Applying an anti-racist approach to expanding access to justice requires LCYC to assess not just the availability of our services to a diverse group of young people, but to inquire whether our legal supports are reaching and effectively serving young people disproportionately experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
As a method of accountability, LCYC reviews the demographics of young people served by our Youth Homelessness Programs. In King County, we then cross check the demographics of the young people we are reaching, against the King County 2020 Count Us In Report. There are some criticism of whether the Count Us In Report accurately captures the full number of minorities experiencing homelessness, but it provides a minimum comparison for LCYC. For example, the 2020 Court Us In Report states that “27% of the unaccompanied youth and young adults…identified as LGBTQIA+” and in 2019, 32% of young people served by LCYC’s Youth Homelessness Program identified as LGTQIA+.
Late this summer, after reviewing our 2020 demographics, LCYC staff found that we were significantly underserving American Indian and Alaskan Native people, who, per the 2020 Count Us In Report, make up about 21% of the unaccompanied youth and young adults experiencing homelessness in King County.
Based on our referral data over multiple years, we know that our outreach efforts and the strength of our community partnerships have a strong correlation to which young people are connected to our organization for legal assistance. We also know, from observations and directly from young people themselves, that young people are frequently more trusting and prefer accessing services from organizations with staff that look like them and that have had similar experiences. To increase the number of American Indian and Alaska Native young people who had access to LCYC’s legal advocacy, we needed to be more intentional in reaching out to Indigenous-led and-centered organizations.
This fall, we reached out to multiple community organizations such as Chief Seattle Club, Mother Nation, Seattle Indian Health Board, United Indians of All Tribe Foundation, Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center, Seattle U Center for Indian Law & Policy, UW Native American Law Center, Northwest Indian Bar Association, Northwest Justice Project – Native Unit, Labateyah Youth Home and Muckleshoot Youth Facility.
Through this outreach, we have made many new, wonderful connections and we are looking forward to making more and building on those relationships. Of our new connections, we are very lucky to have our friends at Chief Seattle Club join us at an upcoming staff meeting to help us learn more about how we can best support and advocate for the advancement of Native people.
If you live and work in Seattle, consider making rent payments to Real Rent Duwamish. All funds go directly to the Duwamish Tribal Services to support the revival of Duwamish culture and the vitality of the Duwamish Tribe.