A new study has found that one in five foster youth in Los Angeles are LGBTQ — which means they are over-represented compared to LGBTQ youth in the general population. They’re also twice as likely to report being treated poorly and twice as likely to live in a group facility compared to non-LGBTQ youth. But a bold project is working on a new model of caring for LGBTQ foster youth, in L.A. and across the country — and it needs your help.
The Los Angeles Foster Youth Survey (LAFYS) was funded as part of a landmark $13.3 million, five-year grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to the Los Angeles LGBT Center (the Center). It was co-authored by scholars at UCLA’s Williams Institute and Holarchy Consulting. They found that in L.A.’s foster care system, the largest in the nation:
- 19% of foster youth identify as LGBTQ (13.4% — LGB or questioning; 5.6% transgender); that’s as much as twice the estimated percentage of youth not in foster care who are LGBTQ.
- Generally, LGBTQ foster youth mirror the racial/ethnic demographic of all foster youth in Los Angeles County; the majority are people of color. The study found that over 86% were Latino, Black, or API identified.
- More than 18% of all respondents reported experiencing discrimination related to their perceived sexual orientation or gender identity/expression, some of whom don’t identify as LGBTQ.
- LGBTQ youth are more than twice as likely to live in a group home and have a higher average number of home placements.
- LGBTQ youth are twice as likely to report being treated poorly by the foster care system.
- The percentage of LGBTQ youth who were hospitalized for emotional reasons (13.5%) was nearly triple the percentage of similar hospitalizations for non-LGBTQ youth (4.2%), but physical reasons for hospitalization were reported less often.
The Center has been working to reform L.A.’s foster care system for four years. In coalition with more than 20 other organizations, they’ve developed and are testing what they call “a new model of service to better protect and care for LGBTQ foster youth.” Among other things, this RISE Project has trained 1,500 L.A. County child welfare staffers about the LGBTQ community.
Lorri Jean, CEO of the Center, explained in an e-mail to supporters that their model could have national impact:
We have no reason to believe the challenges faced by LGBTQ foster youth are unique to those in Los Angeles. So once we’ve shown how we can change the system in L.A., we plan to share our model with other counties to improve the care of foster youth throughout the nation. But to do that, we need to build awareness of the problems and convince political leaders and foster care agencies that there must be change.
That’s where we all come in. Please sign the Center’s statement of support for reforms to foster care systems, then help spread the #FosterChange message through social media (and word of mouth, the original social media).