Unicorn Solutions LLC

🥳 New Community In-Site Episode out today! 🥳 Tune into a powerful conversation with Clare Anderson, MSW, Senior Policy Fellow at Chapin Hall. She describes how 40 years of data tells us that investing in economic stability keeps families together and improves well-being. Hear how multiple states are using this evidence to change policy and funding to support families before they reach a crisis point. Apple Podcast - https://lnkd.in/guEbNMPx Spotify - https://lnkd.in/gvePqEbp Resources: Chapin Hall resources on Economic and Concrete Supports: https://lnkd.in/g2SnS-PN Children Trust Fund Alliance: Building a 21st Century Community-Based Approach to Strengthening Families: https://lnkd.in/gt_vsCJR #CommunityInsite #CommunityVoice #ChildWelfare #ThrivingFamilies #FamilyWellBeing #Movement #LivedExperience

Incredibly grateful to be invited into projects that center LGBTQ+ youth, foster youth with lived experience, and queer joy. Yesterday we kicked off the Gender Affirming Resource Closet Demonstration Project in Los Angeles, funded by the Pritzker Foster Care Initiative in partnership Casey Family Programs, working with amazing local nonprofits, and LA county DCFS. We were hosted by nonprofit ProjectQ (https://www.projectq.me), their founder and Executive director Madin Lopez, and their awesome team. The other 3 nonprofit partner orgs doing this exciting work are Los Angeles LGBT Center, Alexis Project at Violence Intervention Program, and The Village Family Services. LA County Board of Supervisors passed a motion in June to help propel this work forward and it’s exciting to see it take off. Unicorn Solutions LLC is providing facilitation, youth ambassador support, and project management for this demonstration project. Yesterdays kick off was such a rad way to hear all the great youth insights and organizational knowledge that will grow this into tangible resources for LA county youth and lessons learned to come for others who want to do this work after us. Stay tuned, we are just getting started! Learn more at: https://lnkd.in/gA-T3WN7

🦄🏳️⚧️ Much gratitude to Q Voice News for helping spread the word about Safe Havens II! Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/gPc6_3nJ

Appreciate the Advocate helping get the word out about our new report! 🦄🏳️⚧️ https://lnkd.in/giij-Yvh

🦄🏳️⚧️ Transgender, nonbinary, and gender diverse (TNGD) youth are speaking up, and they deserve to be heard. 🗣️ Created by Lambda Legal, Unicorn Solutions LLC, Children's Rights, and Center for the Study of Social Policy, the newly released report, Safe Havens II: We Must Affirm and Support Transgender, Nonbinary, and Gender Diverse Youth in Out-of-Home Systems, centers the voices of seven TNGD youth contributors with lived experience in child welfare, juvenile legal, and youth homelessness systems. Emilio, Gina, Jaxsyn, Kayden, Paris, Shawn, and Tyler, who have diverse identity and geographic perspectives, provide a roadmap for how to better support TNGD youth in today’s fraught environment. Read the full report to hear their stories and proposed recommendations by visiting safehavensreport.org We can all play a role in advocating for accountability, affirmation, and support. Learn how you can make a difference at https://lnkd.in/gKeAMYcK. Check out the full report: https://lnkd.in/gr4TQH7W. Check out the full video from our launch event: https://lnkd.in/gbGSwpgf. Marshall Currey Cook, Maia Zelkind, Meredith Giovanelli, Daniele Gerard, Sruti Swaminathan, Alex Coccia, Alexandra Citrin #SafeHavens #ProtectTransYouth #SystemAccountability #TransRights #EqualityForAll #LGBTQYouth #YouthAdvocacy #PolicyChange #LGBTQRights #LGBTQ #SocialJustice

Super grateful to Marshall Currey Cook and Shawn Mitchell for joining Tecoria and I on this episode of Community Insite! LGBTQ+ youth should experience family of any kind as a safe haven, no matter who they are and how they identify, or what parts of their identity they are ready to understand and explore. Family rejection can be a lasting trauma when someone is simply trying to say hey, this is who I am, see me. I hope this episode encourages you to think about family wellbeing even more holistically, and what work lies ahead for us as we supporting families and communities in loving, supporting, and affirming all their children and families. 🌈🦄🏳️⚧️ Apple: https://lnkd.in/e-taXHg9 Spotify: https://lnkd.in/en_GE5uw #CommunityInsite #ChildWelfare #ThrivingFamilies #FamilyWellbeing #LivedExperience #Youth #Fostercare

🦄 Dublin and Cork, Ireland, 🇮🇪 London UK, 🇬🇧 and tomorrow Manchester UK to round out my trip. I have so much gratitude for Brent Pickett and Tina Pickett, as I joined them on this trip through 3 different queer archives. We have seen a lot, laughed, questioned, and even felt the turn in our stomach of histories cyclical nature. I take a lot of strength from what I’ve seen and read the past week and a half and look forward to what our research will bring forward as we write. It equally has given me ideas about organizing, advocating, collaborating, and movement building. Now it’s time to process some of this and then integrate that into my next steps. Here are a few pictures of our travels and things that made it even better along the way. See you across the pond next week friends. ✈️🦄

Episode 2 is Out Now 🎧 “Centering the Work in Communities with Tiffany Boyd and Justin Lee” In this episode, Tecoria and Elliott are in conversation with Tiffany Boyd and Justin Lee. Tiffany is a Lived Experience Expert and Advocate for Youth and Justin is the Senior Director of Strategic Consulting at Casey Family Programs. The conversation is largely about centering the work in communities, which is one of the four guiding principles of the Thriving Families, Safer Children (TFSC) initiative. They focus on what this principle means, when they know it’s happening and when it’s not happening, and how they are applying it in Los Angeles County. In this episode, listeners will take away why systems and communities should partner and co-create together, why communities should be in a position to lead, and how to navigate the challenges and successes that are inherent in this approach. Other topics include equitable compensation, moving beyond compensation to enterprise building, lived expertise, and acknowledging different types of the expertise and power imbalances. Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gWQSUSpi Apple: https://lnkd.in/gi7V69tA #CommunityInsite #CommunityVoice #FamilySupport #SafeChildren #ChildWelfare #ChildAbuse

We’re proud to share a series of videos highlighting the stories of seven trans or nonbinary youth with lived experience with foster care, homelessness, and the juvenile legal system who shared their experiences for our upcoming report, Safe Havens II: We Must Affirm and Protect Transgender, Nonbinary, and Gender Diverse Youth in Out-of-Home Systems. Safe Havens II is co-authored with Elliott Hinkle, principal and founder of Unicorn Solutions, a nonbinary person with lived experience in foster care alongside our partners at Children’s Rights and the Center for the Study of Social Policy. Elliott interviewed our seven lived experience contributors who also shared recommendations for how out-of-home systems should affirm and support trans, nonbinary, and gender diverse (TNGD) youth. In 2017, we released the first comprehensive analysis of the troubling lack of explicit laws and policies to protect TNGD youth in child welfare and juvenile legal systems and experiencing homelessness, with the launch of our Safe Havens report. Now, as anti-LGBTQ+ laws and policies at the state level are on the rise, particularly impacting trans and nonbinary youth, we knew it was time for an update. So after five years, we are proud to launch the second edition of Safe Havens later this month. Watch the full series of videos at safehavensreport.org. #SafeHavens #ProtectTransYouth #SystemAccountability #TransRights #EqualityForAll #LGBTQYouth #YouthAdvocacy #PolicyChange #LGBTQRights #LGBTQ #SocialJustice https://lnkd.in/g76Hx5sx

📣🏳️⚧️ Safe Havens II is coming very soon! Feeling thankful and excited to be in Washington D.C. with my colleagues from Lambda Legal: Marshall Currey Cook, Sruti Swaminathan, Maia Zelkind, and Kristine Kippins; Children's Rights: Meredith Giovanelli, Daniele Gerard, Kai Velazquez; additional staff from their orgs tomorrow as well as our partners at Center for the Study of Social Policy, colleagues Alex Coccia and Alexandra Citrin will join us to launch the first portion of Safe Havens II We Must Affirm and Protect Trans, Nonbinary, and Gender Diverse Youth In Out-Of-Home Systems website and media content. My personal favorite and pride and joy work from this project is the Youth Contributor engagement, interviews, and recommendations and now relationships 💜🥹. Grateful 6 of our 7 contributors could join us for tomorrows event in person and will get the opportunity to engage with policy makers, agency leaders, attorneys, advocates and more. Protect trans and nonbinary youth. Pay them for their time. Listen to what they say, and most importantly, do everything you can to enact meaningful change. Stay tuned for more very soon! 🦄🏳️⚧️