the number of affirming homes for LGBT youth in foster care


• Increase the number of LGBT potential foster and adoptive parents

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Cultural Competency Benchmarks

In order to receive recognition as an agency committed to LGBT cultural competency, the LGBT Foster Care project will partner with agencies to achieve ten benchmarks on the road to LGBT cultural competency:

• Ensure that all youth, current and new staff and parents receive notice of the Administration for Children’s Services Nondiscrimination – Youth and families Policy, both written and verbal.


• Adopt a written policy outlining a grievance procedure for youth and staff to report discrimination, harassment or abuse by personnel, youth participants or contractors.


• Actively recruit potential foster and adoptive parents from the LGBT community in order to provide a broader pool of families and more permanency options for youth.


• Use scenarios that depict the experiences of LGBT youth and their foster parents when training potential foster or adoptive families.


• Require and ensure that all agency staff (to include certified homes) receive initial comprehensive LGBT cultural competency training and develop a mechanism for ongoing training.


• Identify a staff person to serve as the LGBT resource contact person within the agency, who stays up-to-date on LGBT community resources, and is accessible to youth, parents and staff for information and/or supervision.


• Provide training, mentoring and support for birth families that are seeking reunification and/or continuous contact with youth in care self-identified or perceived as LGBT.


• Inform and assist LGBT youth participants and families to access local LGBT support services and programs.


• Affirm and include the LGBT community on your agency web site and in its printed materials.


• Create an inclusive and safe physical environment for LGBT youth and families by displaying supportive images such as inclusive posters, pink triangles, rainbows or hate-free zones stickers.

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Project Components

• Orientation – Attend an orientation session with Foster Care project staff to welcome the selected agencies to the project and review project expectations and responsibilities.


• Needs Assessment – Project staff will conduct three needs assessments: one at the beginning of the project to determine a baseline, another midway through the project and one at the end.


• Planning – Meetings with key agency administrators and Project staff to discuss needs assessment, staff trainings and agency-specific policies and practices that promote an inclusive and affirming environment.


• Staff trainings – Training will be provided for all of the agency’s support, direct and administrative staff. Each training session is approximately three hours.
  
  Training 1 – Fundamentals and More: Fundamental terminology, gender variance, sexual orientation, balancing personal and professional values, LGBT youth risk factors, increasing providers’ sensitivity and enhancing skills, addressing confidentiality, enhancing knowledge and skills to intervene with biological, adoptive and foster parents.
  
  Training 2 – Fact or Fiction: Myths, empirical data and panel of firsthand accounts from LGBT youth, followed by Q & A.
  
  Training 3 – Concreteness: Specifically for home finding, recruitment and adoption unit staff. Concrete clinical specific details about home assessments, recruitment and intake.
  
  Ongoing trainings – Agencies will be connected to free ongoing training for staff.


• Technical Assistance – Each agency will be connected to an organization designed to provide ongoing technical assistance via telephone, email and possible in-person meetings.


• Support Services – Ongoing support groups and services will be open to youth and foster and adopted parents or perspective foster and adoption parents.


• Materials – Each agency will receive materials that cover a host of LGBT-related information for use throughout the organization.


• Post-evaluation – each agency will participate in an evaluation of the Foster Care Project, as one mechanism for review of the project effectiveness. In addition, training participants will take part in an evaluation of the training provided.


• Recognition – Agencies that complete the project and achieve the 10 benchmarks of LGBT cultural competency will receive public recognition as an agency committed to LGBT cultural competency.