Supporting LGBTQ Youth in Care

The Muskie School will be partnering with the Office of Child and Family Services to present a clinical training entitled, “Working with LGBTQ Youth in Care.” Research has shown that LGBTQ Youth in Care are more likely to age out of the system and to experience homelessness and other adverse outcomes following foster care than youth who do not identify as LGBTQ. (Cite). The needs of LGBTQ Youth are often not fully understood or appreciated by caseworkers and resource families which can contribute to adverse outcomes. This training will be designed to present some of the issues confronting LGBTQ youth, identify some of the ways in which caseworkers, resource parents, and others working with LGBTQ youth in care can best support them, and offer an opportunity for a conversation with young LGBTQ who are themselves alumni of the foster care system. Following the youth panel presentation, audience participants will be challenged to create an action plan and have a conversation about how they can implement some of the suggestions identified by the keynote speaker and the panelists.

The keynote speaker for this presentation will be Gerald P. Mallon, DSW, who is the Julia Lathrop Professor of Child Welfare and Executive Director of the National Center for Child Welfare Excellence at the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College in New York City.

For more than 38 years, Dr. Mallon has been a child welfare practitioner, advocate, educator, and researcher. Dr. Mallon is the Senior Editor of the professional journal, Child Welfare and the author or editor of more than twenty-three books. In his role as the Executive Director of the NCCWE, Dr. Mallon has traveled to all 50 states, territories and tribes to improve outcomes for children, youth, and families and to build organizational capacity with child welfare systems. Dr. Mallon has written and lectured extensively on the issues relevant to LGBTQ youth and youth in care, and has worked extensively with programs designed to give foster and homeless gay youth places to focus on their sexuality and other issues so that they can prepare to live in a world that is not always as welcoming.

He has lectured and worked extensively throughout the United States, and internationally in Australia, Canada, Cuba, Indonesia, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. He earned his doctorate in Social Welfare from the City University of New York at Hunter College, was awarded his MSW from Fordham University and graduated with his BSW from Dominican College, and he puts his money where his mouth is as he has been a foster parent and is an adoptive parent.

Attendance is limited to OCFS staff.