All Children - All Families: Beginner's Guide to LGBTQ+ Inclusion

LGBTQ+ people live in every county across the U.S. Simply put: if you work in child welfare, you can safely assume that you have LGBTQ+ youth and parents coming through your doors to access services. In fact, LGBTQ+ youth are overrepresented in foster care and LGBTQ+ adults are most likely to be raising children in states with the least amount of legal protections -- not only in places like New York City.

Despite recent progress toward legal and social equality for LGBTQ+ Americans, societal stigma remains strong and LGBTQ+ youth and parents continue to be vulnerable to discrimination. Now -- as some lawmakers work to legalize discrimination against LGBTQ+ youth and parents -- it is perhaps more important than ever for child welfare systems to take action to ensure LGBTQ+ youth and parents receive the services they deserve free from discrimination. This is not only the right thing to do. It is necessary work in order to ensure compliance with federal standards around LGBTQ+ non-discrimination and the best practice recommendations of leading professional associations.

Every single child welfare professional -- from frontline workers to administrators and executives -- has a role to play and this Beginner’s Guide to LGBTQ+ Inclusion is designed to give you ideas of where to start.