Social Work Corner – Healing Centered Advocacy: Supporting LGBTQIA+ Unaccompanied Youth – June 2025

/ Social Work, Social Work Corner, Working with Children
Healing Centered Advocacy: Supporting LGBTQIA+ Unaccompanied Youth

We are living through an incredibly difficult time for immigrants and marginalized communities. Anti-immigrant policies, anti- LGBTQIA+ legislation, and systemic inequities continue to intersect, creating environments that restrict access to safety and resources for LGBTQIA+ unaccompanied youth.

Intersectionality is a framework developed by advocate Kimberle Crenshaw that describes the interconnected nature of different identity experiences and the overlapping systems of discrimination and privilege, reminding us oppression is not experienced in isolation.[1] For unaccompanied immigrant youth who identify as LGBTQIA+, navigating immigration and social systems is not just a legal journey, it is also a deeply personal layered experience shaped by identity, community, and systemic structures.

As an advocate, you might be familiar with trauma-informed care, as this involves providing support and resources to individuals who have experienced trauma, focusing on their needs, and recognizing the impact of trauma on their mental, physical, and social health. In your interactions, interviews, and sessions with your clients you have established an environment where they can feel safe. You have built rapport and gained their trust through your consistent actions and communication. You offer them options when possible, so they feel empowered to make informed choices and agency as to their lives. You let them know that what they want is important and collaborate with their families and other professionals to implement support plans. This is trauma-informed care and it’s an important lens of advocacy with limitations.

A healing-centered approach moves beyond the model of trauma to focus on the strengths and resilience of individuals and communities, viewing healing as a restoration of identity and well-being. A healing-centered approach asks, “How can we build upon this youth’s strengths, culture, and agency?” It centers hope, dignity, culture, and collective well-being. This approach recognizes that healing is not only an individual experience but interconnected with community and collective resilience. This approach emphasizes the assets each individual has as someone not defined by their trauma, but resilient and capable of growth and healing. [2]

A healing-centered approach to advocacy for LGBTQIA+, Unaccompanied Youth does the following:

  • Affirms their identity and dignity by honoring their full humanity. This means creating space for youth to define who they are, not just the trauma they have experienced.
  • Centers collective and cultural healing by highlighting how healing is not only individual, but also communal. Valuing cultural practices, community support, spirituality, storytelling, and connection is essential to recovery and empowerment.
  • Focuses on agency, not just protection, by viewing LGBTQIA+ unaccompanied youth from a strength-based perspective. It is key to make space for their input, leadership, and self-determination throughout the legal and support processes.
  • Understands trauma can be systemic by recognizing trauma often stems form systems, not just individual experiences. Unaccompanied, LGBTQIA+ might have experienced racism, xenophobia, transphobia, forced migration, detention, or state violence. Healing-centered advocacy calls for advocates to not only support individuals but challenge the systems that harm them.
  • Emphasizes relationships and trust by prioritizing relational trust. Legal and social systems can be alienating and retraumatizing. Building consistent and respectful relationships with the youth can provide a foundation for safety, advocacy, and healing.

In the spirit of community and healing- here is a list of LGBTQIA+ friendly resources:

Happy Pride Month!

 

By CILA social work team

[1] American Society on Aging, Understanding Identity & Intersectionality, last visited May 27, 2025, available at https://asaging.org/identity-intersectionality

[2] Medium, The Future of Healing: Shifting From Trauma Informed Care to Healing Centered Engagement, last visited May 27, 2025, available at https://ginwright.medium.com/the-future-of-healing-shifting-from-trauma-informed-care-to-healing-centered-engagement-634f557ce69c