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Lambda Legal and Child Welfare League of America Launch Tool Kit to Support LGBTQ Youth in Child Welfare System

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"There is something in the kit for everyone 'from foster parents, to case workers' to give them the tools to provide better care for LGBTQ youth."
January 11, 2007

(New York, January 11, 2007) — Today, Lambda Legal and the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) launched Getting Down to Basics, a new tool kit designed to provide information to professionals and others interested in helping meet the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth within the child welfare system.


Getting Down to Basics is a compilation of concise fact sheets and policy recommendations that provide guidance on an array of issues affecting LGBTQ youth and the adults and organizations that provide them with out-of-home care. Topics addressed in the kit include working with transgender youth, serving LGBTQ youth in congregate care and juvenile detention facilities, faith-based providers and LGBTQ youth, and ways to combat efforts to ban gay and lesbian adults from serving as foster and adoptive parents.


The publication is available free of charge upon request by calling 212-809-8585 x272 or can be downloaded at www.lambdalegal.org or www.cwla.org.


“Often people who want to do the right thing simply do not know where to look for information to better serve LGBTQ youth in care,” said Susan Sommer, Senior Counsel for Lambda Legal. ‘We’ve compiled information in an easy to use one sheet format that can be copied and distributed to anyone who wants to help.’


“We have compiled this tool kit to give easy access to critical information for anyone who has an LGBTQ youth in their care,” said Rob Woronoff, LGBTQ Program Director at the Child Welfare League of America. “There is something in the kit for everyone — from foster parents, to case workers — to give them the tools to provide better care for LGBTQ youth. The toolkit also contains numerous resources for LGBTQ young people.”


Getting Down To Basics is another in a series of publications produced by Lambda Legal and CWLA aimed at better serving LGBTQ youth in out-of-home care. Recently, the groups released Out of the Margins, a compilation of the experiences of LGBTQ youth in care along with concrete solutions to end the problems they face in the foster care, juvenile justice, and homeless/transitional living systems. Out of the Margins built upon Lambda Legal’s 2001 publication, Youth in the Margins, providing child welfare administrators with recommendations on policies, training and services to meet the needs of LGBTQ youth in care. CWLA’s body of publications dedicated to LGBTQ youth has recently expanded to include CWLA Best Practice Guidelines: Serving LGBT Youth in Out-of-Home Care, as well as a special issue of its journal, Child Welfare, entirely dedicated to LGBTQ youth in child welfare, featuring more than a dozen never-before published studies and articles, including articles by Lambda Legal Staff Attorney, Rudy Estrada. For more information on any of these resources go to www.lambdalegal.org or www.cwla.org.


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Contacts: Jackie Yodashkin, Lambda Legal, 212-809-8585 ext.229
Rob Woronoff, CWLA, 202-662-4292


Lambda Legal is a national organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and those with HIV through impact litigation, education and public policy work.

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