REMARKS
Council Member Farah Louis introduces hearing on LGBTQ+ youth in foster care
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170 sec
Council Member Farah Louis, chair of the Committee on Women and Gender Equity, opens the joint hearing with the Committee on Children and Youth.
She highlights the challenges faced by LGBTQ+ youth in the foster care system, citing statistics from the 2021 ACS LGBTQ+ action plan and emphasizing the need for support and understanding for these young people.
- Louis mentions the overrepresentation of LGBTQ+ youth in foster care, making up over one-third of the population
- She discusses the agreement between ACS and the Ali Forney Center to address discrimination and safety issues
- The council member acknowledges the presence of stakeholders, including those with lived experiences, who have come to testify
Farah Louis
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Thank you, Cheers Stevens, and good afternoon, everyone.
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I'm the member of Sarah Lewis, chair on the Committee of Women And Gender Equity.
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I'd like to begin by thanking my colleague chair Althea Stevens of the Committee on Children And Youth for holding this important hearing.
0:06:01
Perfect.
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I would also like to welcome everyone who is joining us here this afternoon.
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We appreciate your time and participation.
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Under the best of circumstances, Forrester Care poses many challenges for the children and youth who are participants within the system.
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We know that children enforce the care into the system with unique histories, including those of trauma and in some cases abuse.
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Add to that, and overrepresentation of LGBTQ plus youth who are often thought of as the others.
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Within a system of others, if you will, we have a group of youngsters who are in need of care, understanding, compassion, education, and when necessary behavioral health supports.
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In 2021, the ACS LGBTQ AI plus action plan reported that LGBTQ AI youth were overrepresented in foster care representing over 1 third of the forced to care population and were more often youth of color.
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LGBTQ AI plus youth reported having experienced little to no control over their lives and foster care and reported having heard staff refer to them as being hard to place.
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These youth reported feelings as they had very little support and were found to suffer from higher rates of depression and reported experiencing fewer feelings of optimism when compared to non LGBTQIA youth in the forced secure system.
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At this hearing, the committees look forward to hearing from the administration about the current policies and practices in place to address reported incidents of safety and discrimination faced by LGBTQ plus youth in the forced care system, particularly the plans contained within the agreement between ACS And the Aliforny Center.
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The committees are also interested in hearing from the administration and members of the public and others in and other interested stakeholders, including those who has lived experiences.
0:08:03
Who have taken the time to come here today to join us, and we thank you again.
0:08:07
I would also like to thank my own staff as well as those of the committee the the joining committee who works so hard to prepare this hearing.
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Finally, I like to thank women and gender equity committee staff, legislative counsel, Sahar Mohami, set senior legislative policy analyst, Christy Dreyer, Vida Yakhnick, the finance analyst, and Rosa Martinez, assistant deputy director of data operations unit I will now pass it back to chair Stephen.
0:08:36
Thank you.
