Opening Doors / LGBTQ Youth in Foster Care Project

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About the Project

The Opening Doors Project: As a judge, lawyer or other child welfare professional do you understand the risk factors common to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth? These include high suicide rates, substance abuse, health issues, and harassment in foster care and in school. Do you know how a youth’s LGBTQ status affects permanency (including reunification, adoption, guardianship, or placement with a fit and willing relative)?

The Opening Doors Project aims to:

Increase the legal community’s awareness of LGBTQ youth in foster care and the unique issues they face, and
Provide the legal community with advocacy tools to successfully represent these youth

More about the Opening Doors Project | The Opening Doors Project Brochure

Publications

Opening Doors for LGBTQ Youth in Foster Care: A Guide for Lawyers and Judges

By Mimi Laver and Andrea Khoury

This guide aims to increase the legal community’s awareness of LGBTQ youth in foster care and the issues they face. It provides tools for lawyers and judges to aid their advocacy and decision making on behalf of LGBTQ youth. Special attention is given to helping lawyers and judges understand the unique needs and risk factors of LGBTQ youth, forming positive attitudes and beliefs about LGBTQ youth, developing strong attorney-client relationships, and using effective advocacy strategies.

Download Book:

Training

Live Training

The Opening Doors Project staff will provide substantive training based on the resource manual for lawyers, judges, advocates and other child welfare professionals. We will come to your state to deliver the training, or work with you to design a training that you can deliver for your staff. Sessions may be local or in conjunction with national child welfare or LGBTQ youth conferences.

Trainings will provide information on effective techniques of representation and may include exercises for advocates and judges to better understand their own biases concerning LGBTQ youth and ways to improve their practices.

Please see the attached sample agenda for an example of a full-day training. Project staff will work with you to craft a meaningful training program that will improve practice in your jurisdiction and benefit LGBTQ youth.

Sample Agenda

Webcast

Resources

Click here to purchase sticker

These resources provide further information for advocates about LGBTQ youth. You may find them useful to give to others involved in the process (caseworkers, residential staff, parents, teachers, psychologists, colleagues) or youth themselves. This list is not exhaustive.

Full Resource list

Research

The research phase of this project is multi-faceted and includes

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