The goal of this Toolkit is help staff and organizations become better allies of LGBTQ2S youth. In order to do this, we need to create welcoming and affirming spaces for LGBTQ2S youth. Before we can create welcoming and affirming spaces we need to understand the current context of what our spaces are like for LGBTQ2S youth. Following this, we need to ask young people how our processes need to be revised to make our spaces safe, comfortable, supportive, and respective for youth. Staff need accessible training to improve our practice. Organizations need access to tools that will assist with the development of policies, forms, signage, etc. With this foundation of knowledge, training, and resources; we can become better allies for LGBTQ2S youth experiencing homelessness.

This project will have the following outcomes:

• Online training resources for staff
• Promising practices inventory for working with LGBTQ2S youth
• The beginning of a national response to the overrepresentation of LGBTQ2S youth in the homeless population based on community input/involvement and cultural programming and transitional knowledge sustainability
• Improved experiences of LGBTQ2S youth accessing the programs of participating organizations
• Showcase emerging and promising practices that support LGBTQ2S youth living in urban and suburban communities with a goal of developing strategies that would work in rural, northern and remote communities.

We hope you find this Toolkit to be a valuable resource in your practice and that it assists you in making it better now for LGBTQ2S youth experiencing homelessness.