Supporting LGBTQ Youth

The program curriculum includes:

Introductory Session

This welcome session offers all Certificate Program participants an opportunity to meet one another and learn more about the content and goals of the training. The session will allow for Q&A, cross-team introductions, and a discussion of the road map of the training week and Certificate Program overall.

Youth Perspectives

In this session, LGBTQ youth share their experiences and provide insight into how the caseworkers and systems they encountered best supported or failed to support them in their respective journeys. The session also explores how community-based organizations play a crucial role in providing youth with needed supports and services. This module examines how to establish a community-based continuum of care to divert youth from system involvement, strengthen connections to pro-social supports, and promote successful community re-entry.

LGBTQ/SOGIE 101: Understanding SOGIE Terminology and Concepts

This session provides foundational information to set the stage for the rest of the curriculum, including guiding principles, SOGIE terminology and concepts, risk and protective factors for LGBTQ youth, research on LGBTQ youth in the youth justice system and other systems of care, and how to collect SOGIE data to drive reforms. Participants will also have the opportunity to explore how to navigate conversations and messaging around LGBTQ and SOGIE issues in the current political climate.

Multi-System Experiences: Holistic Approaches to Serving LGBTQ Youth

Sessions in this module feature interactive dialogue and breakout groups to explore issues LGBTQ youth confront in youth justice, child welfare, and other child-serving systems, as well as related policy and practice implications. The sessions have an overarching focus on promoting health and well-being, understanding risk and protective factors, and utilizing a framework of positive youth development. Specific topics include:

• Child Welfare/Crossover Youth
• LGBTQ Young People in the Youth Justice System
• Creating Safe and Inclusive Educational Environments for LGBTQ Youth

Gender Identity and Expression: Health Care and Behavioral Health

In this session, participants explore how gender identity and expression are unique from sexual orientation. They also learn how systems can utilize positive, strengths-based approaches to meet the health and behavioral needs of gender nonconforming and transgender youth.

Family Engagement: Support Strategies and Interventions

This session provides an in-depth look at how to engage the families of LGBTQ youth as partners, particularly when youth face stigma or lack support due to their sexual orientation or gender identity/expression. The session highlights interventions to promote family acceptance of LGBTQ youth and family finding tools, focusing on how to embed family-focused and strength-based approaches into agency policy and practice.

Leading System Change : Achieving Comprehensive, Agency-Wide Policy and Practice Change

This panel focuses on the experiences of several jurisdictions that have adopted data sharing policies, SOGIE data collection protocols, and data analysis strategies to improve outcomes for LGBTQ youth. It features a panel of local leaders who discuss their process, high points, and lessons learned, ending with a Q&A session where participants can ask difficult implementation questions (e.g., how to meet the housing needs of transgender youth, communicate with parents, maintain youth confidentiality, and weave SOGIE into IT systems). In advance of the panel, participants are provided with NCLR’s model of policy for serving transgender youth and the SOGIE Data Initiative’s data sharing policy, SOGIE questions, and practice guide.

Previous facilitators for the program include:

• Aisha Canfield, Director, Ceres Policy Research
• Curry Cook, Director, Youth in Out-of-Home Care Project, Lambda Legal
• Angela Irvine-Baker, Principal, Ceres Policy Research
• Danielle King, Senior Youth Policy Counsel, National Center for Lesbian Rights
• Vida Khavar, Clinical Director, Family Builders
• Aydin Olson-Kennedy, Licensed Clinical Social Worker
• Johanna Olson-Kennedy, Medical Director, The Center for Transyouth Health and Development, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

All teams or individual program participants are required to complete a Capstone Project, or a local reform effort informed by their learning at the Certificate Program. As many jurisdictions have expressed interests and needs related to expanding their collection of SOGIE data within institutional, probation, and court settings, Ceres Policy Research is offering two additional opportunities for Certificate Program participants to engage in in-depth SOGIE data collection, analysis, and strategy implementation. In addition to the original, foundational Capstone Project support (Track 1), participating jurisdictions can choose to participate in one of two additional tracks related to data.

In total, program participants have three technical assistance tracks to choose from:

• Track 1: One-Year Foundational Certificate Program Follow-Up
  In the year following the virtual training, participants will develop and begin to implement a Capstone Project to strengthen local reform efforts and improve outcomes for system-involved LGBTQ youth. Upon completion of the Certificate Program and submission of an approved Capstone Project, participants will receive an Executive Certificate from Georgetown University and membership into CJJR’s Fellows Network. Participants will also receive remote technical assistance from instructors and staff to aid in the design and/or implementation of their project. Each individual is allocated five hours of distance technical assistance from instructors or CJJR staff to work through issues specific to their jurisdiction and community during the development or implementation of their project. This technical assistance is provided through emails and/or Zoom calls.
• Track 2: Two-Year SOGIE Data Collection and Analysis Support
  Following the virtual Certificate Program curriculum, participating teams will receive two additional days of virtual training specific to SOGIE data collection and analysis, including a training for trainers and the development of a training plan. In the two years following the trainings, Ceres Policy Research and CJJR will support sites in collecting and analyzing SOGIE data, as well as guide the sites in creating a Capstone Project based on the data findings through regular project management calls. The first year will be focused on collecting data, and the second year will be focused on analyzing and sharing data findings. This additional data support is inclusive of the Executive Certificate and remote technical assistance noted in Track 1.
• Track 3: Three-Year Strategic Plan Development and Implementation Assistance
  Building upon the virtual Certificate Program, SOGIE data training, and two years of data collection and analysis (Track 2), Ceres Policy Research and CJJR will provide an additional year of intensive technical assistance support to sites that chose this track. Sites will develop and implement strategic plans to address and mitigate disparate outcomes of youth across race and SOGIE, with a particular focus on supporting and affirming LGBQ/GNCT youth of color.

The Supporting LGBTQ Youth Certificate Program is designed for public and private sector leaders working in the youth justice, child welfare, mental health, substance use, education, and other related systems of care that serve youth involved in or at risk of becoming involved in the youth justice system. Those who participate in the program will be current and future leaders—individuals who are positioned to effectuate change. Participants can be from the local or state level and may include individuals working on best practices for this population at the national level.

While individuals applicants will be permitted, all applicants are strongly encouraged to apply as a team of up to 10 people to enhance their ability to implement reform efforts upon completion of the Certificate Program. Ideally, teams will include the most senior youth justice professional in the jurisdiction and representatives from core partners, including behavioral health and child welfare agencies, schools, and community-based organizations.

Strongly recommended team members include:

• Youth justice agency director/most senior youth justice leader in the jurisdiction, and/or key youth justice management staff such as Program Directors, Deputy Directors, facility management, etc.
• Leaders from partner agencies including child welfare, behavioral health, education, and community organizations focused on this population of children and youth
• Individuals with lived experience, including youth, families, and community leaders

Recommended team members include:

• Judges or others from the court system
• Treatment providers
• Law enforcement officials
• Probation/Parole staff
• Attorneys or advocates (e.g., defense attorneys, prosecutors, Guardians Ad Litem, Court Appointed Special Advocates)

We understand that the exact composition of the team will depend on the specific goals reflected in the application. However, teams should be composed of key system practitioners, policymakers, and impacted persons and should reflect racial and ethnic diversity as well as a capacity to collect and analyze data. Selection decisions will focus heavily on participants’ readiness for implementing reforms, assessed by asking applicants to summarize their role in past reform efforts, especially efforts that engaged leaders in other systems. Those selected for participation in the program will be able to demonstrate a commitment to promoting race equity and fairness, an understanding of the challenges that have arisen to date with respect to serving LGBTQ youth in their jurisdiction, and a dedication to overcoming those challenges.

During the program, participants will be encouraged to tailor their Capstone Projects to focus on areas in which they can have the most impact. CJJR and its partners will choose those applicants well-equipped to lead change in their communities, including those possessing the requisite experience and expertise and incorporating members with lived experience, such as community leaders, youth representatives, and/or family representatives. While there are no minimum education or experience requirements, a preference will be given to those with the ability and in a position to move reform efforts forward upon completion of the Certificate Program. While individual applicants are permitted, please note that students who do not hold a professional role in a child- serving organization may not apply individually for this program.

Finally, we are aware that jurisdictions may want to include more than 10 individuals on their team in order to create a more comprehensive approach to the work they will undertake through their Capstone Project. The limit we are placing on team members is designed to create relative balance between the teams in terms of size, thereby allowing the instructors to give equal attention to the participants/teams through the Zoom platform. However, in order to accommodate larger teams, we are offering an audit option that will allow teams that are applying with 10 team members to add up to 4 additional auditing participants to their team for no additional cost. These participants will have access to the instruction and webinars, but they will not actively participate in the interactive portions of the curriculum, become Fellows, or receive a Certificate from Georgetown.

We believe that the virtual Zoom platform allows us to offer this audit option without creating the imbalance noted above. Team members auditing the program do not need to complete the initial application. If a team seeking to add auditors is accepted into the program, CJJR staff will facilitate the submission of a supplementary application from those members.