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Access Program for Providers
"I was hospitalized shortly after giving birth. A doctor, seeing only my partner and my baby, asked 'Where's the dad? There's always a dad.' When vulnerable and seeking medical treatment, LGBT families should be focusing on health, not countering homophobia."
—Bay Area lesbian mom
The Access Program seeks to increase visibility and access for LGBTQ families.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) families represent an emerging population that are found in every city neighborhood, and are represented in every racial and ethnic community across the socio-economic spectrum. Our Family Coalition offers training and technical assistance for health, mental health and social service providers, so you can better serve Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) families with children.
We begin our work with your agency by offering pre-training intake interview with your site, a 2-3 hour training that will give providers the opportunity to begin examining their values in working with LGBTQ families, review important LGBTQ terms, discuss LGBTQ families' barriers to services, and begin a conversation focusing on strategies to better serve LGBTQ families for their agencies short and long term. In continuing our partnership and work with your site in working towards establishing long term institutional change in meeting the needs of LGBTQ families, OFC also offers post onsite technical assistance to your site. These services include ongoing staff development trainings, parent panels, review of forms and policies to insure accessibility to LGBTQ families, movie screenings and experts focusing on related LGBTQ topics including gender, youth, and immigration. OFC provides a tool kit for each site which contains staff development articles, curriculum samples, children books and OFC’s “Value Our Families” DVD. OFC’s “Value Our Families” DVD gives providers the opportunity to hear directly from LGBTQ parents and their children.
Our Family Coalition:
- Conducts pre-training meetings with organizational or clinic management to identify key areas of service provision and clarify training needs.
- Conducts two or three hour LGBTQ Family Cultural Competency trainings for all staff and management. The trainings combine anti-bias curriculum with data about LGBTQ families and practical actions that the agency can take to be more welcoming to LGBTQ families and prospective parents.
- Provides post-training technical assistance to work with staff to implement action steps identified during the training.
- Conducts evaluations to determine the impact of our work.
- Schedule a training or request information by contacting Michelle Mapp, Access Training Coordinator, at michelle@ourfamily.org or (415) 981-1960.
Designed by Kevin Hoelscher