Integrating the Family Acceptance Project's Family Support Model into Family Group Decision-Making to Increase Family Support for LGBTQ Children & Youth to Prevent Placement in Foster Care

Background/ Purpose:  The Family Acceptance Project (FAP) – a research, education, intervention and policy initiative to help diverse families to support their LGBTQ children to prevent risk and promote well-being – has focused on applying FAP’s evidence-informed family support model across disciplines and systems of care.  This includes integrating FAP’s family support strategies and interventions into family group decision making to engage, preserve and support families with LGBTQ children that are under investigation by Child Protective Services (CPS) to prevent removal from the home. Through a collaboration between FAP, the Ruth Ellis Center (REC) – an LGBT social services agency that provides a range of emotional support services, mentoring, mental health services, residential foster care, behavioral health care and training – and Wayne County, Michigan’s Department of Health & Human Services, this pilot program uses FAP’s intervention framework to strengthen and help families to increase well-being related to family acceptance and to prevent placement in foster care.

 Methods: Mandatory training for all child welfare workers identifies families with LGBTQ and gender diverse children that are referred by CPS to the Ruth Ellis Center for intensive services in a family goal-centered program that provides services and support to parent/caregiver and LGBTQ children in an LGBT affirmative environment, grounded in FAP’s approach that supports children, youth and families in the context of their families, cultures, and faith traditions. Evaluation is focused on documenting behavioral change, increase in family connectedness, support and acceptance of their LGBTQ children, and progress towards achieving family goals.

Results: This session will present a case study of an African American lesbian youth and family from initial CPS referral through family support services to building parental support and acceptance of the youth’s lesbian identity.

Conclusions and Implications:  FAP’s family support model was developed to help ethnically and religiously diverse families to learn to support their LGBT children in a wide range of settings from upstream prevention through providing services and support when conflict erupts to helping to reconnect LGBTQ children and youth when families are fractured. Initial results in increasing family functioning, connectedness and support for their LGBTQ children in the REC family intervention program have been positive; the program is continuing to serve LGBTQ children, youth and families and will be expanded to serve LGBTQ children and youth in other REC programs and programs in other settings.