‘A good place:' Queer youth seek acceptance at state's first foster home for LGBTQ+ teens

The Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Anita May Rosenstein campus provides an intergenerational community — and housing — for LGBTQ+ youth and seniors experiencing homelessness. The Center has 202 affordable housing units and it also offers several programs and services including counseling, support groups, job assistance, skills training and connections to health and mental health care, all while fostering community between the seniors and youth staying at the Center.

The Fostering Connections to Success Act helps aged-out foster children obtain housing, but it's not always easy for LGBTQ+ youth to find safe, accepting places to live. But with the newly implemented Resource Family Approval program, members of area child protective services departments and foster care representatives meet with potential foster families to evaluate how they would support LGBTQ+ youth in their home.

In Washington, D.C., where only 27% of Black students read at grade level, the nonprofit Everybody Wins DC launched Power Readers, a program that pairs elementary students with volunteer mentors for weekly one-on-one reading sessions. Operating in six schools, the program allows students to choose their own books, receive personalized attention during lunchtime sessions, and access free, culturally relevant reading materials. J.O. Wilson Elementary recorded more than a 10% increase in literacy rates between 2022 and 2024 after implementing the program.

DEAN Initiative's Youth Health Access Initiative addresses healthcare misconceptions among young people through targeted community outreach, educational workshops in local languages, and training programs for healthcare workers. The initiative specifically addresses myths that Primary Healthcare Centers are only for pregnant women and children, and that health insurance is only for the sick, helping to increase healthcare accessibility.

The Kids with a Vision Foundation (K-WAVF) provides care and shelter, particularly to vulnerable youth displaced by conflicts. K-WAVF’s team of community representatives also partners with local schools to take youth on educational field trips and provide vocational training. Since its inception in 2013, K-WAVF has extended its reach across five local government areas in the state.

Women and Children with Albinism in Uganda is a supportive shelter for women and children with albinism to build a community and be safe from stigma and violence. At the shelter, women are trained in a variety of skills, like tailoring and farming, to be able to sustain themselves and their families. Over the past decade, about 40 women and children across four regions have been positively impacted by the group.

Transform Cincy provides free, personalized styling experiences for trans and gender-nonconforming youth who may not be safe or comfortable shopping in public spaces. The organization has helped hundreds of youth find a wardrobe that helps them feel like their true selves and offers events and resources for the local LGBTQ+ community, from board game nights to screen printing classes.

Mary’s Place family homeless shelter waives fees for young residents interested in participating in its girl scout troop. The troop is the first of its kind to be based in a homeless shelter in the state of Washington.

Health Care Advocates International’s free breast binder program provides binders to transgender youths by donating them to local clinics or paying to ship them. The binders help prevent body dysphoria triggers by creating a flat-chest appearance.

The Volunteers of America's Face Forward 2 program offers a second chance to youth offenders by focusing on education and employment. Destyni Iverson believes the program potentially changed the trajectory of life. She said she felt hopeless when she enrolled, and was on the verge of becoming a high school dropout. Now she is enrolled as a nursing student at Cuyahoga Community College and believes she has a bright future.