Toward Equity is our new training curriculum for juvenile justice professionals. It provides comprehensive, interactive training lessons designed to increase competence about sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression (SOGIE), while providing practitioners with increased knowledge, tools, and resources for working with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth in the juvenile justice system.

Toward Equity Training Curriculum

Toward Equity-Full Curriculum for Download

The training curriculum provides comprehensive, interactive training lessons designed to increase competence about sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression (SOGIE), while providing practitioners with increased knowledge, tools, and resources for working with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth in the juvenile justice system. We developed this national training curriculum in response to the growing call for training and to fill a gap in existing resources. Toward Equity is the first comprehensive, interactive program dedicated to LGBT youth in the juvenile justice system (as opposed to other youth-serving systems) and flows from the information and recommendations in Hidden Injustice.

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Toward Equity: Trainers Guide

The Equity Project is pleased to release Toward Equity: Understanding Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Gender Expression, and Developing Competency to Serve Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth in the Juvenile Justice System [“Toward Equity”]. This training curriculum provides comprehensive, interactive training lessons designed to increase competence about sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression (SOGIE), while providing practitioners with increased knowledge, tools, and resources for working with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth in the juvenile justice system.

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Lesson One: Understanding Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Gender Expression

The purpose of this lesson is for participants to gain a foundation understanding of the terms and concepts related to sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression (SOGIE); normative adolescent development; and the “coming out” process for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth. Other lessons in this curriculum will expand on these concepts, but this lesson is intended as a primer of SOGIE terminology and concepts. It is aimed at creating a basic and uniform level of competency in these areas for all participants.

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Lesson Two: Dismantling Bias and Fostering Equity

The purpose of this lesson is for participants to deepen their understanding of bias and stigma related to sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression (SOGIE); to learn about intersectionality; to learn how to identify their own bias; and to identify how both stigma and bias affect the well-being of youth in the juvenile justice system.

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Lesson Four: Reducing Risk and Promoting Protection

The purpose of this lesson is for participants to gain deeper knowledge of common circumstances that affect lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth’s overall health and well-being and may contribute to their involvement in the juvenile justice system. By identifying risk and protective factors common to LGBT youth as a group, the lesson identifies strategies to prevent LGBT youth from entering the system or to facilitate their return home following incarceration or out-of-home placement.

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Lesson Five: Ensuring Safety and Equity in Secure Settings

The purpose of this lesson is for participants to understand conditions and practices in secure facilities (both pretrial and commitment facilities) that harm and discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth, and to learn about policies and practices that protect their safety and well-being.

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