Precarious Partnerships: Designing a Community Needs Assessment to Develop a System of Care for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning (GLBTQ) Youths.

This article describes the planning and implementation of a mixed-method community needs assessment with the intent of creating a system of care for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (GLBTQ) youths in an urban area. Flowing from qualitative to quantitative research strategies, this needs assessment utilized key informant interviews, focus groups, and survey research in a countywide initiative. Rather than outline each set of findings, this article provides a brief description of the four phases of research activities and the action steps that were completed during each phase. Community context for the needs assessment is described in detail and a final system of care is proposed. Notable barriers and challenges associated with the community needs assessment are also articulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]