Kids' Voice of Indiana to Earn All Children - All Families Certification with the Human Rights Campaign

June is Pride Month and Kids' Voice is working with the Human Rights Campaign to earn All Children - All Family Certification through their National Training Program.

This certification highlights our commitment to be an ally organization that is friendly with affirmative spaces and practices. Kids' Voice would be the third organization in Indiana working towards this national certification for organizations working in the child welfare space. This certification is a multi-year commitment to achieving several tiers of certification.?

Part of the National Training Program, Kids’ Voice is making changes within their organization, such as updating paperwork to be more inclusive (ie. Mother & Father updated to Parent 1 & Parent 2) and working on a Youth Bill of Rights with their Youth Impact Board (youth with lived experience in the child welfare system). Kids' Voice also emphasizes the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and plans to hire a diversity consultant in alignment with their 2023-2025 strategic plan.?

Kids' Voice recently participated in the Indy Pride parade and we are proud to highlight the significance of creating a safe and welcoming environment for LGBTQ+ youth.

Amy Pangburn, Kids’ Voice Grants & Strategic Initiatives Manager who is on the team that is leading Kids' Voice in the All Children - All Families National Training Program, was able to participate in the Indy Pride parade and said,

“The parade was one of my proudest moments yet being part of Kids' Voice. In my two years of working at Kids' Voice, to be part of the first group of us who got to walk in the Indy Pride Parade just personally meant so much to me. The Pride Festival and the Parade were such an empowering, uplifting experience. The energy of it all, seeing and hearing the people who are in the parade and spectators at the parade being their full selves is unspeakably beautiful to me.”

Kids' Voice currently serves 5,000 children and teens through its programs including the CASA/GAL Program of Marion County. Most of these youth are determined by DCS to be a Child in Need of Services (CHINS) due to abuse and/or neglect. LGBTQ+ youth are over-represented in the child welfare system.

Compared to their heterosexual peers, LGBTQ+ youth are: 3.8 times more likely to experience childhood sexual abuse, 1.2 times more likely to be physically abused by a caregiver, and 2.5 times more likely to enter foster care (Casey.org,?HHS.gov, Fish et al, 2019).

In Kids' Voice's Educational Liaison Program, we find that LGBTQ+ youth are more likely to have problems in school, including behavior problems, suspensions, poor grades, social anxiety, difficulty making friends, and not having a support system.?According to the Indiana Youth Institute (IYI), such poor outcomes for these youth are a result of facing complex barriers, such as stigma, victimization, bias, and rejection.

Young people who identify as LGBTQ+ need affirming advocates, mentors, and youth-serving professionals more than ever before.

Kids' Voice has joined with community and national partners who are leading the way in LGBTQ+-focused services, supports, advocacy, and best practices to develop and implement the CARE Project. In 2022, we joined a new ongoing meet-up for local youth-serving organizations committed to improving services for LGBTQ+ youth (led by Big Brothers Big Sisters).?

We are excited to have joined the All Children – All Families National Training Program for child welfare agencies, through the Human Rights Campaign, and have strengthened our relationship with Indiana Youth Group who will provide an array of services.?We will continue to follow the guidance of other leaders in the field, including but not limited to the Indiana Youth Institute, Annie E. Casey Foundation, National Center for Child Welfare Excellence, Family Acceptance Project, and Child Welfare League of America.??

The All Children – All Families certification requires ongoing training and education to address bias and keep up with social changes. Kids' Voice aims to integrate these practices into our everyday operations and collaborate with other organizations to learn from their expertise.

Nicole Goodson, Kids’ Voice Director of Strategic Initiatives who is leading the All Children - All Families National Training Program at Kids' Voice, says,

“It's just this wonderful opportunity to not only look at the organization from the top down, but also look how we're pushing out to the community so that we're doing it the right way.”

Overall, our goal is to make inclusivity and acceptance a fundamental part of our organization's culture.?

Are you interested in learning more or getting your organization/company involved??Learn more by visiting All Children - All Families: Training Program - HRC Foundation (thehrcfoundation.org).

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