Public Affairs

Turning the foster care model on its head to help LGBTQ teens

The North 103.3 | By Lisa Johnson

Published June 1, 2017 at 2:23 PM CDT

It depends on who you ask.

Some information says 18% of all homeless kids are LGBTQ; some information says it's upwards of 40%.

But one thing doesn't change: the rejection.

Avenues for Homeless Youth is pioneering a foster home program for LGBTQ teens that's becoming a national model - and it's not about charity; it's about solidarity.

Here in Duluth, a Host Home program for all kids, not just LGBTQ teens, is just getting started. You can find more information about services for homeless teens here.

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Lisa Johnson

Lisa Johnson started her broadcast career anchoring the television news at her high school and spinning country music at KWWK/KOLM Radio in Rochester, Minnesota. She was a reporter and news anchor at KTHI in Fargo, ND (not to mention the host of a children's program called "Lisa's Lane") and a radio reporter and anchor in Moorhead, Bismarck, Wahpeton and Fergus Falls.Since 1991, she has hosted Northland Morning on KUMD. One of the best parts of her job includes "paying it forward" by mentoring upcoming journalists and broadcasters on the student news team that helps produce Northland Morning. She also loves introducing the different people she meets in her job to one another, helping to forge new "community connections" and partnerships.Lisa has amassed a book collection weighing over two tons, and she enjoys reading, photography, volunteering with Animal Allies Humane Society and fantasizing about farmland. She goes to bed at 8pm, long before her daughter, two cats, or three dogs.

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