Engaging Families to Support Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth: The Family Acceptance Project

Families play a critical role in child and adolescent development and well-being, and connections to family are a protective factor against major health risk behaviors. However, few research studies have looked at the family context for LGBT youth, and in fact, when LGBT youth do seek services they are not routinely asked about their families and are generally served alone.

This article reports on the various phases of the Family Acceptance Project which is working to shift the paradigm from serving LGBT youth alone to serving them in the context of their families. The Family Acceptance Project was designed to strengthen and help ethnically and religiously diverse families support their LGBT children, inform public and family policy, and develop a new evidence-based family model of wellness, prevention, and care to promote well-being for LGBT youth.