Special Populations and Best Practices

A collaborative document from Lambda Legal, National Alliance to End Homelessness, National Network for Youth (NN4Y), and the National Center for Lesbian Rights includes best practices in working with LGBTQ youth. Though the recommendations listed in the document are specific to providing inclusive and culturally competent services to LGBT youth, it is extremely important to remember that many LGBT youth are also youth of color. Service providers, supervisors and administrators, should receive training on, and examine issues related to, race, racism, white privilege, and the intersection with gender and sexuality, in order to effectively respond to the needs of LGBT youth of color who are homeless. Agencies can use this document to help determine the fundamental issues they need to address to best work with LGBT youth and to evaluate how well they are currently meeting the needs of the LGBT youth they serve.