Options & Recommendations for Clinical Issues Adolescents Deal With Paper Adolescence is considered a distinct developmental period. Discuss one clinical i

Options & Recommendations for Clinical Issues Adolescents Deal With Paper Adolescence is considered a distinct developmental period. Discuss one clinical issue that may be faced by an adolescent (bullying, eating disorders, suicidal ideations, depression, substance abuse, etc.). Explore options and recommend a treatment professional and a setting to address the adolescent’s issue. State why that professional and that setting are the best options. Your journal entry may be informally written in first person and should consist of approximately 350 words

References

Martin, M.E. (2014). Introduction to human services: Through the eyes of practice settings (3rd. ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education. ISBN: 9780205848058

Shelton, J., & Winkelstein, J. (2014). Librarians and social workers: Working together for homeless LGBTQ youth. Young Adult Library Services, 13(1), 20-24. feature
Hot Spot: Yes I Can
Librarians and
Social Workers:
Working Together for
Homeless LGBTQ Youth
By Jama Shelton
and Julie Winkelstein
L
esbian, gay, bisexual, and
transgender (LGBTQ) youth
make up only 5 to 7 percent
of the general youth population, yet
up to 40 percent of the population
of youth experiencing homelessness.1
Many LGBTQ youth—regardless of
whether they are homeless or not—face
harassment, victimization, violence, social
stigma, rejection, and discrimination in
JAMA SHELTON, LMSW, PhD, is a nationally recognized leader on the
issue of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth homelessness,
with more than 14 years of experience working with LGBT youth,
the last 10 of which were focused specifically on the issue of homelessness. Shelton is currently the True Colors Fund’s Forty to None
Project Director. In this role, Shelton is engaged in systemic change
efforts directly informed by years of direct practice experience.
Shelton is also an Adjunct Professor at the NYU Silver School of
Social Work and the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College. After 20 years as a public librarian, JULIE ANN WINKELSTEIN,
MLiS, PhD, returned to school and completed her PhD in 2012 at
the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where she is currently an
Adjunct Professor and Postdoctoral Researcher. Her research
interests focus on the intersection of public libraries and social justice issues, such as youth homelessness, accessibility, and inequalities caused by social disparities. Winkelstein passionately believes
in public libraries as essential partners in the creation of safe and
vibrant communities. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
20
YALS
Young Adult Library Services
Fall 2014
their families, schools, employment, and
social settings.2
The Human Rights Campaign’s
Growing Up LGBTQ in America, a
groundbreaking survey of more than
10,000 LGBTQ-identified youth ages 13
to 17, provides important information
regarding how LGBTQ young people
experience life in their communities.
Nearly half of LGBTQ youth (47 percent)
surveyed said they do not “fit in” in their
community, while only 16 percent of
non-LGBTQ youth reported feeling that
way. Furthermore, 63 percent of LGBTQ
youth stated that they will need to move to
another part of the country in order to feel
accepted.3
For LGBTQ youth experiencing
homelessness, community rejection is
often compounded by family rejection.
Based on a survey conducted by the
True Colors Fund and the Williams
Institute, top causes of homelessness
among LGBTQ youth include: (1) family
rejection resulting from sexual orientation
or gender identity; (2) physical, emotional,
or sexual abuse; (3) aging out of the
foster care system; and (4) financial and
emotional neglect.4 Family rejection
leads to a host of additional risk factors
for LGBTQ youth, regardless of their
housing status. For example, according
to the Family Acceptance Project, LGB
youth who come from highly rejecting
families are more than eight times as
likely to have attempted suicide as LGB
peers with little to no family rejection.5
While homeless, LGBTQ youth are also
at greater risk for traumatic experiences
including: engaging in survival sex that
often results in sexual assault; being
bullied and victimized; and dropping out
of school.6 Over time, ongoing exposure
to traumatic stresses, particularly during
childhood and adolescence, can become
toxic and impact physiological, emotional,
and cognitive functioning as well as
identity formation.7
Shelton and Winkelstein
The unique experiences of LGBTQ
youth experiencing homelessness require
unique interventions—prevention e?orts,
education and awareness campaigns, and
community-based strategies to ensure the
health and well-being for the thousands of
homeless LGBTQ youth in our country.
Libraries and librarians are potential
resources for both LGBTQ youth who are
homeless or at risk of homelessness and
also communities that may be struggling
with how to solve the problem of LGBTQ
youth homelessness.
We hope the following personal
stories will inspire you to be those
resources, by reaching out to local
service providers, exploring some of the
recommended materials, and becoming
part of the caring community these young
people need.
Our Stories
Julie’s Story: When I left public
librarianship after 20 years, I was headed
for an LIS doctoral program with diversity
on my mind. However, over the first
two years, I gradually became interested
in the topic of homelessness and public
libraries—a topic rife with controversy,
stereotypes, and unanswered questions.
Then one day my advisor handed me a
newspaper clipping (a real paper one)
about homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender, and queer/questioning
(LGBTQ) youth. I was shocked to learn
that up to 40 percent of the 2.1 million
unaccompanied youth in the United
States identified as LGBTQ. I wondered if
they were using libraries, and I wondered
how they survived on the streets, where
they were getting their information,
how they stayed safe, and how I could
help. When I thought about the triple
challenge of being young, being LGBTQ,
and being homeless in a country that is in
general so judgmental about poverty and
homelessness, I wanted to know more.
And so my doctoral research became about
these young people and public libraries.
I interviewed public librarians,
service providers who worked with these
youth and the youth themselves. I learned
about the challenges these young people
face every day—living on the streets or
in various kinds of temporary housing. I
discovered many of them were spending
long periods of time in public libraries.
Libraries were places where they could
blend in, be out of the disapproving public
eye, and at the same time gain access to
much-needed information about housing,
education, employment, meals, and
medical and social services. They were also
readers, and where better to be a reader
than a library?
However, I also discovered that
overall they kept their library presence as
hidden as possible. They were reluctant
to engage with sta?, attend programs, ask
questions, or in any way draw attention to
themselves. They were in a way at crosspurposes with the library sta?, because by
remaining invisible they were not getting
the help a librarian could provide. But they
were using the public space of a library.
As librarians, we sometimes resist the
idea of a library being a safe and temperate
place where someone experiencing
homelessness can find shelter. In fact, we
create rules and policies that can prevent
some from using the library this way.
We have rules about the size of baggage.
We require a permanent address to get
a library card, and we require a library
card to use the Internet computers. We
enforce no sleeping policies. Some libraries
are flexible, but many are not. These
rules are designed to create a particular
atmosphere at the library—an atmosphere
that is welcoming to those who can arrive
showered, rested, well fed, and interested
in the library as only a resource. However,
they are unwelcoming to those, like the
youth I interviewed, who do not belong
Fall 2014
to that group. As one service provider put
it when asked about the library and the
young people he works with:
“They don’t feel welcomed…they are
LGBTQ street youth and there’s a stigma
to that.…This one young person said it
very accurately, ‘We’re not o?ered the
same services as someone who comes in
dressed nicely and smells good.’ ”
One of the young people I
interviewed, Theresa, also described
feeling unwelcome at the library:
“There’s a sense that you’re doing
something wrong…by being in places that
aren’t meant for homeless. You know, the
general perception of the library isn’t, it
certainly isn’t a homeless drop-in center.…
So, I think there’s that same feeling, you
know, that ‘I might not be welcome here.
They might not want me here. If they see
me, they might throw me out.’ ”
This feeling of being an unwelcome
guest in the library and of being on
the verge of being ejected creates
an unwillingness on the part of the
homeless youth to reveal their housing
status. Cedar, another young person I
interviewed, told me he loved the library
and spent as much time as he could there,
mainly reading. However, when he arrived
in the city, his backpack was stolen at the
bus depot and so he ended up with only
one set of clothes and a small student-like
backpack. Since he had few belongings to
carry with him and since he could shower
and store his one blanket (given to him at
the shelter) at the emergency shelter for
youth, he could “pass” for housed. But
because he wore the same clothes every
day, he worried the library sta? would
notice and deduce he was homeless.
So, even though he wanted to, he did
not go to the library every day. He was
embarrassed to be without the continuity
of permanent shelter, and he was ashamed
to be on his own.
It is traumatic to be kicked out of a
family house for being who you are, and
Young Adult Library Services
YALS
21
Librarians and Social Workers
this trauma is a part of the lives of these
young people. Homeless LGBTQ youth
need acceptance; they need to experience
an environment that supports them for
being themselves. They need caring adults
who learn their names and ask how they
are. They need what every library user
wants: a place to receive the information
services they need in a non-judgmental,
welcoming and respectful way. This is
challenging when one’s very existence has
been stigmatized.
The further I got into my research,
the more I became aware of the barriers
libraries create for homeless LGBTQ
youth. Besides the public conduct policies
and the various rules, many of these young
people also fall into a crevice in library
services that has not really been addressed.
Since their ages range from 12 to 24, some
of them are between the ages of 18 and
22. Many have “aged out” of foster care
and, unfortunately, they have also aged
out of young adult library services. Yet,
like their housed counterparts, their needs
are unique to their ages. They are what
has been called “emerging adults,” a term
that could certainly be applied to LGBTQ
homeless youth. In many ways they are old
beyond their years, in other ways they have
some catching up to do.
I am on one of the YALSA listservs
and every day I read about another
wonderful program addressing the needs
of the younger young adults. And of
course there are services particularly for
younger ages, including sections devoted
to children, with creative furniture, bright
colors, learning stations, reading nooks,
and all the other ways in which libraries
support literacy and books and childhood.
But what about these young people?
Where are their spaces? Who has asked
them about their needs and lives? As I
finished my degree, these are the questions
I asked myself.
After graduating, I was hired as the
postdoctoral researcher on a three-year
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Young Adult Library Services
IMLS grant that provides continuing
education on this topic to public librarians.
As part of the LAMBDA (Library
Anchor Models for Bridging Diversity
Achievements; lambda.sis.utk.edu)
project, I attend conferences to present
information about these young people and
how librarians can make a di?erence in
their lives.
In 2013, I had the opportunity to
be on an ALA GLBTRT (Gay Lesbian
Bisexual Transgender Round Table
of the American Library Association)
panel at the ALA annual conference.
I was the moderator, and the panel
consisted of me (the librarian), and a
combination of professionals who work
with homeless LGBTQ youth and some
youth themselves. Called “Safe in the
Stacks: Community Spaces for Homeless
LGBTQ Youth” (www.ala.org/glbtrt/
tools/homeless-LGBTQ-youth), the panel
o?ered librarians the opportunity to hear
from this community. It also brought Dr.
Jama Shelton into my life, and for that I
will always be grateful.
Like me, Jama had recently received
her PhD. Her topic overlapped beautifully
with mine, since she had looked at
homeless transgender youth. Jama came
from a social work background, rather
than a library one, so we were like a perfect
Venn diagram—our shared interest in
homeless LGBTQ youth brought together
two fields that can—and sometimes do—
work together to address social justice
issues like this one.
Since then, Jama and I have
co-presented two more times. Both
presentations were outside of the
professional library world. One was at
the “Beyond Housing” Conference in
New York City in January 2014, and the
second was at the 2014 National Gay and
Lesbian Task Force’s “Creating Change”
conference in Houston, Texas. For each of
these we included a local librarian, because
we wanted to emphasize the possibilities
Fall 2014
of working with libraries. We also created
a worksheet for each attendee to fill
out—listing an issue related to homeless
LGBTQ youth, how the library could
help, a barrier that might be encountered,
and a suggestion for addressing that
barrier. These worksheets o?ered
attendees the opportunity to consider
how a library could make a di?erence in
their work and inspired some meaningful
exchanges among audience members and
the panel. Participants were enthusiastic
about the possibilities and shared some
of their ideas. We have included some of
these at the end of this piece.
This interest in collaborating
supported what I found in my research.
Both the service providers and public
librarians said they would be willing to
work together to address LGBTQ youth
homelessness—although in most cases this
was not something they had previously
considered. The service providers were
surprised librarians would be interested
in these young people—many of them
were used to the stereotypes of libraries
as quiet places where people read. They
were unaware of the myriad resources
and services available at a public library
and of librarians’ commitments to equal
access and relevant resources. The service
providers were also protective of the youth
and wanted to be assured they would be
treated well. They were unsure how to
work with the librarians and how much
time it would involve.
The librarians wanted to know more
about how they could be of assistance.
Like the service providers, they were
concerned about time and safety—in their
case, the safety of library patrons and
sta?. However, neither group saw these
as insurmountable barriers. They saw
possibilities in working together and were
interested in pursuing them.
I am going to end with a message from
the youth themselves. Although reluctant
to reveal their presence at libraries, these
Shelton and Winkelstein
young people had great respect for libraries
and were excited to know that librarians
care about their lives and their needs.
They wanted you, the librarians, to know
how much it means to them to be at your
libraries. How access to books about their
lives and how being greeted by a warm
and friendly person who cares makes all
the di?erence. As one service provider
explained, when asked about the needs of
homeless LGBTQ youth: “There’s di?erent
needs, but usually the most support they
need is someone to believe in them. I mean
if you’re looking at every young person that
walks through this door, if you look at what
increases their quality of life, it is belief in
their abilities, number one.”
Jama’s Story: When I was first invited
by Dr. Julie Winkelstein to join the panel
Safe in the Stacks: Community Spaces
for Serving Homeless LGBTQ Youth
at the American Library Association’s
annual conference, I thought, “Hmmm,
interesting. Librarians? LGBTQ youth
experiencing homelessness? What will I
talk about?” That question quickly faded.
60 seconds into my first planning call
with Julie and it was clear that we had
a lot to say. Libraries and librarians can
play an important supporting role in the
federal government’s plan to end youth
homelessness by the year 2020.
I spent nine years in an agency
providing direct services to LGBTQ youth
experiencing homelessness in New York
City. The work was crisis oriented. At the
end of the day, my job was to make sure
the basic needs of the young people were
being met, even though the resources for
doing so were scarce. At present, I am the
Director of the Forty to None Project
at the True Colors Fund. Our mission
is to raise awareness about and bring an
end to LGBTQ youth homelessness.
We work on systemic change e?orts and
translating those e?orts into practical
resources that have the potential to
impact the daily lives of LGBTQ youth
experiencing homelessness and support the
service providers with whom they work.
A core part of this work is innovation. I
am constantly asking: What resources
are we not utilizing? What partnerships
have we not yet considered? Or what
potential partners have we written o?
due to preconceived notions about their
willingness to embrace LGBTQ youth
experiencing homelessness?
I believe that libraries are an untapped
community resource for LGBTQ youth
experiencing homelessness and those at
risk of experiencing homelessness. As a
community institution, libraries can be at
the center of community mobilization and
change. And that’s what we need if we are
to end LGBTQ youth homelessness. We
need engaged communities committed
to changing the way we think about
homelessness and about LGBTQ youth.
Though not an exhaustive list, here
are some examples of ways libraries and
librarians can help:
·
·
·
·
·
·
Be a visible advocate within the
community for LGBTQ youth
experiencing homelessness.
Participate in your community’s
annual Point-in-Time count of
people experiencing homelessness.
Train library sta? on ways to create
inclusive and a?rming spaces for
LGBTQ youth, and to understand
the unique needs and experiences
of LGBTQ youth experiencing
homelessness.
Create a system for granting library
cards to LGBTQ young people who
may not have a permanent address.
Engage in community education
e?orts to raise awareness about the
issue of LGBTQ youth homelessness
and the impact of identity-based
rejection.
Develop linkages with local service
providers and advocates working
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·
·
·
·
·
on the issue of LGBTQ youth
homelessness.
Provide free meeting spaces to local
providers and advocates.
Use meeting spaces to hold
meditation/relaxation groups
for LGBTQ youth experiencing
homelessness so they have a safe place
to rest.
Visit your local shelter to help youth
clear library fines.
Join the Forty to None Network, an
initiative of the True Colors Fund’s
Forty to None Project, connecting
individuals across sectors to end
LGBTQ youth homelessness.
Visit the LAMBDA website at
lambda.sis.utk.edu to find resources
particularly for librarians, as well as
service providers, families, and youth
experiencing homelessness.
Final Thoughts from Jama
I have been working with LGBTQ youth
experiencing homelessness for over 10
years, and not once did I stop to consider
the role that libraries can, and often do,
play in the lives of these young people,
nor did I think of librarians as a captive
audience to which I could speak about
the needs of homeless LGBTQ youth
or the daily challenges they face. I was
mistaken. YALS
References
1.
2.
Durso, Laura E., and Gary J. Gates,
“Serving Our Youth: Findings from a
National Survey of Service Providers
Working with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and
Transgender Youth Who Are Homeless
or at Risk of Becoming Homeless,”
(accessed August 10, 2014), http://
williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wpcontent/uploads/Durso-Gates-LGBTHomeless-Youth-Survey-July-2012.pdf.
Quintana, Nico S., Josh Rosenthal, and
Je? Krehely. “The Federal Response to
Young Adult Library Services
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Librarians and Social Workers
3.
Gay and Transgender Homeless Youth,”
June 2010, (accessed August 10, 2014),
http://cdn.americanprogre…
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