EQTY Elevating Queer & Trans Youth:
LGBTQ Homeless Youth Capacity Building Project
Year Two Report Prepared for: Pride Foundation Submitted By: Shannon Perez-Darby, NWN Youth Program Director Breona Mendoza, Youth Advocate Carrie Lippy, PhD, Evaluation Consultant Connie Burk, Executive Director
EQTY a project of The NW Network P.O. Box 18436 Seattle, WA 98118 nwnetwork.org
EQ TY Table of Contents Overview
3
Year Two Training & Strategy Sessions
4
Section 3: Regional Collaboration & Referral
4
Session 4: Supporting trans and gender non-conforming youth
4
Session 5: Built Environment
4
Year Two Evaluation Activities
5
Action Plans
5
Organizational Year Two Successes
6
Lessons Learned
9
Lesson One: Organizations Need Further Support to Serve LGBTQ Youth of Color
9
Lesson Two: Know Why/ Tell Why
10
Lesson Three: More Training To Support Trans and Gender Non-Conforming Youth
11
Lesson Four: Housing Solutions for LGBTQ Youth Cannot Be One Size Fits All
12
Lesson Five: Equitable Collaboration
13
Next Steps
16
Overview
The Elevating Queer and Trans Youth Project (EQTY) works with regional service providers to both assess our region’s current capacity to meet the unique needs of LGBTQ homeless youth, and to build our capacity to provide competent and explicit services to LGBTQ homeless and unstably housed young people. This three-year capacity-building effort includes training and strategy sessions, organizational and staff assessments, and technical assistance. The project uses a cohort model to simultaneously work with five agencies in King County, including New Horizons, YouthCare, Friends of Youth, Auburn Youth Resources, and The Y of Greater Seattle. Project EQTY increases cohort agencies’ coordination, competence, and capacity to support LGBTQ homeless youth in order to address underlying conditions that lead to the overrepresentation of LGBTQ youth and youth of color in homelessness.
During the first year of EQTY, the NW Network conducted a series of meetings, organizational assessments, trainings and individual site visits with all of our EQTY partners. These trainings included an in-depth look at the culturally specific needs of LGBTQ youth and gave an overview of best practices for collecting inclusive and representative data on LGBTQ youth. The project partners began formulating action plans that incorporated their learnings from these trainings. Project partners received technical assistance from the NW Network to begin implementing their action plans.
Year Two Highlights Each EQTY Partner:
Carried out a Built Environment survey which provided information on the structural make up of each program’s drop-in facilities and emergency, communal/shared, and scattered-site housing.
Completed three full days of in-person training.
Worked with young people in their programs to complete a “photo feedback project” to understand youth participants’ experience of the physical layout of each organization.
The NW Network
Presented preliminary findings and lessons learned from Project EQTY to the King County Council on April 5th 2016.
Advocated for LGBTQ homeless youth by recommending community-based solutions at the King County Homeless Youth and Young Adult Advisory meetings and other community events related to homeless services.
Participated in Count Us In and partnered with Lifelong’s program HEYO to put on a dinner and movie night for LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness.
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Year Two Year Two Training & Trainings Strategy Sessions
The NW Network conducted three training and strategy sessions with EQTY partners in year two. Each full day session focused on specific priority issues and featured nationally recognized trainers with local expertise on supporting LGBTQ communities. Outlined below are brief summaries and key takeaways from each of the three sessions.
Session 3: Regional Collaboration & Referral
The NW Network covered best practices for collaboration, outreach and referrals when working with marginalized communities. Shannon Perez-Darby, the NW Network Youth Program Director, led the training. To meet LGBTQ youth’s needs, she proposed that the field needs both more culturally specific LGBTQ services and more mainstream providers who can competently serve LGBTQ communities. She advised that collaborating with culturally specific organizations can help mainstream programs expand their capacity to respond to the needs of marginalized youth.
Session 4: Supporting Trans & Gender NonConforming Youth
The NW Network led discussions and activities that explored creative strategies to meet the unique needs of trans and gender non-conforming (GNC) youth. Kristin Tucker, the National Training and Technical Assistance Senior Program Manager at the NW Network, led the training. She conducted a series of activities where EQTY partners explored how society constructs and maintains gender roles and how these roles negatively impact transgender and GNC youth.
Session 5: Built Environment
Session 5 explored how built environment can impact youths’ access to supports and services. Connie Burk, the Executive Director of the NW Network, shared her knowledge on domestic violence shelters. She described the history of shelters, their current structural limitations, and the impacts of these limitations on survivors. Further, she explained how the lessons learned from the domestic violence movement can inform how we create more inclusive homeless youth housing services that address the unique needs of LGBTQ youth.
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Year Two Evaluation Activities
Action Plans
The NW Network team analyzed and presented the results from the pre-test surveys and the organizational assessments conducted in the first year that related to the year two training topic areas. Additionally, we collected surveys from all project partners about the built environment of their housing facilities. The online built environment survey asked detailed questions about the structure of partners’ drop-in facilities and emergency, communal/shared, and scattered-site housing. The findings from this survey were presented in training session five.
At each of the EQTY trainings, the partners completed action plans that encompassed their takeaways from the training. Below is a list of some of the action plans created by EQTY partners in year two.
Organizational Action Plans
Creating systems to ensure streamlined, LGBTQ inclusive data collection Touring facilities that specifically serve LGBTQ com munities Editing all intake forms to increase gender inclusivity and confidentiality Developing a script for conducting intakes and training all staff and volunteers on updated intake procedures Improving website usability Collaborating with agency departments to develop and implement hiring and training policies that are LGBTQ competent Adapting programming for LGBTQ youth and young adults Organizing a youth committee and supporting youth to advocate with policy makers
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Organizational Year Two Successes
The final report will include an extensive overview of the actions accomplished by the cohorts. In the interim, we wanted to lift up the voice of EQTY partners and highlight some of their key accomplishments to date. To do this, we asked each partner agency to describe their most meaningful success and their experiences with the project thus far. Below is a brief snapshot of responses from each organization. Project staff edited the description of some of the successes to clarify them and create consistency across agencies.
Auburn Youth Resources Success #1: Auburn Youth Resources edited all of their paperwork to incorporate gender inclusive questions and language.
Success #2: Auburn Youth Resources’ staff gained a more comprehensive understanding of some of the challenges that face the LGBTQ population. They are more comfortable and familiar with appropriate terminology, which has enabled them to be better listeners, advocates, and service providers. "This has been a very interesting and enjoyable experience. This is such a growing, rapidly changing population. It's been great to get some expert education and background on the issues our clients may be facing, as well as to learn and grow from other professionals' experience and expertise in their programs."
Success #1
Success #2
Logo?
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Friends of Youth Success #1: Friends of Youth changed the way they gather information throughout their programs to incorporate all gender identities. The HR department is also looking to make similar changes on the job application forms.
Success #2: Friends of Youth published a page on its website to clarify its support of all LGBTQ+ young people.
Success #3: Friends of Youth will be taking part in a number of events associated with Seattle PRIDE, culminating in the first time that Friends of Youth will be represented in the June 26th Pride Parade. “It is incredibly exciting to be a part of the EQTY committee at Friends of Youth. We have been supported by the leadership here and also encouraged to push for change.”
New Horizons Success #1: New Horizons edited all program intake forms to use questions and language that are gender inclusive and that honor client confidentiality.
Success #2: New Horizons changed all bathrooms and shower rooms to be gender neutral in the drop in space. "Project EQTY has affected everything from our intake forms to water access. From direct service, to facilities staff, to development staff, our EQTY team and EQTY questions have engaged every level of our organization to improve the service experience for young people who identify as LGBTQ, which translates into better service for all young people."
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The Y of Greater Seattle Success #1: The Y changed all of their forms to be more inclusive of LGBTQ youth.
Success #2: The Y established a cohort of staff who plans to address the Y’s spaces/built environment, aiming to make the Resource Center more welcoming and useful for all, especially the LGBTQ community. “Project EQTY has been a unique opportunity to collaborate with partners and raise the bar on all housing/drop in services across the county. It’s opened our eyes, provided a unique lens and challenge to think more broadly about true inclusivity and how that looks both in policy and on the ground in practice.”
YouthCare Success #1: YouthCare has changed and updated the agency’s youth intake forms, ensuring that they use best practices to support LGBTQ youth and young adults in its programs and community.
Success #2: YouthCare is moving towards providing staff training and development opportunities so that staff can ensure that the agency continues to be a safe place for all people. “Project EQTY has provided YouthCare with numerous opportunities to build stronger relationships and work partnerships to support the LGBTQ Youth and Young Adults in the King County area.”
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Lessons Learned
Lesson 1
The following sections provide an overview of the key findings and lessons learned from year two of Project EQTY. The lessons stem from both the evaluation findings and the trainings provided in year two. We also provide brief recommendations for the region based on each lesson learned.
Organizations Need Further Support to Serve LGBTQ Youth of Color The organizational assessment data revealed a need among agencies to take a more intersectional approach to serving LGBTQ youth. For example, as demonstrated in the figure below, although most EQTY partner agencies reported using visual cues to welcome LGBTQ communities throughout their organization’s spaces, the majority did not use racially and ethnically diverse LGBTQ material. Additional support is clearly needed for organizations to attend to the intersection between sexual orientation, gender identity, and race/ethnicity.
Although most organizations use visual cues to welcome LGBTQ communities throughout their organizational spaces, the majority did not use racially and ethnically diverse LGBTQ cues. Organization uses artwork, magazines, imagery or other visual cues to convey that:
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Practical Applications
Lesson 2
Regional service providers should dedicate resources to hear directly from youth of color about their needs and their access to both informal and formal supports & services. Agencies should prioritize hiring queer & trans people of color.
Know Why/Tell Why In year one of Project EQTY, the NW Network trained project partners on the best practices for collecting LGBTQ inclusive data. However, in addition to knowing what to ask, agencies need guidance on how and when to ask about the sexual orientation and gender identity of participants. In Training Session 4, the NW Network explained its Know Why/Tell Why approach to collecting data on sexual orientation and gender identity. The approach specifies that before collecting this data, agencies should know why they are collecting it. Is it to meet funder requirements? Is it to better understand participants? Will it be used to help determine housing placement for the youth? The second part of the approach is to “tell why.” That is, to explain the reason agencies are collecting this information to the young person. Doing so will help ensure that youth understand how their data is being used and who may have access to it. Through the trainings in year two, it became clear that agencies need guidance in developing policies and procedures to enact a Know Why/Tell Why approach to collecting sexual orientation and gender identity questions. In particular, some expressed a need for clear policies and practices to ensure the protection and privacy of the data. Additionally, many project partners indicated challenges with funder driven demographic data collection. For example, when reporting demographic information to funders, many programs must use binary gender reporting options that do not reflect the identities of their program participants.
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Practical Applications
Lesson 3
Clarify organizational confidentiality policies for all data collected on youth, including sexual orientation and gender identity data.
Clarify organizational procedures for collecting participant data on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Train staff to talk to youth about why the agency collects sexual orientation and gender identity data.
More Training Needed to Support Trans and Gender Non-Conforming Youth The pretest surveys, organizational assessment, and feedback from the project partners revealed the need for staff to receive more in-depth training on trans and gender nonconforming communities. The organizational assessments indicated that none of the organizations prepared staff to talk to LGBTQ clients about gender identity. The pretests further revealed that project partners felt the least comforable and compentent discussing gender identity and expression.
Staff at EQTY agencies felt least competent to talk to LGBTQ participants about their experiences with gender identity and expression. In providing services or programs, I feel like I can competently talk to LGBTQ clients/participants about their experiences with: (n=21)
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Practical Applications
Lesson 4
Fund opportunities for ongoing learning regarding gender identity and support for transgender and/or gender non-conforming people.
Invest in on-going technical assistance (rather than one-time trainings) on gender identity and support for transgender and gender non-conforming people.
When agencies use qualified internal staff to provide LGBTQ trainings, they should ensure that the staff member is funded and that trainings are a part of that person’s established work plan. Agencies should also recognize that even if they have internal expertise, external LGBTQ expertise may be still be needed to address issues that are challenging for internal staff to address.
Housing Solutions for LGBTQ Youth Cannot Be One Size Fits All Findings from the Built Environment survey illustrated a considerable diversity in the housing facilities provided by EQTY partners. Agencies differed widely in things such as number of beds and average lengths of stay in their different types of housing facilities.
Housing Facility Characteristic
Range among EQTY Partners
Average length of stay at emergency housing facility
7 – 90 days
Number of beds provided in emergency housing facility
12 – 28 beds
Number of beds provided through communal housing facilities
16 – 59 beds
Average number of beds per communal housing facility
5 – 12 beds/ house
Average stay at scatter site housing facility
9 months – 3 years
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Different types of housing may work better or worse for different populations of youth. For example, the number of gender neutral bathrooms and the privacy afforded in different types of facilities may affect the comfort and even access for trans and GNC youth. Therefore special attention should be paid to connecting each young person with the facility and agency that can best meet their needs rather than working to create uniformity across housing facilities.
Practical Applications
Lesson 5
Transgender youth should be prioritized in all coordinated housing assessments to account for the high barriers they face in accessing safe and stable housing.
All coordinated housing assessments and practices should factor in the unique services, structure, and capacity of housing programs when making placements to ensure their appropriateness for marginalized populations like LGBTQ youth.
Equitable Collaboration The organizational assessments revealed that EQTY partners maintain some connections to LGBTQ organizations. As demonstrated in the figure on page 14, all agencies connect with LGBTQ organizations and providers by making LGBTQ referrals with relative frequency. However, many organizations showed a need and expressed a desire to expand their relationships with LGBTQ communities. For example, agencies co-advocate and cultivate relationships with LGBTQ agencies far less frequently. In fact, 80% of agencies reported that they rarely or very rarely coadvocate1 with LGBTQ providers. The degree of co-advocacy serves as an important indicator of the depth of the collaboration across agencies.
1
Co-advocacy is a model of support where multiple programs work together, each utilizing their unique resources and expertise to build a comprehensive network of support.
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Although some EQTY agencies make LGBTQ referrals frequently, all agencies only occasionally or rarely cultivate relationships with or co-advocate with LGBTQ providers.
In addition to their direct work with LGBTQ agencies, we also considered EQTY agencies’ participation in LGBTQ events and coalitions as another indicator of equitable collaborations. We wanted to understand the extent to which EQTY partners provide resources to LGBTQ causes and communities. As seen in the figure below, the organizational needs assessment revealed that most EQTY organizations do not participate in LGBTQ community events or regional efforts. For example 40% of agencies reported that they very rarely sponsor events that appeal to LGBTQ communities. Part of equitably collaborating with marginalized groups involves participating in, and contributing to, the group’s events.
The majority of EQTY agencies (60%) do not participate in regional task forces or community and cultural events related to LGBTQ communities. Does your organization participate in: (n=5)
EQTY YEAR TWO REPORT 14
Most agencies rarely or very rarely sponsor events that appeal to LGBTQ communities.
Practical Applications
Youth serving organizations should prioritize attending and supporting (through sponsorship ads, in-kind donation, etc.) LGBTQ community events. Attendance and support of these events are important community signals of connection and endorsement. They build trust with the community by strengthening community resources.
Agencies should expand efforts to work alongside marginalized providers, co-advocating and collaborating in ways that support both agencies.
The region should expand opportunities and invest resources for “by and for” organizations to take the lead on projects and initiatives
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Next Steps
The final year of the Project EQTY pilot project will focus on sustaining organizational change. The fall and winter training and strategies session will take a deeper dive into how the cohort can create long-term sustainable change within their organizations. It is only through sustainable changes that all homeless youth can receive competent and equitable supports that address not only the systemic barriers they face but also their unique gifts, experiences and resiliency. The final training session in the spring of 2017 will be an opportunity for these five agencies to celebrate the many changes they have made. Each organization will have the opportunity to present on changes they have made and celebrate three years of hard work.
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EQ TY EQTY a project of
The NW Network Shannon Perez-Darby, Youth Program Director 206.568.7777 shannon@nwnetwork.org P.O. Box 18436 Seattle, WA 98118 nwnetwork.org