TRUE COLORS UNITED INC
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Mission Statement
The True Colors United was co-founded by Cyndi Lauper to implement innovative solutions to youth homelessness that focus on the unique experiences of LGBTQ young people.
About This Cause
In America, up to 40% of the 4.2 million youth who experience homelessness each year are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning (LGBTQ). In addition, LGBTQ youth have a 120% higher risk of homelessness, Black or African-American youth had an 83% higher risk, and Latinx youth had a 33% higher risk for homelessness. True Colors United believes that by creating safe and inclusive spaces for the most impacted youth, we can more effectively prevent and end the issue for all youth. We achieve this through four key program areas: Training & Education: True Colors United operates from a place of “meeting people where they're at” by working with direct service providers and other stakeholders to help them understand the issue. Through the online courses and toolkits in our True Colors Learning Community, we train providers on how to create safe and inclusive spaces for all youth. We also distribute inclusion resources free of charge in our Inclusion Toolboxes. As part of our intensive remote and on-the-ground Inclusion Technical Assistance, we train communities on the causes and effects of LGBTQ youth homelessness and what can be done to prevent the issue from occurring in the first place. Finally, we create and track LGBTQ-inclusion metrics through our Equity Hub to ensure that individual sites are maintaining a baseline level of inclusivity in their policies and programming. Advocacy: We advocate for federal funding, policies, and practices towards preventing and ending youth homelessness, most recently through the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Project (YHDP). Our first piece of legal advocacy was a joint lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that challenged the legality of their November 2019 Notice of Non-enforcement, which we believe will allow providers to discriminate against LGBTQ youth seeking services. We also build capacity at the state level by leveraging relationships and building coalitions and creating resources like the annual State Index on Youth Homelessness. This report tracks each state’s efforts to address the issue and guides much of our state-level policy priorities. Each April, we also host #TrueColorsDay to raise awareness about our issue and provide supporters with ways to make a difference. 2020’s #TrueColorsDay reached over 22 million people and over 100 organizations signed up to spread the word about our issue. Youth Action: This program area is rooted in the belief that those who’ve experienced an issue first hand hold the keys to the solution. Through our True Colors Fellowship, now in its sixth year, up to five LGBTQ youth with lived experience partner with staff for six months to help complete an existing project. We co-founded the National Youth Forum on Homelessness (NYFH) as the only youth homelessness advocacy body composed entirely of youth with lived experience. NYFH has been heavily involved in the development of a Youth Action Society and Youth Action Summit and recently released the first-ever Youth Homelessness Advocacy Agenda. Through the success of these programs, True Colors United is an internationally recognized leader on authentic and meaningful youth collaboration. Technical Assistance: Through on-the-ground visits and remote trainings, our Technical Assistance expertise guides communities in making systemic changes in their approach to youth homelessness, while helping them develop plans focused on prevention and inclusion. This work is geared towards youth with lived experience, adult stakeholders, and communities and partner organizations nationwide. We work closely with youth to develop and refine their leadership abilities and train and educate adult partners on youth collaboration principles. We also assist agencies and organizations in creating Youth Action Boards (YABs), autonomous advisory groups that ensure all community solutions are inclusive of those most impacted.