As we enter June’s LGBTQ+ Pride Month, CASA is raising awareness of the needs of LGBTQ+ youth in foster care and the ways our advocates can speak up for their best interests! A 2019 study showed 30.4% of youth in foster care are LGBTQ+, compared to 11% of the general population being LGBTQ+. In 2017, a CDC study found 1 in 50 high school students identify as transgender or gender-nonconforming.
Youth who are LGBTQ+ are 2.7x more likely to enter the child welfare system, often because of the violence and abandonment they experience from their families when they come out as LGBTQ+. However, CASA of Tarrant County is working to provide resources for our advocates working with LGBTQ+ youth, including sharing resources from Texas CASA, the Human Rights Campaign’s All Children – All Families: Participating on Behalf of a CASA Affiliate, and faith-based LGBTQ+ resources.
CASA of Tarrant County staff also provided a recent training on LGBTQ+ care and advocacy as part of a training working with on older youth at-risk of aging out of foster care, and CASA is working to recruit more LGBTQ+ advocates through specific marketing and partnerships.