The Family Acceptance Project™ (FAP) is funded by a growing family of individual donors, agencies and visionary foundations including The California Endowment, the Annie E. Casey Foundation and by a matching grant by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Although there is an increasing amount of information about the risks and challenges facing lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) youth (and much less information about transgender youth), we know far less about their strengths and resiliency, including the strengths of families in supporting their children's health and well-being. Even though the family is the primary support for children and youth, and family involvement helps reduce adolescent risk, there have been no previous comprehensive studies of how parental, caregiver and family reactions controbute to their lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) children’s risk and well-being. Prior to this study, little information was available to show how families respond to an adolescent's coming out and how family and caregiver reactions contribute to health, mental health and development for LGBT young people.
The Family Acceptance Project™ (FAP) is directed by Caitlin Ryan at the Marian Wright Edelman Institute at San Francisco State University, and was developed by Caitlin Ryan and Rafael Dìaz in 2002. It includes the first major study of LGBT youth and their families.
The project was designed to:
- Study parents’, families' and caregivers’ reactions and adjustment to an adolescent's coming out and LGBT identity.
- Develop training and assessment materials for health, mental health, and school-based providers, child welfare, juvenile justice, family service workers, clergy and religious leaders on working with LGBT children, youth and families.
- Develop resources to strengthen families to support LGBT children and adolescents.
- Develop a new model of family-related care to prevent health and mental health risks, keep families together and promote well-being for LGBT children and adolescents. Findings are being used to inform policy and practice and to change the way that systems of care address the needs of LGBT children and adolescents.
For information on the project contact: Family Acceptance Project™ [email protected]