'Margins of the Margins': FYSB Grantee Coordinates Response to Trafficking in New York
Edwin Gould Services for Children and Families, a New York City-based program, is one of three programs chosen to participate in a two-year demonstration project aimed at helping victims of severe trafficking. In this article, a representative from the organization discusses the project’s goals and wider efforts to combat
10 Things Americans Can Do to Combat Summer Reading Loss and Childhood Obesity
As part of the Let’s Read. Let’s Move. initiative, the Corporation for National and Community Service has compiled a list of things people can do to help children maintain active minds and bodies during the summer months.
This resource from Disability.gov outlines 10 important things to know about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), such as the history of the ADA, “reasonable accommodation” as defined by the legislation, and how you can file a complaint.
This article provides youth with disabilities, their families, and professionals who work with them with resources that can help promote a smooth transition to adulthood. Information related to topics such as employment, higher education, health care, mentorship, and Personal Assistance Services is included.
15+ Take Time to Listen, Make Time to Talk. About Bullying
The 15+ Make Time to Listen...Take Time to Talk campaign is based on the premise that parents who talk with their children about what is happening in their lives are better able to guide their children toward more positive, skill-enhancing activities and friendships. The campaign provides practical guidance for parents and caregivers on how to strengthen their relationship with their children by spending at least 15 minutes of daily, undivided time with them and focusing on them.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Adolescent and School Health published 2011 national, state, and local Youth Risk Behavior Survey results. These results show significant improvements in many health behaviors during the past two decades, as well as new possible risks resulting from an increased use of technology.
The Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) collects data on key education and civil rights issues in public schools in the United States and drives the focus of related equity and program evaluation efforts. The 2011–12 CRDC marks the first time that data were collected from every public school in the nation. Striking findings from the 2011–12 collection include disparities in high school retention, access to college counselors, and access to courses necessary for college.
Using survey data from approximately 95,000 undergraduate and 16,000 graduate students, this report from the Department of Education provides information on the percentages of students receiving various types of financial aid and how much they received, by institution, attendance pattern, dependency status, and income level. The study indicates that 71% of undergraduates and 70% of graduates received some type of financial aid.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse published the results of the 2012 Monitoring the Future study, which is conducted annually to better understand drug abuse trends among eighth, tenth, and twelfth graders. The 2012 survey included information about the use of bath salts.
This report presents data from the 2012 National Health Interview Survey for children under 18 years of age on selected measures of health, including asthma, dental care, learning disabilities, days of school missed due to illness, and contact with health care professionals.
The 2012 School Health Profiles include information gathered through surveys conducted in 45 states, 16 large urban school districts, four territories, and two tribal governments on multiple measures related to school health. The report includes background information on the Profiles, a fact sheet on key 2012 results, and a fact sheet on each state, school district, territory, and tribal government on obesity, sexual risk behaviors, and tobacco use.
The Monitoring the Future survey, conducted annually, measures the current drug use, and attitudes toward drugs, of students in grades 8, 10, and 12 across the country. Results included observed declines in the abuse of prescription opioids, alcohol, and cigarettes by teens, the use of synthetic marijuana, Vicodin, and salvia among twelfth graders, and the use of inhalants by eighth graders, but an increase in teens’ use of Adderall.
Released by the Office of National Drug Control Policy , the 2013 National Drug Control Strategy outlines a series of reforms developed to transform the view of our nation’s drug control problem into a public health issue, not just a criminal justice issue. The strategy includes specific information about prevention efforts directed at teens; parental education; and the dissemination of information and research on youth drug, alcohol, and tobacco use.
Youth Jobs+ is an initiative intended to connect young people with jobs, internships, and other employment opportunities by bringing together businesses, nonprofit and faith-based organizations, and elected officials to help create pathways to employment for youth.
2013 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS)
CDC’s YRBSS provides national-, state-, territorial-, tribal-, and local-level data on a range of health risk behaviors among high school students. Highlights of the 2013 YRBSS report include a decline in cigarette smoking, physical fights, and fighting on school property.
2014 Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools Awards
Forty-eight schools were honored as 2014 Green Ribbon Schools for their exemplary efforts to reduce environmental impact and utility costs, promote better health, and ensure effective environmental education, including civics and green career pathways. In addition, nine districts were honored for the District Sustainability Award.
2014 National Prevention Strategy Annual Status Report
The National Prevention Council released its 2014 Annual Status Report. The report illustrates progress in implementing the National Prevention Strategy and highlights the collective impact of the federal government and its partners to improve the health and quality of life for individuals, families, and communities
2015 National Crime Victims’ Rights Week Theme Video
The theme of 2015 National Crime Victims’ Rights Week is “Engaging Communities, Empowering Victims.” The 2015 NCVRW theme video highlights the importance of building partnerships throughout communities to better address all victims’ needs.
The 2015 Summer Food Service Program Handbook (PDF, 207 pages) is now available. This handbook provides guidance and resources to organizations administering summer food programs. New material includes tips on targeting local foods through proper procurement mechanisms.
This program supports the creation of community learning centers that provide academic enrichment opportunities for children, particularly students who attend high-poverty and low performing schools. The program: helps students meet state and local student standards in core academic subjects, such as reading and math; offers students a broad array of enrichment activities that can complement their regular academic programs; and offers literacy and other educational services to the families of participating children.
21st Century Registered Apprenticeship: A Shared Vision for Increasing Opportunity, Innovation, and Competitiveness for American Workers and Employers
This document promotes innovative recommendations by the Secretary of Labor’s Advisory Committee on Apprenticeship on the use of Registered Apprenticeship as a solution to the nation’s workforce, economic, and education challenges. It also encourages state, regional, and local leaders and the public workforce system to use the vision report as a resource for supporting apprenticeship opportunities in their own communities.
Based on the lessons learned from the Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative, the toolkit cultivates an approach that has left a legacy of success in schools and communities. This toolkit will show you how partnerships with representatives from sectors including education, law enforcement, mental health, juvenile justice, children’s services, families, and faith-based associations can take Three Bold Steps to create positive lasting change among our nation’s students.
Borrowers who default on still have options. This blog post outlines steps that borrowers can take to get their loans back in good standing, including loan repayment, rehabilitation, and consolidation.
4 Things to Do Before You Make Your First Student Loan Payment
This blog entry outlines the four things recent graduates should do as they prepare to make their first student loan payment: get organized, contact the loan servicer, estimate monthly payments, and select a repayment plan. Learn more.
4 Ways to Help Homeless Students Overcome Barriers to Scholarship Funding
Having a GED instead of a high school diploma, difficulty getting parental permission, lack of a GPA, and incomplete transcripts can all be obstacles that homeless students can face when seeking scholarship funding.
4-H Afterschool is a special focused effort within the 4-H Youth Development Program that helps 4-H and other youth-serving organizations create and improve after-school programs in urban, suburban, and rural communities across the United States.
The National 4-H Headquarters, at USDA has established formal partnerships with Army Child and Youth Services, Air Force Airmen and Family Services, Army Child and Youth Services and Navy Child and Youth Programs to support positive youth development education for youth whose parents are serving in the military.
The 4-H Youth Development Program is the only national organization that is federally mandated to conduct positive youth development programs. The program works to improve knowledge and skills of young people (their Heads, Hearts, Hands, and Health) and the quality of life in the communities in which they live.
This blog post, from a representative from the Office of Federal Student Aid, features advice on paying off student loans faster. Tips include signing up for an automatic debit payment plan and using tax refunds to pay off of part of a loan.
58 Million Americans Exposed to Secondhand Smoke: CDC
Despite an overall decline in smoking, 58 million nonsmokers are still being exposed to secondhand smoke, says data from the CDC. 40 percent of children aged 3 to 11 are breathing in secondhand smoke, with 70 percent of black children experiencing exposure.
6 Things You Must Know About Repaying Your Student Loans
This blog post and video from the Department of Education can help students and recent graduates understand the details of loan repayment, including when repayment starts, who to pay, how much to pay, and how to make payments.
This blog entry provides ideas for how counselors and other school professionals can promote the completion of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) at their high school or college campus. Examples include using social media and hosting a FAFSA night on campus.
A Better Bargain for the Middle Class: Making College More Affordable
This fact sheet outlines President Obama’s new plan to increase college affordability. Facets of the plan include creating a new ratings system that measures college performance and value; eliminating barriers to competition and innovation, particularly in the use of new technology; and helping student borrowers struggling with their existing debt by capping loan payments at 10 percent of income and directing ED to reach out to students struggling with their loans to make sure they understand their options.
A Climate for Academic Success: How School Climate Distinguishes Schools That Are Beating the Achievement Odds
This report, published by WestEd and funded by the Department of Education, describes a study that analyzed data from more than 1,700 public schools in California. The study found that schools that “beat the odds,” meaning their students performed better on standardized tests than predicted on the basis of student demographics, had more positive school climates, thus adding to the growing body of evidence that suggests a relationship between school climate and academic success.
A Comparison of College Attendance and High School Coursework from Two Cohorts of Youth
The Department of Labor conducted an analysis that examines how the relationship between high school courses and college attendance may have changed between the late 1970s and the late 1990s. As time progressed, students began taking more rigorous coursework and that became a high predictor of who was likely to attend college. In the late 1970s, however, fewer students took advanced courses and the rigor of the courses did not seem to be a determining factor in college attendance.
A Comparison of Four Restorative Conferencing Models
This Bulletin focuses on four restorative conferencing models: victim-offender mediation, community reparative boards, family group conferencing, and circle sentencing. It first describes each of the four restorative conferencing models, then compares and contrasts.
A Day in the Life of American Adolescents: Substance Use Facts Update
This report, from the Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality, presents facts about adolescent substance use, including information on the initiation of substance use; rates of cigarette, alcohol, and illicit drug use; substance abuse treatment; and emergency department visits.
A Day in the Life of Young Adults: Substance Use Facts
This report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration presents facts about substance use among young adults (PDF, 7 pages), ages 18-25, including initiation, treatment, and visits to the emergency department for substance use on an average day.
The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) hosted a forum on Emphasizing Evidence-Based Programs for Children and Youth in April 2011 in Washington, D.C. The forum consisted of experts across the field of evidence and innovation.
A Guide to Assessing Your Community’s Youth Gang Problem
An important facet to implementing OJJDP's Comprehensive Gang Model in a community is to first assess the youth gang problem. This assessment includes collecting quantitative and qualitative data from community representatives such as law enforcement, school faculty, youth, parents, community leaders, probation officers, gang members, grass roots organizations, and local government. Data collected includes the perception of the gang problem as well as what the community considers as priority needs such as tutoring, jobs training, increased police presence, and mentoring for youth.
A Guide to School Vulnerability Assessment Key: Principles for Safe Schools
This guide is a companion piece to the Practical Information on Crisis Planning: A Guide for Schools and Communities (above). It emphasizes a valuable part of emergency management planning—ongoing vulnerability assessment—and is intended to assist schools with the selection and implementation of an effective vulnerability assessment tool.
The U.S. Department of Justice's Federal Bureau of Investigation has created a pamphlet, which is designed to help parents, teachers, and providers begin to understand the complexities of on-line child exploitation.
This blog entry, written by a Department of Education intern, discusses the author’s personal experience with cyberbullying and her undergraduate research on states’ implementation of cyberbullying policy and the impact on students and rates of cyberbullying. Learn more.
A Practitioner’s Resource Guide: Helping Families to Support Their LGBT Children
This guide aims to educate practitioners working in a wide range of settings about the role of family acceptance and rejection in contributing to the well-being of young people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) and to help them implement best practices in engaging families to support their LGBT children.
A Provider’s Introduction to Substance Abuse Treatment for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Individuals
This manual, prepared for the CSAT seeks to inform administrators and clinicians about appropriate diagnosis and treatment approaches that will help ensure the development or enhancement of effective LGBT-sensitive programs. SAMHSA has also funded the development of a 22-module training curriculum to accompany this publication.
A School Counselor’s Tips on Tying Up Loose Ends Before You Head Off to College
This blog post written by a school counselor in South Dakota provides tips for students as they prepare to head off to college. Tips include making a financial plan and ensuring credit is received for high school courses.
A Toolkit for Working With Children of Incarcerated Parents
Created jointly by the Division of Behavioral Health and Recovery (DBHR) within the State of Washington Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS), Health and Recovery Services Administration and DSHS' Office of Planning, Performance and Accountability, and featured on the Children's Bureau website, this web-based training toolkit provides practitioners with the skills required to respond to the needs of children of parents who are in prison or have an incarceration history.
The Safe Communities approach represents a new way community programs are established and managed. All partners participate as equals in developing solutions, sharing successes, assuming risks, and building a community structure and process to continue improvement of community life through the reduction of injuries and costs.
This is the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign's site for teens. The site allows teens to examine the negative influences in their lives and how to rise above them. It offers extensive drug information in a fun, exploratory way
Academic Achievement Trajectories of Homeless and Highly Mobile Students: Resilience in the Context of Chronic and Acute Risk
As featured by the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, the University of Minnesota released a study, Academic Achievement Trajectories of Homeless and Highly Mobile Students: Resilience in the Context of Chronic and Acute Risk, which examined academic achievement of students identified as homeless or highly mobile as compared with other students in the federal free meal program, reduced price meals, or neither. This study was partially federally funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Science Foundation.
Accelerating HPV Vaccine Uptake: Urgency for Action to Prevent Cancer
This report, released by the President’s Cancer Panel, outlines the case for HPV vaccination and the urgency for action. The report presents three goals: to reduce missed opportunities to recommend/administer HPV vaccines; to increase acceptance of the vaccines among parents, caregivers, and youth; and to maximize access to HPV vaccination services
Access 2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) Data
Public access data and documentation files for the 2013 NSDUH are now available. New variables include military status, marijuana usage, height and weight, screening questions during health care visits, and geography.
ACF Recovering from Disasters and Other Disruptions
After disasters and other breaks in continuity of services, child welfare agencies' tasks are continuing to manage, capturing lessons learned, and rebuilding better systems. In this section you will find federal and state resources for longer term recovery and rebuilding from natural disasters or other major unexpected events, including resources on mental health services and research.
Addressing and Preventing Sexual Assault on Campus
This blog post from the Department of Education discusses the issue of sexual assault on college campuses and the damaging effects of sexual assault for victims and communities. The post also describes key elements of sexual assault prevention campaigns and provides links to resources from the Department of Justice created to aid in campus sexual assault prevention efforts.
This site provides information about resources for children, youth, and families, including child care, Head Start, child support enforcement, domestic violence services, runaway and homeless youth programs, child welfare services, and more.
URL:http://www.acf.hhs.gov Departments: Department of Health and Human Services Agencies/Offices: Administration for Children and Families
Administration for Children and Families/Family and Youth Services Bureau Runaway and Homeless Youth Programs
Eligibility: Youth aged 16 to 22 who are unable to return to their homes
Focus: Life skills training
Runaway and Homeless Youth Programs that serve transition-age youth include the Transitional Living Program and the Maternity Group Homes Program. The Transitional Living Program for Older Homeless Youth promotes the independence of youth between 16 and 22 years old who are unable to return to their homes. The Maternity Group Homes Program, part of the Transitional Living Program, supports homeless pregnant and/or parenting young people between the ages of 16 and 22, as well as their dependent children.
The mission of ANA is to promote the goal of self-sufficiency and cultural preservation for Native Americans by providing social and economic development opportunities through financial assistance, training, and technical assistance to eligible Tribes and Native American communities, including American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and other Native Pacific Islanders organizations. ANA provides funding for community-based projects that are designed to improve the lives of Native children and families and reduce long-term dependency on public assistance.
The Adolescent Literacy Research Network is a partnership of The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE), and Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), designed to support each agency's effort to enhance literacy and employment skills of young American adults.
OAH produced these updated summary fact sheets that report on adolescent mental health by state, featuring information on positive social skills, depressive symptoms, depressive episodes, and suicidal thoughts, attempts, and resulting injuries.
Adolescents Living with a Parent Who Drives Under the Influence Are at Increased Risk for Driving Under the Influence Themselves
A report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) shows that 16 and 17 year olds, living with parents who drive under the influence of drugs or alcohol, are far more likely to drive under the influence than adolescents whose parents do not drive under the influence.
Adolescents Play a Key Role in Their Own ADHD Diagnosis and Treatment
The increased frequency of diagnosis in the past 10 years of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children prompted a review of diagnostic and treatment guidelines for ADHD that resulted in new recommended best practices for evaluating and treating adolescents with ADHD.
Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS)
AFCARS collects case level information on all children in foster care for whom state child welfare agencies have responsibility for placement, care, or supervision, and on children who are adopted under the auspices of the state's public child welfare agency. AFCARS also includes information on foster and adoptive parents.
Advancing Civic Learning and Engagement in Democracy
This “road map” for civic learning outlines the steps that the Department of Education is taking to increase civic learning and engagement. It also outlines directions for advancing civic learning and democratic engagement in schools, with special attention to the federal role and civic learning in higher education.
Advancing the Self-Sufficiency and Well-Being of At-Risk Youth: A Conceptual Framework
This report explores how programs can help advance the self-sufficiency and well-being of at-risk youth. The research-based framework presented for efforts to help at-risk youth enter a career workforce trajectory is particularly relevant for youth who are or could be served by Administration for Children and Families programs but may also apply to other programs.
Based on decades of NICHD research on parenting, this booklet gives parents the tools they need to make their own decisions about successful parenting. The booklet provides real-world examples and stories about how some families include responding, preventing, monitoring, modeling, and mentoring in their own daily parenting activities.
This blog entry from the Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Family and Youth Services Bureau, contains tips from staff of the William T. Grant Foundation on applying for local and regional funding.
Affordable Care Act Maternity, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program
Audry Yowell discusses the Affordable Care Act Maternity, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program at the Emphasizing Evidence Based Programs for Children and Youth Forum held in Washington, D.C. on April 27-28, 2011.
Young children, toddlers, and preschoolers—even babies—know when bad things happen, and they remember what they have been through. Here are some ways you can help them. This tip sheet was prepared by the Child Trauma Research Project of the University of California San Francisco, part of the Early Trauma Treatment Network.
Alcohol and Drug Combinations Are More Likely to Have a Serious Outcome Than Alcohol Alone in Emergency Department Visits Involving Underage Drinking
This report from SAMHSA shows that underage drinkers (PDF, 1 page), ages 12‑20, who were treated in hospital emergency departments were more than twice as likely to wind up with a serious health outcome if they also used drugs at the same time. The report shows that of the hospital emergency department visits involving underage drinkers which resulted in serious health outcomes, 12 percent involved underage drinking alone, and 33 percent involved both underage drinking and concurrent drug use.
Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention for Youth: A Practitioner's Guide
This tool helps healthcare professionals identify youth at risk for alcohol-related problems, counsel or advise them, and connect them to external sources of treatment. It contains a risk assessment survey and links to motivational interviewing resources.
All the Pointers You Need to Help Homeless Students Finish High School--And Go on to College
This article highlighs a series of tip sheets, developed by the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth, which is divided into five sections which each address a different aspect of attempting to help keep homeless youth in school, including information on McKinney-Vento Act’s Education for Homeless Children and Youth Program, easing homeless youths’ paths to college, and helping homeless youth access basic services
“AMBER Alert Best Practices,” published by the Department of Justice, discusses the most effective strategies that AMBER (America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response) partners have provided for recovering missing children. It explains the history of the system, the role each partner plays in child recovery and how to use the resources provided as best as possible.
URL:http://www.ojjdp.gov/pubs/232271.pdf Departments: Department of Justice Agencies/Offices: Office of Justice Programs, Agencies/Offices: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
America's Children in Brief: Key National Indicators of Well-being, 2012
Prepared by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, “America’s Children in Brief: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2012” highlights 14 key indicators on important aspects of children’s lives across seven domains:
America's Heroes at Work addresses the employment challenges of returning service members with traumatic brain injury or Post-traumatic stress disorder.
URL:http://americasheroesatwork.gov/ Departments: Department of Labor Agencies/Offices: Office of Disability Employment Policy, Agencies/Offices: Veterans' Employment and Training Service
America's Young Adults: Special Issue, 2014
This special report on young adults in the United States, ages 18-24, includes data from nationally representative, federally sponsored surveys. Data are summarized under five key themes: education; economic circumstances; family formation; civic, social, and personal behavior; and health and safety.
The Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) published, “America’s Youth: Transitions to Adulthood,” a report that compares the current generation of youth in the United States to youth in 2000, 1990, and 1980.
“America’s Youth: Transitions to Adulthood,” a report from the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), compares the current generation of youth in the United States to youth in 2000, 1990, and 1980.
American Indian and Alaska Native Substance Abuse Treatment Admissions Are More Likely Than Other Admissions to Report Alcohol Abuse
A report released by SAMHSA reveals that about one-third of American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) who are admitted to substance abuse treatment report alcohol abuse, while only about one-fifth of all other races give similar reports. Additionally, a higher percentage of AI/ANs begin using alcohol or drugs at age 11 or younger.
American Red Cross and FEMA: Helping Children Cope with Disaster
This booklet was created to assist parents and caregivers in helping youth cope with disasters and emergencies. The guide also provides information on preparing family emergency plans and discussing these plans with youth.
America’s Children and the Environment, Third Edition
This report from the EPA is a comprehensive compilation of information from a variety of sources on children’s health and the environment, illustrating trends for contaminants in air, water, food, and soil that may affect children, concentrations of contaminants in the bodies of children and women of child-bearing age, and childhood illnesses and health conditions.
America’s Natural and Cultural Resources Volunteer Portal: Volunteer.gov
Volunteer.gov is America's Natural and Cultural Resources Volunteer Portal built and maintained by the Federal Interagency Team on Volunteerism (FITV) that is comprised of volunteer program coordinators from three Cabinet level departments.
Each year, AmeriCorps offers 75,000 opportunities for young people of all backgrounds to serve through a network of partnerships with local and national nonprofit groups.
URL:http://www.americorps.gov/ Departments: Office of the Inspector General Agencies/Offices: Corporation for National and Community Service
AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC)
AmeriCorps NCCC is a full-time, team-based residential program run by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) for men and women aged 18 to 24. Members are assigned to one of five campuses, located in Denver, Colorado; Sacramento, California; Perry Point, Maryland; Vicksburg, Mississippi; and Vinton, Iowa. The mission of AmeriCorps NCCC is to strengthen communities and develop leaders through direct, team-based national and community service.
This blog post provides highlights from an interview with autism advocate, author, professor, and scientist Dr. Temple Grandin, in which she shares insights about autism, what parents can do to help their children, and the importance of learning life skills.
The Anti-Trafficking in Persons Program (ATIP) through the Office of Refugee Resettlement is an office of the Administration for Children and Families. ATIP identifies and serves victims of human trafficking and assists foreign trafficking victims in the United States to become eligible for public benefits and services to the same extent as refugees. The program also raises awareness of human trafficking through the Rescue & Restore Victims of Human Trafficking campaign.
Archive of KSOC-TV Webisode on “Journey to Adulthood
This archived webisode from KSOC-TV, as part of the Georgetown University Training Institutes 2014, explores emerging issues among young adults in transition (ages 18-25). Such issues include employment, housing, education, juvenile justice, and peer support.
Archive: 18th National Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect Conference
The Office on Child Abuse and Neglect (OCAN) of the Department of Health and Human Services convened the 18th National Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect on April 16 - 20, 2012, at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. Archived materials such as the conference program, videos, powerpoints and other tools are available here.
Archived Webinar: Performance Partnership Pilots (P3) National Q&A Session
This April 30 webinar, “Performance Partnership Pilots (P3) National Q&A Session” was held as a follow-up to the April 21 P3 National Outreach Webcast, providing stakeholders, with an interest in serving and improving outcomes for disconnected youth, with an opportunity to learn about the goals of P3 and current activities to launch the program later this year.
Archived Webinar: School Climate Webinar Series: Enhancing Peer-to-Peer Relationships to Strengthen School Climate
The Safe and Supportive Schools Technical Assistance Center, supported by the Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Healthy Students, delves into the importance of fostering healthy student-to-student relationships in the webinar, “Enhancing Peer to Peer Relationships to Strengthen School Climate.” This resource is meant to help administrators, teachers, support staff and student support personnel in creating a nurturing learning environment.
Archived Webinar: Using Data to Identify Programmatic Interventions
The Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Healthy Students’ Safe and Supportive Schools Technical Assistance Center held a webinar on December 14, 2011, “Using Data to Identify Programmatic Interventions.” It covered the need to use school climate data to identify needs, selecting evidence based programs to address these needs, and implementing these programs effectively within a school or district.
This informational booklet is targeted to workers ages 13 to 18 in non-farm industries. The booklet provides facts youth need to stay safe and healthy at work. The guide also informs young workers about the jobs they can and cannot do and about permissible work hours as defined under Federal child labor laws. The booklet also helps youth recognize common workplace hazards and teaches young people about their rights and responsibilities on non-farm jobs.
URL:http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2012-130/ Departments: Department of Health and Human Services Agencies/Offices: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Agencies/Offices: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Are You Ready to Make a Difference? Join Americorps.
A new 60-second public service announcement shares the many ways that AmeriCorps members make a difference in communities, and encourages viewers to apply.
President Obama has declared April as National Financial Capability Month, which will serve as a time to focus on helping Americans gain the tools and information they need to navigate the financial world. This blog entry provides an overview of the financial aid process in order to help readers make sound financial decisions when it comes to paying for college.
The #AskArnie video series features Secretary Arne Duncan discussing current hot topics in education today. The first episode, titled “Free from Fear,” focuses on gun violence, school safety, and the multiple factors that influence student achievement.
Attorney General’s Advisory Committee on American Indian and Alaska Native Children Exposed to Violence: Ending Violence so Children Can Thrive
Commissioned as part of Attorney General Eric Holder’s Defending Childhood initiative, this report from the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee on American Indian and Alaska Native Children Exposed to Violence provides recommendations to address the impact of violence on tribal youth (PDF, 258 pages) through trauma-informed and culturally appropriate programs and servic
Baccalaureate and Beyond: A First Look at the Employment Experiences and Lives of College Graduates, 4 Years On
This report presents initial findings about the labor market experiences and enrollment in additional postsecondary degree programs of bachelor's degree recipients approximately four years after they completed their 2007-08 degrees. These findings are based on data from the second follow-up of the Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study
Balanced and Restorative Justice for Juveniles: A Framework for Juvenile Justice in the 21st Century
This document makes the case for a new mission for juvenile justice known as the "Balanced Approach," and advocates consideration of a new philosophical framework, "Restorative Justice," to guide broader policy development and reform in juvenile justice.
Become a Mentor - Etienne & Don'Trae 30 Second PSA 2014
In this video, the Corporation for National and Community Service presents a public service announcement on the importance of mentoring and what mentors and mentees can gain from this rewarding relationship.
Behavioral Health Problems, Treatment, and Outcomes in Serious Youthful Offenders
This bulletin from OJJDP summarizes findings from analyses of data from the Pathways to Desistance study, which followed more than 1,300 serious youthful offenders for seven years after their court involvement.
This publication from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration draws on 40 different data sources to provide national estimates of numerous aspects of behavioral health in children, youth, and adults, including the prevalence of substance abuse and mental health disorders, rates of behavioral health service utilization, and the numbers of providers and facilities providing treatment.
Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS)
The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) is the world’s largest, ongoing telephone health survey system, tracking health conditions and risk behaviors in the United States yearly since 1984. Currently, data are collected monthly in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Guam.
URL:http://www.cdc.gov/brfss/ Departments: Department of Health and Human Services Agencies/Offices: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Best Bones Forever!
A bone health campaign for girls and their BFFs to "grow strong together and stay strong forever!"
Best Practices Guide on Mentoring Youth with Disabilities
This best practices guide funded in part under a grant/contract supported by the Office of Disability Employment Policy of the U. S. Department of Laborh and the Technology Opportunities Program of the U. S. Department of Commerce,
National Telecommunications and Information Administration aims to help communities to start mentoring programs or expand a program to include youth with disabilities.
Best Practices of Youth Violence Prevention: A Sourcebook for Community Action
This sourcebook looks at the effectiveness of four types of violence prevention strategies: parents and family-based; home visiting; social-cognitive; and mentoring. The sourcebook documents the science behind each best practice and offers a comprehensive directory of resources for more information about programs that have used these practices.
Best Practices to Address Community Gang Problems: OJJDP's Comprehensive Gang Model
The Comprehensive Gang Model developed by the OJJDP focuses on community prevention and intervention in balance with law enforcement suppression activities. The model involves five strategies for responding to gang-involved youth and their families. These includecommunity mobilization, opportunities provision, social intervention, suppression, organizational change and development. This brief discusses best practices for implementing the model.
BeTobaccoFree.gov is a website from the Department of Health and Human Services that brings together the best information on the health effects of tobacco use and the benefits of quitting smoking. The website contains information specifically targeted to teens about the risks of using tobacco products and resources for parents and teachers to help keep teens tobacco free
Beware of Student Loan Debt Relief Offers and Credit Repair “Deals”
This blog post, written by the student Loan Ombudsman at Federal Student Aid, warns recent graduates to avoid student debt relief companies and, instead, reach out to their loan servicer and consult resources on the Department of Education’s websites.
Beyond a Summer Work Experience: The Recovery Act 2009 Post-Summer Youth Employment Initiative
The Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration report, “Beyond a Summer Work Experience: The Recovery Act 2009 Post-Summer Youth Employment Initiative,” examines organizations that used Recovery Act funds to support post-summer youth employment initiatives.
Beyond Addiction: Understanding and Treating Substance Abuse in Young People
This report series from the National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth provides an overview on substance abuse in youth and young adults. Find information on how drug use can affect the teen brain, how the development of the teen brain makes young people susceptible to trying drugs, the benefits and things to be aware of when hiring youth workers in substance abuse recovery, and some best-known evidence-based practices for treating adolescent substance abuse.
Birth Parents and Trauma Histories in the Child Welfare System
A guide released by The National Child Traumatic Stress Network, “Birth Parents and Trauma Histories in the Child Welfare System: A Guide for Resource Parents,” aims to help resource, or foster, parents to better understand the birth parents with whom they work.
The Blue Campaign is the unified voice for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS’s) efforts to combat human trafficking. DHS is responsible for investigating human trafficking, arresting traffickers, and protecting victims. DHS also provides immigration relief to foreign-born victims of human trafficking. Working in collaboration with law enforcement, government, and nongovernmental and private organizations, the Blue Campaign strives to protect the basic right of freedom and to bring those who exploit human lives to justice.
Blueprints for Violence Prevention: Importance of Implementation Fidelity
Sharon Mihalic discusses Blueprints for Violence Prevention and the importance of implementation fidelity at the Emphasizing Evidence Based Programs for Children and Youth Forum held in Washington, D.C. on April 27-28, 2011.
Bookshelf is a resource page from the Department of Education that contains presentations, facts, charts, data, and other information related to improving education, as well as the Department’s programs and initiatives.
Bright Idea: A Free Teen Clinic Reduces Barriers to Health Care
This article from the National Clearinghouse on Families & Youth highlights the work of Tulane’s Drop-In Clinic, which provides free medical care to teens in New Orleans. It shares some of the best practices that have helped the clinic successfully reduce barriers and connect youth to care.
Bright Idea: Emergency Shelters Look for Human Trafficking When Youth Walk in the Door
This article provides tips for youth workers on recognizing youth who may be survivors of sexual exploitation. The article notes that many youth will seek services for other issues and, if made to feel comfortable, will divulge their experience with trafficking.
Bringing Communities Together for Mental Health — Leaders Guide
This guide provides information to faith and community leaders (PDF, 4 pages) about mental health and the significant role they can play in helping individuals and families who are facing mental health challenges.
Bringing Youth Preparedness Education to the Forefront: A Literature Review and Recommendations
Recognizing the need for research to evaluate the current state of disaster preparedness education and research regarding youth, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) commissioned a review of the literature related to emergency preparedness education for youth. The objectives of this review were to identify research and evaluations of youth education interventions for emergency preparedness and to use the findings to develop recommendations that can be used to assess current programs and to enhance the provision of youth preparedness education programs.
NCSACW has updated its website to a responsive web design approach. Users can now easily navigate to tools, resources, and online tutorials related to substance abuse using mobile phones and tablets.
URL:https://www.ncsacw.samhsa.gov/ Departments: Department of Health and Human Services Agencies/Offices: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Building Capacity to Reduce Bullying and Its Impact on Youth Across the Lifecourse
This report summarizes an April 2014 workshop held by the Board on Children, Youth, and Families of the IOM and the NRC, titled "Building Capacity to Reduce Bullying and Its Impact on Youth Across the Lifecourse," which brought together representatives of key sectors involved in bullying prevention to (a) identify the conceptual models and interventions that have proven effective in decreasing bullying, (b) examine models that could increase protective factors and mitigate the negative effects of bullying, and (c) explore the appropriate roles of different groups in preventing bullying.
Bullying and Civil Rights: An Overview of School Districts’ Federal Obligation to Respond to Harassment
This archived webinar addresses the obligations of school districts to respond, per federal anti-discrimination laws, to allegations of harassment in a quick and thorough manner. Inappropriate and appropriate responses are discussed, as well as steps to take if harassment continues.
A special online supplement from the Journal of Adolescent Health reports on the findings of an expert panel convened by the CDC to better understand the link between bullying and suicide-related behaviors.
This publication from the Department of Education’s Higher Education Center highlights the prevalence of bullying within college-age youth and the policies and programs universities are putting in place to combat it.
The Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), created a bulletin, “Bullying in Schools: An Overview,” that discusses types and frequencies of bullying, as well as truancy and student achievement, and what effect engagement in school has on these factors (PDF, 12 pages).
This website is targeted at "tweens" with 12 educational, animated "webisodes" featuring characters who are involved in bullying and its prevention. The site describes bullying in language friendly to young people, and includes helpful information for kids and for adults. Web site available in Spanish.
The StopBullying.gov Bullying Prevention Training Center offers multiple resources, including the Bullying Prevention Training Module and Community Action Toolkit and 11 new, audience-specific user guides, developed in collaboration with more than 40 partner organizations. These resources feature relevant statistics and best practices for a variety of readers, including parents, school administrators, and mental health providers.
Bullying, Sexual, and Dating Violence Trajectories From Early to Late Adolescence
This report describes a longitudinal study of 1,162 high school students that examined the impact of family abuse and conflict, self-reported delinquency, and peer delinquency on the development of bullying perpetration, sexual harassment perpetration, and teen dating violence perpetration.
This article provides an overview of bullying and its relationship with suicide. It also presents SAMHSA’s collaborative approach to bullying prevention, highlighting the Media Guidelines for Bullying Prevention, which media outlets can use when developing stories related to bullying to ensure that they reflect balanced and accurate coverage.
The Bureau of Indian Education provides quality education opportunities from early childhood through life in accordance with the tribes' needs to cultural and economic well being in keeping with the wide diversity of Indian tribes and Alaska Native villages as distinct cultural and governmental entities. The Bureau considers the whole person (spiritual, mental, physical and cultural aspects.)"
Bureau of Justice Assistance: Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force Initiative
The Bureau of Justice Assistance’s Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force Initiative includes training for law enforcement and communities to identify trafficking in persons and rescue victims by working with federal law enforcement and victims service providers and offering support and funding to task forces (in coordination with the Office for Victims of Crime and the Department of Health and Human Services) based on a sound strategy of collaboration among state and local enforcement, trafficking victim services providers, fed
Departments: Department of Justice Agencies/Offices: Bureau of Justice Assistance, Agencies/Offices: Office of Justice Programs
Bureau of Justice Statistics
The Bureau of Justice Statistics collects, analyzes, publishes, and disseminates information on crime, criminal offenders, victims of crime, and the operation of justice systems at all levels of government.
This site describes looking to the future, The Bureau of Land Management's youth initiatives. These initiatives feature a variety of programs that engage, educate, and inspire and focus on youth from early childhood through young adulthood. The aim of the youth programs is to build on the spark of childhood wonder about the natural world, sustain interest through hands-on education and volunteer experiences during the school-age years, and develop into long-term engagement and stewardship, as well as pursuit of natural resource careers.
“Campus Law Enforcement, 2011-12” presents findings from a survey of campus law enforcement agencies during the 2011-12 academic year and includes data on employees, agency functionings, arrest jurisdiction, patrol coverage, and more.
This resource for adults and youth provides employment, training, and financial assistance for laid-off workers. It includes resources for getting immediate help with unemployment insurance, healthcare, and other financial needs; job searching and resume tips; changing careers and understanding transferable skills; and upgrading skills through education and training. It also provides career information and links to work-related services that help veterans and military service members successfully transition to civilian careers.
SAMHSA's "Caring for Every Child's Mental Health" public awareness effort was created in 1994 with the mission to increase awareness around children's mental health.
URL:http://www.samhsa.gov/children/ Departments: Department of Health and Human Services Agencies/Offices: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Caring for Our Children: National Health and Safety Performance Standards Guidelines for Early Care and Education Programs
These national standards represent the best evidence, expertise, and experience in the country on quality health and safety practices and policies that should be followed in today's early care and education settings.
This report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that 1 in 88 children in the United States has been identified as having an autism spectrum disorder and more children are being diagnosed by age 3.
This website is CDC’s primary source of information and resources for preparing for and responding to public health emergencies. This site continues to keep the public informed about public health emergencies and provides the information needed to protect and save lives.
URL:http://emergency.cdc.gov/ Departments: Department of Health and Human Services Agencies/Offices: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
CDC Emergency Preparedness and You
The possibility of public health emergencies arising in the United States concerns many people in the wake of recent hurricanes, tsunamis, acts of terrorism, and the threat of pandemic influenza. Taking advance action helps people deal with disasters of all sorts much more effectively when they do occur. To help, CDC and the American Red Cross have teamed up to answer common questions and provide step-by-step guidance.
CDC National Health Report: Leading Causes of Morbidity and Mortality and Associated Behavioral Risk and Protective Factors—United States, 2005–2013
This report from the CDC (PDF, 32 pages) provides a snapshot of recent trends in key areas of the nation’s health and guides national policy and programmatic efforts related to health . Specifically related to youth, the report addresses trends in substance use, sexually transmitted infections, physical activity, obesity, and childbirth among teenagers.
CDC’s Division of Reproductive Health created a Web page especially for teens. Designed with input from teens, the Web page aims to motivate teens to make healthy choices about sex by providing empowering messages on specific actions that teens can take to prevent teen pregnancy.
Schools and education agencies cannot prevent natural disasters, or even many man-made crises, but they can help students prepare for and plan to respond to such emergencies. Resources are available to help schools, education agencies, and institutions of higher education develop such plans, usually in collaboration with public health and first responder agencies.
CDC has updated its GetTested website, which helps users find confidential HIV and STD testing. Updates include adding a quiz to its testing locator to help users determine which sexually transmitted disease tests they need.
URL:http://gettested.cdc.gov/ Departments: Department of Health and Human Services Agencies/Offices: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
CDC Show Your Love Campaign
Show Your Love is a national campaign that promotes preconception health and healthcare with the goal of increasing the number of women planning pregnancies, and engaging in healthy behaviors prior to conception, and encouraging women who do not want to become pregnant to choose healthy behaviors and achieve their goals.
This website from CDC provides information and data about teen pregnancy. Sections of the site target resources for parents, guardians, and health care providers. It also includes videos, podcasts, reports, a social media tool kit and other resources focused on teen pregnancy and teen pregnancy prevention.
CDCynergy is a multimedia CD-ROM used for planning, managing, and evaluating public health communication programs. The tool was originally created for use within CDC. In addition to the basic edition, CDC program and partners have created additional versions of the tool focused on specific health topics. Copies of the CD can be ordered from the Public Health Foundation.
Center for Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships
The Center works with HUD field and program offices to offer over 40 organizational capacity building workshops annually around the country. These one- and two-day trainings are designed for smaller grassroots non-profits seeking to strengthen their effectiveness by covering topics like organizational development, strategic planning, financial management, logic models, and the science of finding and applying for grants.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) works to protect public health and safety by providing information to enhance health decisions, and it promotes health through partnerships with state health departments and other organizations.
URL:http://www.cdc.gov/ Departments: Department of Health and Human Services Agencies/Offices: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Coping With a Disaster or Traumatic Event
The effects of a disaster, terrorist attack, or other public health emergency can be long-lasting, and the resulting trauma can reverberate even with those not directly affected by the disaster. This page provides general strategies for promoting mental health and resilience that were developed by various organizations based on experiences in prior disasters.
Centers for the Application of Prevention Technologies
This is the national website of the CAPTs. The CAPTs are regional technical assistance providers for the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP), an agency of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The CAPTs assist states and jurisdictions and community based organizations in the application of evidence-based substance abuse prevention programs, practices, and policies
URL:http://captus.samhsa.gov/ Departments: Department of Health and Human Services Agencies/Offices: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Changing Course: Preventing Gang Membership
The NIJ and CDC have jointly published a book that uses current research and evidence on youth gang involvement to form recommendations for policymakers on the effective use of taxpayer dollars in gang membership prevention. Each chapter includes an interview with a practitioner and highlighted policy implications.
Changing Lives: Prevention and Intervention to Reduce Serious Offending
This bulletin provides a review of effective early childhood, juvenile, and early adulthood programs that mitigate risk factors for delinquency and have demonstrated measurable impacts on offending (PDF, 8 pages). These programs are grouped by family, school, peers, and community, individual, and employment.
The Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights has released new guidance confirming that federal civil rights laws that apply to traditional public schools apply equally to public charter schools (PDF, 7 pages). The guidance addresses civil rights subjects in the context of charter schools, including equal opportunity in admissions, provisions of a free appropriate public education to students with
Charting the Course: Supporting the Career Development of Youth with Learning Disabilities
This Guide was developed to help youth service professionals better understand issues related to learning disabilities so that they can help youth with learning disabilities develop individual strategies that will enable them to succeed in the workplace.
Over the past five years, Let’s Move!, a nationwide initiative led by first lady Michelle Obama to set children on a path to a healthy future, has engaged parents, business leaders, educators, elected officials, community and faith leaders, and kids themselves in the improvement of the health of our nation’s children.
The Administration for Children and Families’ Child Welfare Information Gateway provides these resources on the “Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect” section of its website in order to support preparation for National Child Abuse Prevention Month in April.
Child and Youth Victimization Known to Police, School and Medical Authorities
This report from the Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outlines what types of violence children report and what professionals are aware of the reported violence. The report shows that 46 percent of victimized children were known to school, police, or medical authorities.
Since its creation in 1987, the mission of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) has been to protect the welfare of America´s children and communities by enforcing federal criminal statutes relating to obscenity and the exploitation of children. The CEOS website includes information and resources on child pornography, child sexual abuse, extraterritorial sexual exploitation of children, child prostitution, and more.
Since its creation in 1987, the mission of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) has been to protect the welfare of America´s children and communities by enforcing federal criminal statutes relating to obscenity and the exploitation of children. The CEOS website includes information and resources on child pornography, child sexual abuse, extraterritorial sexual exploitation of children, child prostitution, and more.
The Child Health USA Databook is an annual report of the health status, well-being and service needs of America's children and youth. Coalitions, program planners and policy makers can identify national trends by examining and comparing data from one year to the next. Indicators for youth, or adolescents, cover multiple issues, including childbearing, substance abuse, violence, mental health treatment, and mortality from traffic and firearms injuries. The section, Population Characteristics, provides information about poverty status and school dropouts.
elaws-FLSA Child Labor Rules Advisor provides a comprehensive way to help you learn more about the minimum wage, overtime pay, child labor, and recordkeeping laws enforced by the Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor (DOL). This is an interactive platform where users can select information targeted at youth, parents, employers, and teachers on a variety of topics.
Child Welfare Information Gateway connects child welfare and related professionals to comprehensive information and resources to help protect children and strengthen families.Tools to build logic models, as well as examples of program approaches, are provided for a range of child welfare topics.
URL:https://www.childwelfare.gov Departments: Department of Health and Human Services Agencies/Offices: Administration for Children and Families
Child Welfare Information Gateway Logic Model Builder
The Child Welfare Information Gateway has developed two new Logic Model Builders, Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention and Family Support Programs and Postadoption Services Programs. These Logic Model Builders can help programs define their goals, outcomes, and indicators of success and select appropriate evaluation instruments.
Child Welfare Outcomes 2006–2009: Report to Congress
The tenth in a series of reports from the Department of Health and Human Services this report is designed to inform Congress and child welfare professionals about national and state performance on several measures of outcomes for children served by child welfare systems across the United States.
Child Welfare Outcomes 2008–2011: Report to Congress
This report from the Department of Health and Human Services' Children’s Bureau, provides information about state and national performance on outcome measures for children in child welfare systems. The outcome measures focus on seven categories, including well-being, permanency, and safety.
Child Welfare Outcomes 2008–2011:Report to Congress
This report, from the Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families' Children’s Bureau, informs Congress and professionals in the child welfare field about national and state performance on multiple outcomes measures for children in the child welfare system that address safety, permanency, and well-being.
Childhood Exposure to Trauma: Comparative Effectiveness of Interventions
This document, created by the Department of Health and Human Services' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, compares the effectiveness of various interventions for children and youth exposed to maltreatment in addressing well-being and child welfare outcomes.
Childhood Trauma and Its Effect on Healthy Development
This article from the National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention discusses the prevalence of trauma and its effect on children and teens, with the goal of providing schools, parents, and caregivers with the tools to identify young people who may have been affected by trauma in order to help them develop the skills they need to succeed.
Childhood Traumatic Grief Educational Materials for Parents
The information from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network provides an overview of childhood traumatic grief, its general signs and symptoms, and some suggestions on what parents can do to help their child. Using this guide can be a first step for parents to help them understand their child's experience of intense grief following a death of a loved one that the child experienced as being especially difficult or traumatic.
Children and Youth Disaster Behavioral Health Information Series
The Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Disaster Technical Assistance Center's updated Children and Youth Disaster Behavioral Health Information Series contains an installment focusing on the reactions and mental health needs of children and youth after a disaster.
Children and Youth—SAMHSA Disaster Behavioral Health Information Series installment
This SAMHSA Disaster Behavioral Health Information Series installment from the Disaster Technical Assistance Center (DTAC) focuses on the reactions and mental health needs of children and youth after a disaster and contains resources from both the child trauma and disaster behavioral health fields.
Children in Foster Care with Parents in Federal Prison: A Toolkit for Child Welfare Agencies, Federal Prisons, and Residential Reentry Centers
Roughly 10% of incarcerated mothers in state prison have a child in a foster home or other state care. Some estimates indicate that as many as 1 in 8 children who are subjects of reports of maltreatment and investigated by child welfare agencies have parents who were recently arrested. Though there is clearly overlap between the prison system and the child welfare system, it is often difficult for prison officials to know how to help incarcerated parents stay in touch with their children in foster care and work towards reunification.
The Children of Incarcerated Parents Framing Paper outlines the challenges children of incarcerated parents and their families face, including facing financial hardship, difficulties with attachment and relationship skills, stigma resulting from the actions of their parents, and trauma from the sudden separation of a parent. The purpose of this paper is to raise public awareness, and the awareness of service providers about these unique challenges and provide strategies to individuals who interface with this population, including parents, teachers, and social service providers on how to enhance these children's social and emotional well-being.
The Reentry Myth Buster/Children of Incarcerated Parents Series is a series of fact sheets intended to clarify federal policies that affect formerly incarcerated individuals and their families. On any given day, nearly two million children under 18 have a parent in prison, and many more have had an incarcerated parent at some point during their childhood. Children of incarcerated parents often face financial instability, changes in family structure, and social stigma from their community. This series is designed to help these children, their caregivers, and the service providers who work with them.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 2007, an estimated 1.7 million children under the age of 18 had a parent in prison, an increase of almost 80 percent since 1991. The negative consequences for children with an incarcerated parent can be substantial, including financial instability, changes in family structure, shame, and social stigma. However, research also shows that supporting healthy and positive relationships between these vulnerable children, who are the innocent bystanders of adult decisions, and their families has the potential to mitigate negative outcomes.
Children, Youth, and Families Education and Research Network
CYFERnet is a national network of Land Grant university faculty and county Extension educators working to support community-based educational programs for children, youth, parents and families. It provides program, evaluation and technology assistance for children, youth and family community-based programs and is funded as a joint project of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's NIFA and the Cooperative Extension System
URL:http://www.cyfernet.org Departments: Department of Agriculture Agencies/Offices: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Children’s Bureau Spotlight Videos
The Children’s Bureau has developed a suite of seven new videos that feature Children’s Bureau staff and leadership discussing their work with states, tribes, grantees, and community organizations and sharing insights about what they have learned through this work.
Children’s Exposure to Violence and the Intersection Between Delinquency and Victimization
This bulletin, from the Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, presents findings from the National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence about the relationship between delinquency and victimization among children and youth. The bulletin highlights the implications of these findings for practitioners in the adolescent development and intervention fields.
Choice for Parents: Supplemental Educational Services
Information for parents regarding Supplemental Educational Services including, service providers, state contacts, pilot programs, information regarding No Child Left Behind, technical assistance, and additional resource links.
The Choice Neighborhoods initiative will transform distressed neighborhoods and public and assisted projects into viable and sustainable mixed-income neighborhoods by linking housing improvements with appropriate services, schools, public assets, transportation, and access to jobs. A strong emphasis will be placed on local community planning for access to high-quality educational opportunities, including early childhood education.
Cigarette Smoking Among U.S. High School Students at Lowest Level in 22 Years
According to the results of the 2013 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), rates of cigarette smoking among high school students have dropped (PDF, 1 page) to the lowest levels since the YRBS began in 1991. By achieving a teen smoking rate of 15.7 percent, the United States has met its national Healthy People 2020 objective of reducing adolescent cigarette use to 16 percent or less.
Circles of Care Address Health Disparities in Native Communities
This article describes the Circles of Care grant program, which draws on system of care philosophies to provide tribal and urban Indian communities with tools and resources to plan and design a holistic, community-based, coordinated system of care to support mental health and wellness for children, youth and families. The article also describes the SAMHSA-produced American Indian and Alaska Native Culture Card, wh
Citizen Corps was created to help coordinate volunteer activities that will make our communities safer, stronger, and better prepared to respond to any emergency situation. It provides opportunities for people to participate in a range of measures to make their families, homes, and communities safer from the threats of crime, terrorism, and disasters of all kinds.
Closing the Quality Gap: Revisiting the State of the Science
In 2004, AHRQ launched a collection of evidence reports, Closing the Quality Gap: A Critical Analysis of Quality Improvement Strategies, to bring data to bear on quality improvement opportunities. These reports summarized the evidence on quality improvement strategies related to chronic conditions, practice areas, and cross-cutting priorities.The United States devotes significant resources for the provision of health care, yet quality is often elusive or lacking.
The Department of Education has updated the lists featured on the College Affordability and Transparency Center that spotlight institutions with the highest and lowest tuitions, fees, and prices and the highest percentage increases in these areas. This information is also available by sector.
College Drinking: Changing the Culture, created by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). CollegeDrinkingPrevention.gov is your one-stop resource for comprehensive research-based information on issues related to alcohol abuse and binge drinking among college students.
College Enrollment and Work Activity of 2013 High School Graduates
This news release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics provides new data collected on the college enrollment and work activity of high school graduates in 2013. The news release reports that in October 2013, 65.9 percent of high school graduates in 2013 were enrolled in colleges or universities, and recent high school graduates who were not enrolled in college were more than twice as likely as enrolled graduates to be working or looking for work.
A pocket-size resource, Coming Out As You aims to help young people think through their coming out process. It can be used by family and youth workers can use this resource as a tool in working with LGBTQ youth.
Communication Skills Building for Parents of Preteen Girls
The Office on Women's Health developed the new Communication Skills Building program to help community organizations lead discussions with families and caregivers about improving their communication with their preteen and teen daughters. The free materials include facilitators’ guides, online videos, and tip sheets for parents to use with African American and Hispanic communities.
Community How-to Guides on Underage Drinking Prevention
This set of documents was developed by the National Association of Governors Highway Safety Representatives with financial assistance from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The guides focus on the following topics: Coalition Building, Needs Assessment and Strategic Planning, Evaluation, Prevention and Education, Underage Drinking Enforcement, Public Policy Advocacy, Media Relations, Self-Sufficiency, and Resources.
Community Mapping Connects Youth to Their Neighborhoods
This podcast from the National Clearinghouse on Families & Youth describes the work of a nonprofit organization that uses a tool called community mapping to help young people understand the assets and deficits that exist in their communities
Compendium of School Discipline State Laws and Regulations
Developed by the National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments, which is funded by the Department of Education's Office of Safe and Healthy Students and the Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Compendium of School Discipline State Laws and Regulations provides information on school discipline laws and regulations for each of the 50 states, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico. Users can search by state or category and can also download the full Compendium in PDF format.
This program awards discretionary grants to establish comprehensive technical assistance centers to help low-performing schools and districts close achievement gaps and meet the goals of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Awards have been given to Fifteen (15) Regional Centers to provide technical assistance to States within defined geographic boundaries; and Five (5) content focused centers to provide expert assistance to benefit States and districts nationwide on key issues related to the goals of NCLB.
Comprehensive Community Initiatives Tools for Feds
cciToolsforFeds.org provides information to federal staff to help them design, implement and evaluate comprehensive community initiatives. This ToolKit aims to help federal staff align funding, management, evaluation, and technical assistance to ensure that the focus on systems change remains front and center as they partner with communities in the work of building healthy and capable children, youth, and families.
Comprehensive Responses to Youth At Risk: Interim Findings From the SafeFutures Initiative
The SafeFutures initiative joins what we have learned from research about risk and protective factors with what we now know from experience about promising approaches to preventing and controlling delinquency, resulting in a continuum of care that responds to the needs of youth at critical stages in their development. This Summary describes the lessons learned over the initial 3 years of the initiative's implementation in three pilot sites.
Condition of America’s Public School Facilities: 2012–13
This report from the Department of Education provides national data on the condition of the nation’s public school facilities, information on building construction and renovation history, and the estimated cost of the repairs needed to put buildings in good condition.
Confronting Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Sex Trafficking of Minors in the United States
This OJJDP-sponsored report, released by the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council, aims to strengthen prevention, identification, and response efforts by offering recommendations for the response to commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking of minors.
The Connected Educators website is part of the Connected Online Communities of Practice Project launched by the Department of Education that aims to create communities outside of the classroom between educators in order to share information about best practices, curriculum, learning activities, resources and other materials that may inform their teaching practices. The site includes informative publications on online communities, access to those that already exist and a toolkit on how to get started.
ConnectED: President Obama’s Plan for Connecting All Schools to the Digital Age
The ConnectED Initiative aims to bring America’s students into the digital age by ensuring access to the Internet and other educational technologies by using existing federal funds and partnering with businesses, states, districts, communities, and schools.
This brief, developed for the Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Children, Youth and Families, discusses promising occupations for at-risk youth. The occupations are based on their potential for reasonable wages, the required educational prerequisites, projected growth and demand in the labor market, and potential for individual advancement. Opportunities in the healthcare and construction fields are highlighted, as well as work-based learning and career pathway programs.
Contribution of Excessive Alcohol Consumption to Deaths and Years of Potential Life Lost in the United States
This study aimed to update the national estimates of alcohol-attributable deaths (AAD) and years of potential life lost (YPLL) in the United States. The results show that excessive drinking accounted for 1 in 10 deaths among working-age adults and remains a leading cause of premature mortality nationwide. About 5% of all average annual AAD and 10% of average annual YPLL involved individuals under 21 years of age.
The CES, administered by over 130 land grant universities and anchored in all 3,150 counties across the country, is a network of academically trained university faculty and staff who provide a broad array of staff training, curriculum, community collaboration building, evaluation, resource development, and other expertise and resources to out-of-school time programs.
Coordinated school health (CSH) is recommended by CDC as a strategy for improving students' health and learning in our nation’s schools. These site outline the rationale and goals for CSH, provide a model framework for planning and implementing CSH, and offer resources to help schools, districts, and states improve their school health programs.
Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (JJDP) Act establishes the Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (Council) as an independent body within the executive branch of the federal government. The Council's primary functions are to coordinate federal juvenile delinquency prevention programs, federal programs and activities that detain or care for unaccompanied juveniles, and federal programs related to missing and exploited children.
Coping with Disasters and Strengthening Systems: A Framework for Child Welfare Agencies
This resource was developed by the National Child Welfare Resource Center for Organizational Improvement (NRCOI) a service of the Children's Bureau and provides information for before a disaster occurs, during a disaster, and after a disaster.
This resource offers tips for survivors of community violence, providing information on grief reactions, the length of grief, and methods of coping. Ways to help children cope with grief reactions to community violence are also included.
The Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration provides coping resources on its blog in the wake of the Chardon High School shooting in Ohio. The blog entry provides a hotline number that individuals can call or text for disaster and trauma crisis counseling.
The Corporation for National and Community Service plays a vital role in supporting the American culture of citizenship, service and responsibility. The Corporation is a catalyst for change and champion for the ideal that every American has skills and talents to give. The Corporation is the nation's largest grantmaker supporting service and volunteering. Through AmeriCorps and Learn and Serve America programs, The Corporation provides opportunities for Americans of all ages and backgrounds to express their patriotism while addressing critical community needs
Coverage of Behavioral Health Services for Children, Youth, and Young Adults with Significant Mental Health Conditions
This bulletin, from the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, Centers for Medicaid and CHIP Services, aims to help states design a benefit package that will meet the needs of children and youth with significant health conditions and is both clinically—and cost—effective.
Creating a New Narrative: Collaborative and Effective Evaluation in Tribal Communities
This video from the Child Welfare Evaluation Virtual Summit Series introduces a vision for the future of evaluating tribal child welfare and a guide for developing culturally and scientifically rigorous evaluations.
The Family and Youth Services Bureau's Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program created “Creating a Safe Space for LGBTQ Teens," a free online course (requires login) designed to inform those who deliver teen pregnancy prevention programming.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics has released a report, “Prevalence of Violent Crime among Households with Children, 1993-2010,” which presents data about nonfatal violent crime involving members of households with children during that time period.
The National Institute of Justice and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention developed the bulletin, "Criminal Career Patterns" as part of the Justice Research Series. This bulletin describes criminal career patterns in adolescence and adulthood.
Critical Dialogue With Native Youth About Underage Drinking: Our Culture Is Prevention
This video features conversations with Native youth and elders about the prevalence and consequences of underage drinking among Native youth, as well as the ways Native cultures and traditions help prevent substance use and promote resilience.
URL:http://www.youtube.com/watch Departments: Department of Health and Human Services Agencies/Offices: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
CSAP's Prevention Pathways: Online Courses
This online course examines the causes and effects of bullying, prevention techniques and programs, screening, treatment options, and legal and ethical issues surrounding bullying. This course is designed for professionals in education, health and mental health, and related fields, including social workers, school counselors, school nurses, teachers, and principals. Quizzes at the end of course modules allow course participants to gauge their learning against course objectives.
Cultural Awareness: Children and Youth in Disasters Podcast
The goal of this 60-minute podcast from the Disaster Technical Assistance Center (DTAC) is to assist disaster behavioral health responders in providing culturally aware and appropriate disaster behavioral health services for children, youth, and families impacted by natural and human-caused disasters. Featured speakers include April Naturale, Ph.D., of SAMHSA DTAC and Russell T. Jones, Ph.D., of Virginia Tech University.
URL:https://www.youtube.com/watch Departments: Department of Health and Human Services Agencies/Offices: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Cultural Competency Curriculum for Disaster Preparedness and Crisis Response
The Spring 2012 of the IMPACT newsletter of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, which is sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services, focused entirely on the relationship between culture and trauma. Topics covered include youth suicide in a tribal community and disclosure of abuse in LGBT youth.
Current Tobacco Use Among Middle and High School Students — United States, 2011
As illustrated in this report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, data from the 2011 National Youth Tobacco Survey reveals that during 2000–2011, there was a linear downward trend observed in the prevalence of current tobacco use, current combustible tobacco use, and current cigarette use among middle and high school students.
Curriculum for Training Educators of Youth in Confinement
To help teachers address issues surrounding youth in confinement, the National Juvenile Detention Association's Center for Research and Professional Development (CRPD) has developed a National Training Curriculum for Educators of Youth in Confinement Facilities (Educator's Curriculum). Topics addressed include behavioral development, mental health, and assessment.
This blog entry discusses the Uninterrupted Scholars Act, a new law that added child welfare professionals to the list of approved people who can access foster youths’ education records and help transfer their credits to new schools. This can help ease the transition to a new school and increase the chances of these young people graduating from high school.
This report from the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics presents findings from a congressionally mandated study on arts education in public elementary and secondary schools.
In a study conducted in conjunction with Children of Alcoholics Week (February 12-18, 2012), the Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found that 7.5 million children under age 18 live with a parent who has experienced an alcohol use disorder in the past year.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has partnered with GreatSchools, a national nonprofit educational resource for parents, to provide an online database that can assist parents in choosing a school for their child. The database contains more than 200,000 public, charter, magnet, and private schools, serving grades K-12 across the country.
A Dear Colleagues letter, released by the Department of Education during a White House event on teen dating violence prevention, calls on state school chiefs to take immediate action to reduce gender-based violence in schools. Accompanying the letter was the “What Schools Can Do” toolkit, which outlines simple actions that communities can take to reduce gender-based violence, as well as available resources.
Declines in State Teen Birth Rates by Race and Hispanic Origin
This report, developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics, illustrates that the teen birth rate in the United States declined 25 percent between 2007-2011, a record low, with the steepest declines seen for Hispanic teenagers.
Attorney General Eric Holder launched the Defending Childhood initiative, which strives to harness resources from across the Department of Justice to prevent children's exposure to violence; mitigate the negative impact of children's exposure to violence when it does occur, and; develop knowledge and spread awareness about children's exposure to violence.
The National Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence has released a final report which includes 56 recommendations underscoring the importance of identifying children who are victims of, or witnesses to, violence, and providing services to help them heal.
This report from the Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics examines three cohorts of recent graduates one year after they earned their bachelor’s degree, comparing their student loan debt and ability to pay back their loans one year after graduation and how debt affected their graduate school enrollment and living arrangements.
The DoD STARBASE is an educational program sponsored by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs. Students can participate in challenging "hands-on, mind-on" activities in aviation, science, technology, engineering, math, and space exploration. The program provides students with 20-25 hours of stimulating experiences at National Guard, Navy, Marine, Air Force Reserve and Air Force bases across the nation.
URL:http://www.starbasedod.com/ Departments: Department of Defense Agencies/Offices: Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs
Department of Education "Dear Colleague" Letter on Braille
This Dear Colleague Letter to provides information to states and agencies about the importance of Braille instruction and resources to better meet the needs of students who are visually impaired (PDF, 6 pages).
The Department of Education's model financial aid award letter, known as the “Shopping Sheet,” aims to promote transparency in student financial aid disclosures by outlining information—such as estimated annual costs, grant money students will receive, the amount of loan money they can expect to take out, and more—up front, before students have enrolled.
Department of Homeland Security Plan and Prepare for Disasters
This section of the Department of Homeland Security website provides information and resources focused on planning and preparing for a disaster by understanding the cycle of preparation, planning for disasters, and developing a culture of preparedness.
Department of Homeland Security Response and Recovery
This Department of Homeland Security website provides information and resources focused on disaster response and recovery. Additional information about the ways the Department of Homeland Security can help with recovery is available on the disaster assistance page
Developmental Sequences of Girls’ Delinquent Behavior
As part of the Girls Study Group series, which was established to guide the development, testing, and implementation of strategies to prevent and intervene in girls’ delinquency, this bulletin synthesizes the methods, findings, and implications from a collaborative analysis of data that the Denver Youth Survey and the Fast Track Project collected on the developmental patterns of girls’ offending from childhood through adolescence.
Diagnoses and Health Care Utilization of Children Who Are in Foster Care and Covered by Medicaid
This report examines the prevalence of mental health and substance use disorders among children and youth in foster care who are covered by Medicaid, as well as utilization rates of health services among this population.
The 48th in a series, the Digest provides statistical information related to the field of education. Covering prekindergarten through graduate school, this report provides information on a variety of topics including numbers of schools, teachers, and students, federal funds for education, and international comparisons.
NHTSA has developed new motion graphics that rely on images and animations that can help people who speak different languages or may be hearing impared learn about bicycle and pedestrian safety concepts.
Departments: Department of Transportation Agencies/Offices: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Director’s Blog: What Caused This to Happen?
Written by NIMH Director Dr. Thomas Insel, this blog post explains the mixture of genetic and environmental factors that underly mental illness and cites recent research that suggests “bad luck” may play a role in the development of psychopathology.
Developed as part of the “What can YOU do?” initiative, the “Because” public service announcement (PSA) features stories of real people with disabilities who have been able to achieve their goals because of the positive support they received from caring adult mentors, such as parents, friends, employees, and teachers.
The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services within the Department of Education has released and updated its Disability Employment 101 guide. This guide provides information about hiring employees with disabilities, including information about how to find qualified workers with disabilities, how to put disability and employment research into practice, and how to model what other businesses have done to successfully integrate individuals with disabilities into the workforce.
The Children and Youth section provides information about career and technical education, internships, mentoring programs, and job training services specific to youth. Resources are also available for youth with disabilities who receive disability benefits from the Social Security Administration (SSA) and want to enter the workforce.
This guide from Disability.gov provides general information about federal student aid as well as higher education funding options for students with disabilities, such as loans, grants, scholarships, and work study. The guide also explains how to find and apply for these opportunities.
People affected by any disaster or tragedy can call the Disaster Distress Helpline, sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, to receive immediate counseling. Calling 1-800-985-5990 will connect you to a trained professional from the closest crisis counseling center within the network.
Established by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the Disaster Technical Assistance Center supports SAMHSA's efforts to prepare states, territories, Tribes, and local entities to deliver an effective mental health and substance abuse (behavioral health) response to disasters.
URL:http://www.samhsa.gov/dtac/ Departments: Department of Health and Human Services Agencies/Offices: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
This site consolidates disaster assistance information in one place. The secure, user-friendly U.S. Government web portal allows users to apply for assistance online following a presidentially declared disaster and to find additional resources and information about recovering from a disaster.
As featured on the OJJDP website, the Discipline Disparities Research-to-Practice Collaborative has released a Discipline Disparities Briefing Paper Series, which consists of three briefing papers on policy, practice, and research related to disparities in school discipline.
This site provides information and resources focused on the disproportionate number of minority youth who come into contact with the juvenile justice system
URL:http://www.ojjdp.gov/dmc/ Departments: Department of Justice Agencies/Offices: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
Distraction.gov provides wide array of information and resources about distracted driving including information from the 2010 summit on distracted driving, campaign tools, facts, statistics and research, information about laws in different states related to distracted driving, speeches, press releases and other resources for the media.
URL:http://www.distraction.gov/ Departments: Department of Transportation Agencies/Offices: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Division of Youth Services
Provides an overview of programs funded by the Department of Labor focusing on youth. Offers a bi-weekly newsletter, announcements and potential funding opportunities, information for state and local partners, as well as information on the Federal Shared Youth Vision Partnership a collaborative effort serving the neediest youth.
Does Raising the State Compulsory Attendance Age Achieve the Intended Outcomes?
This study from the Department of Education's National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance analyzes whether raising the age of state compulsory school attendance has an impact on dropout, truancy, and disciplinary actions, as well as broader social outcomes.
This website houses a collection of research-based instructional practices on topics such as Early Childhood Education, English Language Learners, Math and Science, and Psychology of Learning, with an emphasis on using data for improvement, increasing teacher effectiveness, and turning around the lowest-performing schools.
Domestic, Dating, and Sexual Violence: Resources and a Call to Action
The fight against sexual violence on college campuses is gaining momentum with the growth of many new programs and initiatives that increase awareness, educate students, and increase pressure on universities to re-evaluate sexual misconduct policies.
A report from America’s Promise Alliance encourages readers to think differently about youth who have left school, suggesting a change in terminology, from “dropouts” to “nongraduates” or students who have had “interrupted enrollment.” As this article explains, youth voices are featured prominently in the report, which also highlights factors that influence students to leave school and the supports that can help them to return to and remain in school.
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) directs the Drug-Free Communities Support Program in partnership with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). This anti-drug program provides grants of up to $100,000 to community coalitions that mobilize their communities to prevent youth alcohol, tobacco, illicit drug, and inhalant abuse.
Duncan Invites Student Feedback on College Access and Affordability
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan invited a group of 15 high school and college students to the Department’s headquarters to discuss college accessibility and affordability. The students suggested key improvements to the college application process, including providing easy access to information about application fee waivers and creating a website that could serve as a “one stop shop” with links to all the government websites that provide information related to the college application process.
This blog post from the Department of Labor highlights a new study conducted with high school students that found that programming an iPod to display texts in shorter segments was helpful to those with dyslexia. This is a promising approach for those who struggle with dyslexia, especially individuals with visual attention deficits.
Early Warning, Timely Response: A Guide to Safe Schools
Early Warning, Timely Response: A Guide to Safe Schools offers research-based practices designed to assist school communities identify these warning signs early and develop prevention, intervention and crisis response plans.
Ecstasy-Related Emergency Department Visits by Young People Increased Between 2005 and 2011
A new study reveals that the number of emergency department visits involving MDMA, also known as Ecstasy or Molly, in patients younger than 21 years old increased 128 percent, from 4,460 visits in 2005 to 10,176 visits in 2011.
ED Office of Safe and Healthy Students Emergency Planning Website
The U.S. Department of Education (ED)'s Office of Safe and Healthy Students' (OSHS) Center for School Preparedness provides support, resources, grants, and training to support emergency management efforts for local educational agencies and institutions of higher education.
Departments: Department of Education Agencies/Offices: Office of Safe and Healthy Students
Educating Young Men as a Way to End Commercial Sexual Exploitation
This article from the National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth features a Q&A with a representative from the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation (CAASE) who discusses the organization’s research on the demand for prostitution and how youth-serving professionals can use the curriculum developed by CAASE to encourage young men to take a stand against sexual exploitation.
Funded by the Department of Education, the Education Facilities Clearinghouse (EFC) is a program of The George Washington University’s Graduate School of Education and Human Development. The EFC collects and disseminates resources on effective practices for planning, designing, financing, procuring, constructing, improving, operating, and maintaining safe, healthy, and high-performing elementary and secondary schools.
Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002): A First Look at 2002 High School Sophomores 10 Years Later
This report presents the findings from the third and final follow-up survey of the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002, developed by the The Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics. The report uses data collected in 2012 to describe educational, career, family, and financial outcomes of a cohort of young people, approximately 10 years after their sophomore year in high school.
Educational and Training Vouchers for Current and Former Foster Care Youth
Young people who are in or have been in foster care and need assistance paying for college, career school, or training may be eligible for the Educational and Training Vouchers (ETV) Program. Funded by the federal government and administered by the states, the program provides students with up to $5,000 per academic year, based on cost of attendance and available funds.
Educational Resources for New Arrivals and DACA Students
The Department of Education has created a website dedicated to providing information and resources to young people who have recently arrived in the United States and young adults who have received, or plan to apply for, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
Effects and Consequences of Underage Drinking On Adolescent Brain Development
This bulletin outlines some of the consequences of underage drinking including the effect that drinking can have on adolescent brain development. As outlined in the bulletin, studies show that continued use of alcohol and other drugs may hinder youth’s advancement to more complex stages of thinking and social interaction.
Effects of Parental Incarceration on Young Children
Effects of Parental Incarceration on Young Children, addresses the reactions of children with incarcerated parents, as well as: ways of modifying those effects, programs that can help both the parent and the child, how to adopt a whole family approach and why this discussion should inform research and policy issues.
Emergency Department Visits for Drug-Related Suicide Attempts Have Increased
As this report illustrates, drug-related emergency department visits involving suicide attempts have increased in recent years, with a 58% increase seen in visits involving patients ages 18-29 between 2005 and 2011.
The Employment and Training Administration site provides information about summer youth jobs, the Workforce Investment Act, and other employment and training programs related to youth .
URL:http://www.doleta.gov/ Departments: Department of Labor Agencies/Offices: Employment and Training Administration
Employment and Training for Court-Involved Youth
This Report represents a compendium of the opinions and concerns of the Task Force members about current conditions that affect court-involved youth and identifies the most promising strategies for connecting court-involved youth to the labor market.
Employment and Unemployment Among Youth - Summer 2013
A new report from the Department of Labor on seasonal changes in youth employment indicates that the number of employed youth, 16 to 24 years old, increased by 2.1 million to 19.7 million between April and July. The share of young people employed in July was 50.7% in 2013.
Employment and Unemployment Among Youth – Summer 2014
Released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Employment and Unemployment Among Youth—Summer 2014” provides a statistical overview of employed youth from April to July 2014. The data reflect an increase in youth employment compared with the same time frame in 2013.
Ending Housing Discrimination against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Individuals and Families
This HUD website maintains a list of states that enumerate sexual orientation and gender identity in their state fair housing laws. It also provides information and resources to report housing discrimination.
This website developed by FYSB illustrates how the programs operated through the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act help to meet the needs of homeless youth and young adults and contribute to the goal of ending youth homelessness by 2020. It also provides information on the issue of youth homelessness and ways users can contribute to the efforts to end homelessness among youth.
URL:http://youthhomelessness.acf.hhs.gov/ Departments: Department of Health and Human Services Agencies/Offices: Administration for Children and Families, Agencies/Offices: Family and Youth Services Bureau
Energy Awareness Activity Book
Book to teach children about how to make smart energy choices, save money, and improve the environment.
Enhancing Cultural Competence in Social Service Agencies: A Promising Approach to Serving Diverse Children and Families
This brief from HHS's Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation summarizes the state of the field on cultural competence in social services and provides service providers and administrators with concrete strategies for ongoing self-reflection and development. The brief also includes links and references for additional relevant resources, tools, and information.
This course, from the University of Wisconsin Extension, provides a holistic approach to planning and evaluating education and outreach programs. It helps program practitioners use and apply logic models - a framework and way of thinking to help us improve our work and be accountable for results. You will learn what a logic model is and how to use one for planning, implementation, evaluation or communicating about your program.
URL:http://www.uwex.edu/ces/lmcourse Departments: Department of Agriculture Agencies/Offices: National Collaborative on Workforce & Disability for Youth, Agencies/Offices: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Enrollment in Distance Education Courses, by State: Fall 2012
This report provides insight into the number of students enrolled in distance education courses and the impact of distance education courses on enrollment at the state level.
ED's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released guidance for states, school districts, and schools to ensure that all students —regardless of race, color, or national origin — have equal access to education resources, like effective teaching, extracurricular and academic programs, technology, and safe school facilities. The guidance shares how OCR investigates resource disparities and what states, districts, and schools can do to meet their civil rights obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
ED's Office for Civil Rights OCR developed guidance for states, school districts, and schools to ensure that all students — regardless of race, color, or national origin — have equal access to education resources, like effective teaching, extracurricular and academic programs, technology, and safe school facilities. The guidance shares how OCR investigates resource disparities and what states, districts, and schools can do to meet their civil rights obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Estimated State and National Figures from 2009-10 Civil Rights Data Collection
The Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights has released new information, based on a sample of school and district-level data from 2009-2010, that illustrates what the results could look like at the state and national level. The goals of sharing this information are both to reveal urgent concerns as well to highlight progress being made to close the opportunity gap.
This 10-page document outlines typical stakeholder groups in public health programs, explains why stakeholders are important to evaluations and their role in evaluations, and also includes a checklist for steps in engaging stakeholders as well as a number of worksheets to help identify key stakeholders and determine what program related issues matter to them.
This series of articles from the Department of Health and Human Services, Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB), National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth, articulates the FYSB’s position on implementing evidence-based practices in youth programming, provides the perspective of an FYSB grantee on implementing an evidence-based program, and discusses working with researchers to illustrate the effectiveness of programs.
The Evidence-Based Practice Center program (EPC) review all relevant scientific literature on clinical, behavioral, and organization and financing topics to produce evidence reports and technology assessments. These reports are used for informing and developing coverage decisions, quality measures, educational materials and tools, guidelines, and research agendas. The EPCs also conduct research on methodology of systematic reviews.
Evidence-Based Practices: An Implementation Guide for Community-Based Substance Abuse Treatment Agencies
This handbook provides a framework for selecting substance abuse treatment practices or approaches that have some degree of research evidence and that fit the needs of an agency. It also provides suggestions for introducing new practices to an agency and measuring their effectiveness.
This article features a Q&A with professor and researcher Natasha Slesnick about the work she and her colleagues are doing to understand what evidence-based treatments might be effective in working with homeless youth.
The National Institute of Justice and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention developed the bulletin, "Explanation for Offending" as part of the Justice Research Series. This bulletin examines various developmental, biological, social, and psychological explanations for offending.
This tool from the CareerOneStop center provides opportunities for students to explore what their interests are, learn about potential careers, learn how to get job experience, and find educational opportunities to support career development.
Facilitating Cross-System Collaboration: A Primer on Child Welfare, Alcohol and Other Drug Services, and Courts
Reviews the population, framework, legislation, funding sources, and services of the child welfare, substance abuse service, and court systems and their capacity to support cross-system coordination within state, county, and tribal jurisdictions.
Fact Sheet: Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act School Meals Implementation
The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act was passed in 2010 to help ensure that all children in America have access to the nutrition they need. A goal of the Act is to reduce the childhood obesity epidemic and related health risks by helping schools provide balanced meals to students. This fact sheet provides an overview of the results of the school meals provision of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act and recent actions that support school nutrition programs.
Rural Development is committed to helping faith and community organizations learn about and access programs that can enhance their capacity to serve their community. This toolkit offers a one-stop shop for organizations interested in applying for Rural Development programs and includes supplemental resources, legal guidance for faith and community groups and contact information for the Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships Office and liaisons at USDA
Family and Community Engagement Resources by State
ED has created an interactive map of family and community engagement resources offered by state education agencies. Users can click on a state to view and access a list of resources and more information.
FYSB is within the Administration for Children, Youth and Families, ACF, DHHS. FYSB promotes positive outcomes for children, youth and families by supporting a wide range of comprehensive services and collaborations at the local, Tribal, State and national levels. FYSB programs are designed to provide youth with positive alternatives, ensure their safety, and maximize their potential to take advantage of available opportunities. FYSB encourages communities to support young people through Positive Youth Development.
This short bulletin from the FDA describes symptoms associated with depression in teens and the steps for ensuring teens with depression receive the proper treatment, which may include antidepressant medication.
Federal Advisory Committee on Juvenile Justice Issues 2013 Report
This report makes recommendations to the President, Congress, and OJJDP on four areas of major concern to the juvenile justice community: evidence-based youth justice practices, youth engagement, youth justice and schools, and youth justice and disproportionate minority contact. These recommendations were formed through research and reviews by FACJJ’s expert subcommittees and through feedback from state advisory groups, state juvenile justice specialists, and state disproportionate minority contact coordinators.
Federal Advisory Committee on Juvenile Justice Issues 2013 Report
This report makes recommendations to the President, Congress, and OJJDP on four areas of major concern to the juvenile justice community: evidence-based youth justice practices, youth engagement, youth justice and schools, and youth justice and disproportionate minority contact. These recommendations were formed through research and reviews by FACJJ’s expert subcommittees and through feedback from state advisory groups, state juvenile justice specialists, and state disproportionate minority contact coordinators.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons protects society by confining offenders in the controlled environments of prisons and community-based facilities that are safe, humane, cost-efficient, and appropriately secure, and that provide work and other self-improvement opportunities to assist offenders in becoming law-abiding citizens.
Federal Education Tax Benefits: Who Receives Them and to What Extent Do They Shape the Price of College Attendance?
The Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released the report, "Federal Education Tax Benefits: Who Receives Them and to What Extent Do They Shape the Price of College Attendance?” that details how many undergraduate students receive tax benefits, how these benefits affect the cost of college, and how family income plays a role.
The function of the Federal Interagency Committee on Education is to study and make recommendations for assuring effective coordination of Federal programs, policies, and administrative practices affecting education.
This report describes the describes the annual activity, workloads, and outcomes associated with the federal criminal justice system from arrest to imprisonment, using data from the U.S. Marshals Service, Drug Enforcement Administration, Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Stay connected with federal youth-related activities and initiatives. Many federal agencies offer listservs that regularly announce new funding opportunities and other items of interest. View a list of federal listservs.
The Federal Resource Center for Special Education supports the work of the six OSEP-funded Regional Resource Centers (RRCs) that provide technical assistance (TA) to assist states in complying with IDEA and to implement evidence-based educational practices.
Federal Strategic Action Plan on Services for Victims of Human Trafficking in the United States 2013-2017
The result of collaborative efforts of the over 15 federal agencies of the Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, the Federal Strategic Action Plan on Services for Victims of Human Trafficking in the United States 2013-2017 lays out a five-year path for enhancing coordination and building capacity across governmental and nongovernmental entities to better support individuals who are victims of human trafficking.
The Federal TRIO Programs are educational opportunity outreach programs designed to motivate and support students from disadvantaged backgrounds. TRIO includes six outreach and support programs targeted to serve and assist low-income, first-generation college students, and students with disabilities to progress through the academic pipeline from middle school to post-baccalaureate programs.
This site provides comprehensive information on youth courts including links to information, training and technical assistance, publications, funding opportunities and more!
URL:http://www.youthcourt.net Departments: Department of Justice Agencies/Offices: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
FEMA Catalogue of Youth Disaster Preparedness Education Resources
The Catalogue of Youth Disaster Preparedness Education Resources was created to assist individuals and organizations with locating preparedness resources tailored to youth of all ages (preschool through college). Research has shown that youth disaster preparedness education is vital to building and maintaining resilient communities—especially when incorporating key recommended practices.
This resource contains tailored, practical suggestions on preparedness and links to tools and resources for parents and guardians. Resources are pulled from FEMA, the Department of Education, CDC, and practitioners in the field. This resource helps parents and guardians better understand school emergency policies and will not only help parents and guardians recognize what safety measures are being offered in school, but it can also highlight areas where they can bolster their own emergency planning.
The Preparedness Tips for School Administrators fact sheet is comprised of tips and suggestions on preparedness, as well as links to tools and resources specifically for school administrators. Resources are pulled from FEMA, the Department of Education, CDC, and practitioners in the field. This document can help school administrators answer the questions parents might have regarding emergency management planning and practices. The resource also provides tips for administrators to explain school and parent roles and responsibilities in preparing for and responding to emergencies.
The Responder Knowledge Base provides emergency responders, purchasers, and planners with a trusted, integrated, online source of information on products, standards, certifications, grants, and other equipment-related information
This report from SAMHSA found that the rate of adolescents receiving substance abuse prevention messages in the media and at school decreased from 2002 to 2011, and that only about 40% of adolescents spoke with their parents in the last year about the dangers of substance abuse. A companion report reflects a significant shift in adolescents’ use of, and attitudes towards, alcohol and marijuana from 2002 to 2011.
As part of the Administration’s efforts to improve college access and affordability, the Department of Education has created an online “one-stop shop” Financial Aid Toolkit that consolidates financial aid resources and content into a searchable, online database.
The Find Your Path website provides multiple federal resources and tools for job seekers, individuals looking to expand their professional skills, and employers hiring new staff. The website also highlights federal efforts to connect and expand employment and training opportunities and recent employment news and events.
The National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth recently profiled The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) Funding and Programs List, which outlines which federal departments have programs that help prevent and end homelessness and includes programs specifically designed to assist homeless youth.
Findings from the National Evaluation of the Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative
This report presents the findings from a national cross-site evaluation of the Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative, a collaboration by the Departments of Health and Human Services, Education, and Justice that aims to help students feel safe at school, avoid drug use and violence, and access mental health services.
First Step: A Youth Practitioner’s Resource Guide to Supportive Services
This document, from the Department of Labor, provides information to young workers and practitioners that can help them connect young people with services. The guide contains information about programs at the state and local level.
This website is the health, physical activity, fitness and sports information website of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. You can find out about the Council and its work, view publications, and link to the resources of other government agencies as well as to health and fitness organizations
URL:http://www.fitness.gov Departments: Department of Health and Human Services Agencies/Offices: Office of Public Health and Science
Five Groups of Teens Who Need Pregnancy Prevention More Than Some Might Think
This slideshow, developed by the National Clearinghouse on Families & Youth, highlights five groups of teens that sexual health educators should include in pregnancy prevention efforts. The list includes young men, teen moms, rural youth, LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning) youth, and teens living in areas where pregnancy rates have declined.
Five Key Ways the Affordable Care Act Affects Young People
This blog post from the National Clearinghouse on Families & Youth links to multiple resources that can help youth-serving programs understand how the Affordable Care Act (ACA) affects youth, including homeless and runaway youth. The post also provides some of the highlights from a recent webinar that discussed what youth and youth workers need to know about the ACA.
Five Things to Know About Teen Parents and How to Help Them
This article from the National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth provides an overview of the information gathered from the Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy’s survey of 4,439 pregnant and parenting teens, illustrating the challenges faced by teen parents and the factors that promote their resilience.
Five Ways to Help Youth Stay in School and Get Jobs
This slideshow presents ways in which youth workers can support and promote the education and employment of youth. Tips include becoming familiar with education rights, preventing bullying, helping young people explore job interests, and more.
This slideshow presents tips for youth-serving organizations on how they can improve the health of the at-risk youth they work with. Ideas include partnering with local farms to receive fresh vegetables and offering classes for physical and mental health.
Food and Nutrition Service List of State Distributing Agency Contacts
These contacts provide information about partnership with the National School Lunch Program, the Child and Adult Care Food Program, and the Summer Food Service Program. They can also provide organizations with access to food during times of disaster.
For Each and Every Child: A Strategy for Education Equity and Excellence
Developed by the Equity and Excellence Commission, a federal advisory committee, to advise Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, this report highlights the need to eliminate educational disparities and provides recommendations for how the federal government can address these disparities.
Forward! Advice to Graduates Who Have Disabilities From Adults With Disabilities
This blog post features advice that successful adults who have disabilities have for young people who have disabilities who are graduating. The blog provides a variety of guidance for entering “the real world” with a disability, including living on one’s own, building a support team, finding a job, and challenging oneself.
Four Tips for Serving LGBTQ Young People in Rural Communities
This blog post addresses the unique challenges of serving lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth in rural places. Written by the executive director of Tumbleweed Runaway Program in Billings, MT, it also suggests how youth-serving professionals in rural areas can make their services and communities welcoming to all young people.
Framework for Best Evidence Approaches in Systematic Reviews
Systematic reviewers routinely prioritize evidence in numerous ways. This paper provides a framework for understanding the possibilities, considering influential factors, and choosing among the myriad options. This will help enhance the transparency of review processes, which in turn may help users determine how different reviews of the same topic can reach different conclusions.
Framework For Evaluating Impact Of Informal Science Education Projects
Details the National Science Foundation's work to advance the informal science education field as a whole and provides an overview of impact evaluation and a look at some of the common issues,concerns, and opportunities in evaluation practice.
This is a 58-page report which introduces the CDC’s framework for program evaluation and its key concepts. It provides in-depth outline of the 6 six steps in program evaluation (engaging stakeholders, describing the program, focusing the evaluation design, gathering credible evidence, justifying conclusions, and ensuring use and sharing lessons learned), as well as 4 standards for effective evaluation (utility, feasibility, propriety, and accuracy).
The Society of Health and Physical Educators and NHTSA have collaborated to create a new, free bicycle safety curriculum that physical education teachers and recreation specialists can use when working with students in grades 6-12.
Principles of Prevention is a free, online violence prevention training, available on the CDC’s VetoViolence website. This dynamic and interactive course teaches the key concepts of primary prevention, the public health approach, and the social-ecological model.
From the Courthouse to the Schoolhouse: Making Successful Transitions
This bulletin describes effective approaches to reintegrating youth from juvenile justice system settings into the education mainstream and provides information about promising programs, practices, and resources.
This report is part of the Beyond Detention series, which examines the findings of the Northwestern Juvenile Project, a large-scale longitudinal study of youth detained at the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center in Chicago, Illinois. This bulletin specifically analyzes the youths’ functional impairment three years after their release in school, work, home, and community settings.
Funding Opportunity: Bridging Research and Practice Program
The Bridging Research and Practice program provides funding to former NIJ grantees to share their findings with practitioner audiences through such mediums as conferences, journals, videos, podcasts, and blogs. This funding, the amount of which varies based on what is proposed, only covers activities not in the original grant budget.
Fundraising Solutions for Youth-serving Nonprofits
In an interview with the National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth, Kim Klein, an Oakland, CA fundraising consultant, shares five resolutions youth-serving nonprofits should make in 2012 to help them increase the amount of money they raise from donors.
This website provides information about the prevalence of teen pregnancy, as well as resources that organizations can use to raise awareness in their communities and advance teen pregnancy prevention efforts.
The G.R.E.A.T. Program is a school-based, law enforcement officer-instructed classroom curriculum. With prevention as its primary objective, the program is intended as an immunization against delinquency, youth violence, and gang membership.
The National Institute of Corrections has created a new web page on its site that features information on prison gangs, youth gangs, and gangs and reentry. Readers can learn more about gang-related slang words, clothing, and tattoos.
This resource page from the OJJDP provides a comprehensive summary about girls and delinquency and their involvement in the juvenile justice system. It also covers more in-depth information about how girls develop differently than boys, how this affects their experiences with the juvenile justice system, and why services need to be tailored to their needs. Evaluation of gender-specific programming has shown encouraging results in substance abuse and gang prevention programs for girls.
Get involved with NIDA’s fifth annual Drug Facts Week. Host or promote events for teens that help shatter the myths about drugs, and expose teens to facts about drugs and addiction from scientists and other experts.
Get Ready for HUD's Point in Time Count of Young People Experiencing Homlessness
This article aims to help youth-serving professionals prepare for the Department of Housing and Urban Development's annual point-in-time count, during which estimates are made about the number of homeless youth in the community.
The DEA's website, Get Smart About Drugs, is intended for families and educators. It features information about different kinds of drugs and associated paraphernalia, trends and statistics related to substances and their use, teens and drug use, the consequences of using drugs, and how the public can be involved in drug prevention and awareness.
Developed by the National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments, this training module can help school nurses, school counselors, and school psychologists in identifying and responding to signs of teenage dating abuse.
Getting Staff Buy-in for a “Low-Barrier” Approach at a Youth Shelter
The Department of Health and Human Services’ National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth is featuring information on its website for individuals who work in youth shelters who want to help other staff get used to a “low-barrier” approach, meaning young people are not turned away because they have been drinking or using drugs.
The OAH has recently updated its fact sheets on adolescent healthy relationships, mental health, physical health, reproductive health, and substance abuse across all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Guam.
Girls and Substance Use — A "Girls Matter!" Webinar
The third of three webinars in the "Girls Matter!" series explores current trends in substance use among adolescent girls, effective strategies for intervention, treatment, and support for girls, substance use trends in teens, and principles of substance use disorder treatment
URL:http://www.youtube.com/watch Departments: Department of Health and Human Services Agencies/Offices: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Girlshealth.gov is sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services, Office on Women's Health, and is the "daughter" program of the National Women's Health Information Center (www.womenshealth.gov). Girlshealth.gov provides valuable information about ways girls can achieve a healthy lifestyle helping them to understand their body, mind, and spirit as they grow into adults.
URL:http://www.girlshealth.gov Departments: Department of Health and Human Services Agencies/Offices: Office of Public Health and Science, Agencies/Offices: Office on Women's Health
Give Me a Break! It’s Just a College Tour!
In this blog post from the Department of Education, De’Rell Bonner, special assistant and youth liaison for the Department of Education, describes his experience with Escape to Mecca (E2M), a spring break college visit program, and the advice that First Lady Michelle Obama shared with 2014 E2M participants when she joined them on a recent tour of Howard University.
Give Students What They Are Asking For: Healthier Foods, Healthier Lives
This blog post, written by the CEO of the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, describes the organization’s work to help schools improve the nutritional quality of the foods they offer to students and the progress that many schools have made to meet the new school nutrition standards issued by the USDA.
This article highlights a recent study published in Pediatrics that found youth who come from low-income families who attend more rigorous high schools may take fewer health risks than their peers at other schools.
This resource is particularly useful for new applicants in navigating the challenges of a highly competitive application and grant award process. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has posted a number of current solicitations on OJJDP's Funding Opportunities Web page. Additional funding opportunities from other OJP components may be found on OJP's Open Solicitations Web page.
URL:http://www.ojp.gov/grants101/ Departments: Department of Justice Agencies/Offices: Office of Justice Programs, Agencies/Offices: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
Grants.gov is a secure, reliable entry way to discretionary federal grants from multiple agencies. Applicants can use a single comprehensive site to discover and apply for opportunities from all 26 federal grant-making agencies.
This series of graphic novels titled, “END SILENCE: Youth Speaking Up about Sexual Abuse in Custody,” help youth in juvenile justice settings identify, address, and respond to sexual abuse perpetrated by staff or other youth.
Guidance from the Departments of Education and Justice on Equitable Educational Access for English Learner Students
The Departments of Education and Justice released joint guidance (PDF, 40 pages) reminding states, school districts, and schools of their obligations under federal law to ensure that English learner students have equal access to a high
Guidance on Voluntary use of Race to Achieve Diversity and Avoid Racial Isolation in Elementary and Secondary Schools
The United States Department of Education (ED) and the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) collectively issued this guidance to explain how, within existing law, elementary and secondary schools can voluntarily consider race to achieve diversity and avoid racial isolation.
Guidance on Voluntary use of Race to Achieve Diversity in a Postsecondary Education
The United States Department of Education (ED) and the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) collectively issues a guidance to explain how, within existing law, postsecondary institutions can voluntarily consider race to achieve diversity.
Guidance to Improve Educational Outcomes of Children and Youth in Foster Care
This guidance, released by the Department of Education, provides states with information to implement the Uninterrupted Scholars Act, making it easier for caseworkers, child welfare agencies, and tribal organizations responsible for the placement and care of children and youth in foster care to have direct access to their education records.
Guidance to States and Services on Addressing Human Trafficking of Children and Youth in the United States
The Administration on Children, Youth, and Families released, “Guidance to States and Services on Addressing Human Trafficking of Children and Youth in the United States,” which advises runaway and homeless youth programs and child welfare workers on identifying, engaging, and serving victims of human trafficking.
The Guide to Community Preventive Services is a free resource listing programs and policies that improve health and prevent disease. The Program Planning Resources section of the site outlines the types of steps that are generally used in program planning, along with selected resources that may be useful at each step.
Developed by the Department of Health and Human Services' National Clearinghouse on Families & Youth, this guide provides information for adults and teens interested in starting a youth-serving non-profit. The guide walks users through four distinct stages, each including interactive videos and helpful tools.
Guideposts for Success for Youth with Mental Health Needs
The Guideposts for Success are a framework to assist the multiple organizations that need to be involved to meet the needs and improve the transition outcomes of all youth, including youth with disabilities. The guideposts discuss school-based services, career preparation, leadership opportunities, community services, and family involvement supports for youth with mental health needs.
Half of All Substance Abuse Treatment Facilities Accept Teen Clients
Based on findings from SAMHSA’s 2012 National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services, this report shows that nearly half of the nation’s 14,311 substance abuse treatment facilities accept teen clients, with 4,008 of those facilities also offering teens special programs or support groups.
This blog entry illustrates the risks that young people encounter when communicating and socializing online and provides a few key questions for teens to ask themselves before posting to social networks.
This blog entry from the Federal Trade Commission illustrates the risks that young people encounter when communicating and socializing online and provides a few key questions for teens to ask themselves before posting to social networks.
This webpage synthesizes evidence showing that the health of students is linked to their academic achievement and illustrates the critical role that schools play in promoting the health and safety of young people and the adoption of healthy behaviors.
Developed by the World Health Organization, this interactive multimedia report provides a global overview of adolescents’ health and health-related behaviors and includes the latest data, trends, and determinants of adolescent health. The report also provides recommendations for creating adolescent-responsive health systems and responding to potential policy and programmatic issues.
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the primary Federal agency for improving access to health care services for people who are uninsured, isolated or medically vulnerable.
URL:http://www.hrsa.gov/index.html Departments: Department of Health and Human Services Agencies/Offices: Health Resources and Services Administration
Health, United States, 2013
Health, United States, 2013 presents an overview of national trends in health and includes a special feature that focuses on prescription drug use in the United States. The report covers health risks and indicators for adolescents, health care utilization, teen childbearing, cigarette smoking, obesity, and vaccination coverage. The special feature highlights trends in prescription drug use among all age groups, including children and adolescents.
Take health care into your own hands, explore insurance coverage options and learn about how the Affordable Care Act impacts you. Find information for individuals, families, senior citizens, people with disabilities, young adults and employers.
healthfinder.gov has resources on a wide range of health topics selected from over 1,600 government and non-profit organizations to bring you the best, most reliable health information on the Internet.
URL:http://www.healthfinder.gov/ Departments: Department of Health and Human Services Agencies/Offices: Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
Healthy & Ready to Work National Resource Center
HRTW provides information and resources regarding integrating health into the transition process, including understanding systems, access to quality health care and health insurance, and increasing the involvement of youth in health promotion, self care and decision making.
The Healthy Homes program provides homeowners and rental property owners with practical information about how to prevent health and safety hazards. Specific problems such as asthma, allergies and mold are discussed.
The Healthy Homes program provides homeowners and rental property owners with practical information about how to prevent health and safety hazards. Specific problems such as asthma, allergies and mold are discussed.
This Web site provides information on and links to school health strategies, research and evaluation tools, Youth Risk Behavior Survey data, evidence-based guidelines for school health programs, and adolescent and school health program resources and tools.
The prevalence of overweight among children aged 6 to 11 more than doubled in the past 20 years, going from 7% in 1980 to 18.8% in 2004. The rate among adolescents aged 12 to 19 more than tripled, increasing from 5% to 17.1%. This fact sheet provides information about the problem of overweight in children.
Internships promote positive youth development and are a great way for youth to get involved in the federal government. Youth can visit the Internship pages on Youth Engaged 4 Change to learn about the skills needed to compete for internships in public service, access current internship opportunities, and get advice from peers and professionals with experience in the federal government.
Helping Students Cope with Media Coverage of Disasters: A Fact Sheet for Teachers and School Staff
Developed by the Terrorism and Disaster Center at the University of Missouri and funded by SAMHSA, this resource provides an overview of how media coverage of disasters may affect children and adolescents and strategies that teachers, counselors, social workers, and other staff can use to help children and adolescents cope with their emotional reactions to the coverage.
Released by the National Center on Secondary Education and Transition (NCSET) and the PACER Center, and featured on Disability.gov, the report, “Preparing for Employment: On the Home Front,” illustrates how parents can help prepare their children for employment.
Helping Teens with Traumatic Grief: Tips for Caregivers
This resource provides tips for caregivers in recognizing and helping teens experiencing traumatic grief. It highlights the importance of being nonjudgmental, open to compromise, and considering the teen’s point of view.
Helping Young Children and Families Cope with Trauma
This document from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network informs parents of common reactions or symptoms children may have following a traumatic event. It tells parents how to listen to their children and how to help them feel safe. This document addresses self-care and support for parents as well. This resource is also available in Spanish, Ayudando a Niños(as) y Familias a Enfrentarse con el Trauma (PDF, 8 pages).
Helping Youth After Community Trauma: Tips for Educators
“Helping Youth After Community Trauma: Tips for Educators” provides insight into how students may react after a traumatic event, such as a natural disaster or a death in the school community, and how educators can help.
The Gateway brings together key health and human services data and statistics. It is designed to complement other government resources such as FirstGov and FedStats. The Gateway covers federal, state and local government sponsored information.
High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09) First Follow-up
Published by the Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, HSLS:09 is a longitudinal study that follows students who were in the ninth grade in 2009. Information is now available from the first follow up, conducted in 2012, which includes data from students, parents, teachers, administrators, and counselors.
High School Longitudinal Study of 2009: First Follow-Up
This report from the Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics presents the findings of the first follow up with grade 11 students to monitor their progress since the original study in 2009 when the students were in grade 9. Results include findings on student drop out, progress by socioeconomic background, mathematics scores, and preparation and expectations for college and work.
Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse and Violence Prevention
The Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse & Violence Prevention is designed to help college and community leaders develop, implement, and evaluate programs and policies to reduce student problems related to alcohol and other drug use and interpersonal violence.
Higher Education: Gaps in Access and Persistence Study
This report from the National Center for Education Statistics analyzes problems in postsecondary educational attainment by gender, race, and ethnic origin. Numerous factors that might play a role in educational attainment challenges, including poverty, school characteristics, and financial issues are also analyzed.
The Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention has released “Highlights of the 2010 National Youth Gang Survey,” a fact sheet that discusses the prevalence of gangs and gang activity in the United States, as well as reasons for gang-member migration and external gang influences.
Conducted by the National Gang Center, the National Youth Gang Survey uses data from a large, representative sample of local law enforcement agencies to track the size and scope of the national youth gang problem. This fact sheet highlights the findings of the 2012 National Youth Gang Survey (PDF, 4 pages), including trends in gang activity, gang membership designation, and antigang measures.
This video from OnGuardOnline.gov reminds viewers to “share with care” when posting information online, which includes remembering how large your audience is, considering the fact that content on the Internet can’t be deleted, and making sure you get approval from others who may
The Homelessness Resource Center is an interactive community of providers, consumers, policymakers, researchers, and public agencies at federal, state, and local levels.
URL:http://www.nrchmi.samhsa.gov Departments: Department of Health and Human Services Agencies/Offices: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Homework Tips for Parents
This blog entry provides tips for parents on making sure that their children maximize their learning through homework assignments. Tips include providing a quiet study space and teaching time management.
How Americans Are Expanding Their Use of the Internet (2001) Chapter 5: How Young People Have Embraced Computers and the Internet
A report by the U.S. Department of Commerce: Children and young adults have embraced new information technologies in large numbers. More than any other age group, these younger age groups use computers and the Internet widely for many of their daily activities.
How Are CHIPRA Quality Demonstration States Working to Improve Adolescent Health Care?
This article describes the work of 18 states, funded by the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA) Quality Demonstration Grant Program, to improve the quality of health care for children enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. The barriers the states have encountered and strategies to address these barriers are discussed. The article also suggests actions that states can take to enhance adolescent health care.
How Are the Lives of LGBTQ Youth Improved by Gay-Straight Alliances?
This article, featured by the National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth, discusses a recent study released in the School Social Work Journal that compared 284 lesbian, gay, bisexual, questioning (LGBTQ) youth in schools with gay-straight alliances with LGBTQ students in schools without those alliances to discern whether the presence of such organizations improved outcomes for young people. The study suggests that membership in a gay-straight alliance has some positive effects on LGBTQ youth, but more research is necessary.
How the Supreme Court Ruling on Health Care will Affect Coverage for Young Adults
Under the Affordable Care Act, young people under the age of 26 can now be insured as dependents on their parents’ health insurance. Learn more about how young adults will be affected by the Affordable Care Act by reading this fact sheet.
Sheltering in place, also known as being in “lockdown,” occurs when local officials request that people stay where they are due to an emergency. This tip sheet describes typical reactions to the stress of sheltering in place and offers ways to cope during, and return to normal activity after, the event.
This blog post, written by Sarah Pitcock, CEO of the National Summer Learning Association, provides ideas for how parents and mentors can engage teens in learning opportunities during the summer to prepare them for the following school year and to inspire them to think about college and future careers.
How to Make Student Loan Payments Based on Your Income
Income-driven repayment plans allow borrowers to adjust their student loan payments based on how much they earn. This blog post explains how income-driven repayment plans work, how monthly payments are calculated, and how income-driven repayment relates to loan forgiveness.
The Human Smuggling and Trafficking Center provides a mechanism to bring federal agency representatives from the policy, law enforcement, intelligence, and diplomatic areas together to work on a full-time basis to address the separate but related issues of alien smuggling, trafficking in persons, and criminal support of clandestine terrorist travel and to convert intelligence into effective law enforcement and other action.
This module was created by the National Human Trafficking Resource Center to help service providers understand how human trafficking affects runaway and homeless youth, identify signs that indicate a youth is a potential victim of human trafficking, and identify resources for your agency.
In recognition of Human Trafficking Awareness Month, the National Child Traumatic Stress Network released this webpage which provides an overview of human trafficking and highlights resources specifically for clinicians and mental health professions, law enforcement personnel, primary health care and child-serving professionals, policy makers, survivors, and family members.
Human Trafficking in America’s Schools was developed to help school officials understand how human trafficking affects schools, recognize the indicators of possible human trafficking, and develop policies, protocols, and partnerships to address and prevent the exploitation of children.
I Believe in Human Rights: Youth Homelessness and Education
This blog entry, written by Deborah Delisle, Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education within the Department of Education, highlights the resilience of the young people honored as recipients of the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth’s LeTendre Education Fund Scholarship. It also discusses the importance of supporting the education of youth experiencing homelessness.
IACP Launches Online Training Series on Juvenile Interviewing and Interrogation
The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), in collaboration with OJJDP, developed a free, online training series about effective juvenile interviewing and interrogation techniques. The series target law enforcement and legally authorized juvenile justice professionals who interview or interrogate youth.
The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) has partnered with OJJDP to create free, online program impact tools that help law enforcement agencies evaluate the effectiveness of their youth programs. The tools include an eight-step guide that can assist in identifying issues related to youth, setting program goals, and measuring outcomes to determine the impact.
The IDEA Partnership reflects the collaborative work of more than 50 national organizations, technical assistance providers, and organizations and agencies at state and local level. Together with the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), the Partner Organizations form a community with the potential to transform the way we work and improve outcomes for students and youth with disabilities.
Identifying and Selecting Evidence-Based Interventions Revised Guidance Document for the Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant Program
The purpose of this guidance is to assist State and community planners in applying the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Strategic Prevention Framework to identify and select evidence-based interventions that address local needs and reduce substance abuse problems.
Identifying and Serving LGBTQ Youth: Case Studies of Runaway and Homeless Youth Program Grantees
This report from the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation and the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) highlights the findings from case studies of four agencies receiving grants from the ACF Family and Youth Services Bureau’s Runaway and Homeless Youth Program.
Identifying Mental Health and Substance Use Problems of Children and Adolescents: A Guide for Child-Serving Organizations
This publication from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration provides guidance and tools for early identification of mental health or substance use problems in children and youth in various settings.
Impact in Place: A Progress Report on the Department of Education’s Place-Based Strategy
The Department of Education's report, “Impact in Place: A Progress Report on the Department of Education’s Place-Based Strategy,” illustrates the Department’s recent adoption of a “place-based” approach, an approach that helps the government better support communities’ responses to challenges by developing solutions that tackle multiple problems.
Impact of Behavioral Health Conditions and Treatment on Older Adolescents and Young Adults
This news release describes a report from SAMHSA that reveals that older adolescents and young adults with emotional and behavioral health conditions are much more likely to have significant problems with school performance, employment, and housing stability—demonstrating the critical need for treatment and services for this population.
Implementation of the Intensive Community-Based Aftercare Program
This Bulletin provides an overview of the Intensive Aftercare Program model and describes its implementation over the first 3 years by participating sites in Colorado, Nevada, New Jersey, and Virginia. The Bulletin also assesses the extent to which the implementation has been successful and identifies the factors that facilitate implementation and those that impede it.
Improving Measures of Postsecondary Student Success
The Department of Education's “Action Plan for Improving Measures of Postsecondary Student Success,” takes steps to change the current measures of student success in postsecondary education. This document was developed in response to the Department’s finding that current federal data on graduation rates is incomplete and does not convey the full picture of student outcomes at two-year institutions.
Improving the Health of Adolescents and Young Adults: A Guide for States and Communities
This guidance document, developed in collaboration with the National Initiative to Improve Adolescent Health, is designed to help guide state and local agencies and organizations through public health processes that address important adolescent health and safety issues
Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance in the United States in 2013
Released by the Census Bureau, this report illustrates key indicators of poverty and family income. The report shows that the overall poverty rate fell 14.5% in 2013, and the poverty rate for people under age 18 fell 1.9% from 2012 to 2013, which is equivalent to 1.4 million young people lifted out of poverty.
URL:http://www.youtube.com/watch Departments: Department of Health and Human Services Agencies/Offices: Administration for Children and Families, Agencies/Offices: Family and Youth Services Bureau
Indian and Native American Summer Youth Employment Initiatives and the 2009 Recovery Act
This report from the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration describes the creation of the Indian and Native American Summer Youth Employment Initiative and how grantees used their Recovery Act funds to implement programs.
The Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics and the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics' report, “Indicators of School Crime and Safety, 2011,” examines crimes occurring in school and presents data on school safety.
This annual report provides current statistics on crime in schools. The report covers 22 indicators of school crime from several sources. Topics include victimization at school, teacher injury, bullying and cyberbullying, school conditions, fights, weapons, availability and student use of drugs and alcohol, and student perceptions of personal safety at school.
This infographic from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) displays the new nutrition standards established by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, which requires the USDA to create standards for all food sold in schools, beyond federally supported meal programs. The infographic also shows examples of foods deemed acceptable both before and after the implementation of the new standards.
This web resource provides helpful information for young people entering the workforce or individuals just starting a new job, including tips for saving money, enrolling in an employer’s 401(k), and planning for retirement.
The National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability, which is supported by the Department of Labor, features information on its website that answers the question, “What is an Individualized Learning Plan (ILP)?” Readers can learn when an ILP is used, what information it contains, and how students can use ILPs to map interests and goals as they relate to future education and employment opportunities.
Initial Launch of the Team Up for School Nutrition Success Training Program
Team Up for School Nutrition Success Training (Team Up) is a new pilot program that provides free, tailored training to schools on securing and providing healthy and delicious school meals to students. The program was developed in partnership with the USDA and the National Food Service Management Institute.
Find state-specific information about health insurance coverage
URL:http://www.InsureKidsNow.gov Departments: Department of Health and Human Services Agencies/Offices: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Integrating Effective Mentoring Strategies and Services Into Youth Services: Webinar Archive
The recording of the webinarr, “Integrating Effective Mentoring Strategies and Services into Youth Services” is available for playback. This webinar offered nationally-recognized strategies for developing and implementing a mentoring program.
Integrating Evidence-based Practices into CBCAP Programs: A Tool for Critical Discussions
The “Discussion Tool” was produced by FRIENDS to help State Lead Agencies work with their funded programs to facilitate appropriate conversations when considering implementing evidence-based or evidence-informed programs and practices.
Intensive Aftercare for High-Risk Juveniles: A Community Care Model
This summary reports the interim results of OJJDP's research and development initiative to assess, test, and disseminate information on intensive aftercare program models that are theory driven and based on risk assessment.
The Interagency Council on Homelessness works to coordinate the Federal response to homelessness and to create a national partnership at every level of government and with the private sector to reduce and end homelessness in the nation while maximizing the effectiveness of the Federal Government in contributing to the end of homelessness.
Interim Report for the Department of Labor Youth Offender Demonstration Project: Process Evaluation
The U.S. Departments of Labor and Justice funded 14 local demonstration projects designed to assist youth at risk of criminal involvement, youth offenders, and gang members ages 14 through 24 into long-term employment . This process evaluation provides an interim assessment of the implementation process undertaken by each project and determines the extent to which each was effective in building upon existing programs and systems to serve targeted youth.
This video, released in commemoration of the International Day of the Girl on October 11, 2013, features Secretary of State John Kerry discussing the barriers to success that girls face across the globe and the importance of empowering girls to become leaders and innovators who can move their communities forward.
This site, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology, includes a consolidated list of federal links providing information on internet safety for children and youth.
This guide features short descriptions and links to multiple organizations, programs, publications, tools, and other resources related to internet safety, as well as subtopics like cyberbullying, sexting, self-harm, and suicide.
Interview with Director of the Union City Sustained Youth Development Project
In this podcast from the National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth, Karl Kallgren, director of the Union City Sustained Youth Development Project, discusses the youth program that has helped teen pregnancy rates drop by 20 percent in a rural Pennsylvania community.
This report presents data on nonfatal intimate partner violence among households in the United States from 1993 to 2010, reflecting trends by sex and examining intimate partner violence against women by the victim’s age, race, marital status, and household composition. .
Introduction to Community Collaborative Partnerships
Introduction to Community Collaborative Partnerships is an online training session from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's Online University that can help professionals and staff who work in programs for tribal youth learn how to establish and improve collaborative partnerships in native communities that support tribal youth programs.
The National Clearinghouse on Families & Youth has recently updated its two-part, self-paced online training, “Introduction to Positive Youth Development.” The modules focus on explaining the concepts and theories of positive youth development, and how this information can be put into practice.
Introduction to Program Evaluation for Public Health Programs
This document is a "how to" guide for planning and implementing evaluation activities. The manual is based on CDC's Framework for Program Evaluation in Public Health, and is intended to assist state, local, and community managers and staff of public health programs in planning, designing, implementing, and using the results of comprehensive evaluations in a practical way.
Joint Letter on Informing Career Decisions from the Departments of Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services
This Training and Employment Notice shares the interagency support for ensuring students and parents have relevant and timely information to make informed career decisions. The notice is meant to encourage continued coordination and collaboration across systems of public workforce, adult basic education, career and technical education, and human and social services to prepare students for education and career paths
Joint Letter Regarding Building Partnerships With American Job Center Network
This joint letter from the Departments of Education, HHS, and Labor provides education, social services, workforce development, and private leaders with information about ways in which schools and human service agencies can work with the American Job Center network to ensure that students and families have relevant and timely information for making informed career decisions.
Drawing from the data included in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Crime in the United States report, Juvenile Arrests 2011 provides an overview of the extent and nature of juvenile crime. Highlights from this bulletin include an 11 percent drop in juvenile arrests and a 10 percent decrease in juvenile violent crime arrests.
The National Center for Juvenile Justice published this report, which profiles more than 1.5 million delinquency cases and more than 140,000 status offense cases processed by courts with juvenile jurisdiction in 2009 and tracks trends in delinquency and petitioned status offense cases over several decades.
This bulletin provides an overview of research on the deterrent effects of transferring youth from juvenile to criminal courts, focusing on large-scale comprehensive OJJDP-funded studies on the effect of transfer laws on recidivism.
These resources, published by the Technical Assistance Partnership for Child and Family Mental Health, funded by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, aim to help communities meet the mental and behavioral health needs of youth in the juvenile justice system.
This bulletin, developed by the Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, provides data from the Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement (CJRP), a biennial survey of juvenile residential facilities that presents a detailed picture of the youth in custody across the country.
This report provides data on young people placed in juvenile residential facilities in the United States. The report features information on offense profiles, demographics, and length of stay for young people in residential placement.
In light of increased reports of Enterovirus D68 in 2014, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention developed this infographic that explains how parents can protect their children from contracting the disease. Tips include avoiding close contact with sick people, cleaning surfaces, and staying home when sick. In light of increased reports of Enterovirus D68 in 2014, this infographic from the CDC explains how parents can protect their children from contracting the disease. Tips include avoiding close contact with sick people, cleaning surfaces, and staying home when sick.
This blog post from the Federal Trade Commission highlights a new infographic, titled “Keeping Up with Kids’ Apps” that can help parents as they make decisions about what apps their children should download.
Key Policy Letters from the Education Secretary and Deputy Secretary
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan issued a letter to public school districts about LGBT bullying. He specifically states that GSAs are protected under the 1984 Equal Access Act, which protects student-initiated groups.
Kids.gov is the official kids' portal for the U.S. government. It links to over 2,000 web pages from government agencies, schools, and educational organizations, all geared to the learning level and interest of kids.
Many workers aren't aware of the laws that protect their health benefits. This Department of Labor Employee Benefits Security Administration video provides information for workers about their health care rights. The video also has links to additional information to help workers take full advantage of their employer-sponsored benefits.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of injury or death from thousands of types of consumer products. You can find information on over 5,000 product recalls and recall alerts on the CPSC website.
Leading Change: A Plan for SAMHSA's Roles and Actions 2011 - 2014 Accomplishments Report
This Leading Change Report highlights some of the key accomplishments SAMHSA has achieved through its strategic initiatives. SAMHSA developed such initiatives to direct its ongoing efforts to better meet the behavioral health needs of individuals, families, and communities.
Learn and Serve America supports and encourages service-learning throughout the United States, and enables over one million students to make meaningful contributions to their community while building their academic and civic skills. By engaging our nation's young people in service-learning, Learn and Serve America instills an ethic of lifelong community service
This tip sheet describes tips for integrating positive youth development into the services you provide to youth and families. It also provides resources on positive youth development and provides tips on increasing youth involvement and participation in RHY programs.
Learning from the Field: Listening Tour of Programs Serving Youth who are LGBTQI2-S and Experiencing Homelessness
SAMHSA, through its Homelessness Resource Center (HRC), convened an Expert Panel on February 4, 2010 to better understand the needs of youth who are experiencing homelessness and identify as LGBTQI2-S.
As part of her “Let’s Move” program, First Lady Michelle Obama has created a new website, “Let’s Move Active Schools,” where schools can identify their fitness needs, set fitness goals and measure progress, and celebrate successes. The website also provides information about grants and resources, and profiles of schools that have successfully used physical activity to help students thrive. Learn more.
LGBTQ Youth and Sexual Abuse: Information for Mental Health Professionals
This tip sheet provides mental health practitioners with information that can help them serve LGBTQ youth who have been sexually abused. It includes information on the continuums of sex, gender, and sexual orientation; an overview of issues concerning LGBTQ youth and their parents related to sexual orientation and sexual abuse; common myths; and recommendations for practitioners counseling LGBTQ youth and LGBTQ youth who have experienced abuse.
Life Changes Require Health Choices, Know Your Benefit Options
Knowing your benefit options means knowing the basics about health care law so that you can protect yourself and your dependents. And it means finding out now about some common sense steps you can take to make sure you have the level of health care coverage you need at every stage of your life.
Little (PSBA) GTO: 10 Steps to Promoting Science-based Approaches to Teen Pregnancy Prevention Using Getting to Outcomes
This manual presents a summary of the teen pregnancy prevention strategy, Getting to Outcomes (GTO). GTO is a science-based approach for how to set goals, consider and plan for a prevention program, develop and conduct process and outcome evaluation, and learn how to improve and sustain a program’s intended outcomes.
Developed as part of the Rescue & Restore Victims of Human Trafficking public awareness campaign, an initiative of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Refugee Resettlement, Look Beneath the Surface is an informational video that prepares viewers to identify and help victims of human trafficking.
Looking Ahead: Five Years to End Youth Homelessness
Four youth workers share what they plan to do in their communities over the next five years in order to meet the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness’s goal of ending youth homelessness by 2020.
Making Healthy Choices: A Guide on Psychotropic Medications for Youth in Foster Care
This resource from the Children’s Bureau provides information to youth in foster care on psychotropic medication, and the role they can have in their overall health care, as well as alternate approaches to treatment.
Marijuana Admissions to Substance Abuse Treatment Aged 18 to 30: Early vs. Adult Initiation
This report from SAMHSA compares individuals presenting for substance abuse treatment who initiated marijuana use before the age of 18 with those who initiated use at age 18 or older. Effects of early initiation are considered as well as the implications for prevention and treatment for both groups.
Materials from the National Leadership Summit on School Discipline and Climate
The National Leadership Summit on School Discipline and Climate provided an opportunity for state and local teams of educators, judicial and court staff, child welfare stakeholders, law enforcement personnel, community members, and youth to share best practices, deepen partnerships, and develop concrete steps to advance school discipline and juvenile justice reform in their communities. Materials from this Summit — including presentations, resources, worksheets, and state and local data — are available online.
The MCH Library is a virtual guide to MCH information. It offers a combination of MCH information compiled by library staff and pathways to the best MCH information available on other Web sites, from organizations, and in libraries.
URL:http://www.mchlibrary.info/ Departments: Department of Health and Human Services Agencies/Offices: Health Resources and Services Administration
McKinney Vento Education for Homeless Children and Youth Program
Under this program, state educational agencies (SEAs) must ensure that homeless children and youth have equal access to the same free, appropriate public education as other children and youth.
Departments: Department of Education Agencies/Offices: Office of Elementary and Secondary Education
Measurement Matters: How Should My Program Measure Changes in Child Well-Being?
Measuring Bullying Victimization, Perpetration, and Bystander Experiences: A Compendium of Assessment Tools
This document provides researchers, prevention specialists, and health educators with tools to measure a range of bullying experiences: bully perpetration, bully victimization, bully-victim experiences, and bystander experiences. Some researchers continue to examine the risk and protective factors associated with bullying experiences. Others are working to design, implement, and evaluate bully prevention interventions aimed at reducing bully victimization and perpetration, as well as increasing prosocial bystander involvement in bullying situations.
Measuring Violence-related Attitudes, Beliefs, and Behaviors among Youths: A Compendium of Assessment Tools
This compendium provides research and prevention specialists with a set of tools to evaluate programs to prevent youth violence. The compendium includes more than 100 measures, mostly focused on individuals' violence-related attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.
Media-Smart Youth: Eat, Think, and Be Active! is an interactive after-school education program for young people ages 11 to 13. It is designed to help teach them about the complex media world around them, and how it can affect their health--especially in the areas of nutrition and physical activity.
Meeting the Needs of Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Youth
The National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth released a Q&A with Shannon Minter, legal director at the National Center for Lesbian Rights, featuring tips for working specifically with transgender and gender non-conforming youth.
In this blog post, Laura Green Zeilinger, USICH Executive Director, illustrates the experience of family homelessness and the services and supports that can be effective in helping families, including coordinated assessment, transitional housing, and rapid re-housing.
This Locator, developed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, provides comprehensive information about mental health services and resources and is useful for professionals, consumers and their families, and the public. Search by state, zip code, and service type to find resources available in your area.
Mental Health Surveillance Among Children — United States, 2005-2011
This report, from the Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, provides comprehensive estimates of the number of children and youth in the United States living with specific mental disorders and outlines federal efforts to monitor the prevalence of these disorders and the impact they have on the mental health of young people
This collection of articles from the National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth analyzes some of the most prominent mental health issues facing at-risk youth in order to provide youth workers with insight into the prevention and treatment of mental health challenges. Post-traumatic stress disorder, the risks and uses of psychotropic medications, and postpartum depression in teen mothers are discussed.
Developed by the Department of Health and Human Services, MentalHealth.gov provides users with information on a variety of mental health issues, including potential signs of mental illness, ways to seek help for mental health challenges, and videos that feature individual stories of mental illness, hope, and recovery.
This report summarizes both the research and the stakeholder input on mentoring children of incarcerated parents from the September 2013 listening session hosted by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and the White House Domestic Policy Council and Office of Public Engagement.
In recognition of National Mentoring Month, the Department of Justice’s National Criminal Justice Reference Service has compiled a list of publications, funding opportunities and initiatives, and other resources related to mentoring.
The Federal government's central Web site for information and resources related to methamphetamine. The site was developed to assist policy makers, law enforcement, educators, health care professionals, and others who are working to reduce meth production, trafficking, and abuse. The site features a listserv to promote information sharing and interactive communication with professionals across the Nation.
Methodology of the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System-2013
This report describes the changes and updates made to the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System since 2004, and provides results of methods studies that systematically examined how different survey procedures affect prevalence estimates.
MilitaryHOMEFRONT is the Department of Defense website for official Military Community and Family Policy (MC&FP) program information, policy and guidance designed to help troops and their families, leaders, and service providers. Whether you live the military lifestyle or support those who do, you'll find what you need!
This Department of Defense-sponsored website features content for children, tweens, and teens of military families. The site provides an online community that allows these young people to support one another while learning coping and resilience-building skills.
The US Small Business Administration (SBA) and Junior Achievement partnered to launch MindYourOwnBiz.org for students interested in business. The site offers training material, tips, videos, profiles of student business stories and more. SBA and Junior Achievement provide tools for young entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into business ventures
This blog post from the Department of Health and Human Services is written by Yashi Brown (poet/author, public speaker and mental health advocate) and chronicles her struggle with mental health challenges as a young adult and her journey in recovery. The post also offers advice for young people struggling with similar challenges.
Mobile Apps for Kids: Current Privacy Disclosures Are Disapointing
This report by the Federal Trade Commission, “Mobile Apps for Kids: Current Privacy Disclosures Are Disappointing,” reveals that mobile app developers and distributors are not providing information around what data is being collected when children use apps, and how this data is shared.
This Bulletin provides promising prevention approaches, summarizes the risk factors challenging youth, features effective prevention programs supported by OJJDP, and describes planning, training, and technical assistance opportunities available through OJJDP's Community Prevention Grants.
The Model Programs Guide (MPG) is designed to assist practitioners and communities in implementing evidence-based prevention and intervention programs that can make a difference in the lives of children and communities. The MPG database of evidence-based programs covers the entire continuum of youth services from prevention through sanctions to reentry. The MPG is a tool that offers a database of scientifically-proven programs that address a range of issues, including substance abuse, mental health, and education programs.
URL:http://www.ojjdp.gov/mpg/ Departments: Department of Justice Agencies/Offices: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
More States With High Graduation Rates
New data indicate that, for the 2012-13 school year, 18 states have high school graduation rates at or above 85%, up from 16 states for the 2011-12 school year and nine for 2010-11.
This 59-page tool is designed to help communities engage diverse stakeholders to develop and implement a communitywide vision for improving health care quality and managing costs. Within each of 8 modules (Collaborative leadership, Public at-large engagement, Quality and efficiency measurement, Public reporting, Provider incentives, Consumer incentives, Strategy for improving quality, and Health information technology and exchange), this tool describes in detail why, when, how, and who to contact as relevant stakeholders.
My Brother’s Keeper Task Force Report to the President
The My Brother’s Keeper Initiative was launched in February 2014 to address the persistent opportunity gaps faced by boys and young men of color. This 90-day report outlines the initial recommendations developed by the My Brother’s Keeper Task Force and offers a blueprint for action by government, business, nonprofit, philanthropic, faith and community partners.
MyMoney.gov is the U.S. government's website dedicated to teaching all Americans the basics about financial education.
URL:http://www.mymoney.gov/ Departments: Department of the Treasury Agencies/Offices: Office of Financial Education
This resource for adults and youth helps laid-off workers and other career changers find new occupations to explore. Users can identify occupations that require skills and knowledge similar to their current or previous job, learn more about these suggested matches, locate local training programs, and/or apply for jobs.
National 4-H Headquarters, United States Department of Agriculture. 4-H is the largest youth organization in the United States for children and youth ages 5 to 19. Visit the Cooperative Extension Office near you to find a 4-H program in your community
URL:http://www.4-h.org/ Departments: Department of Agriculture Agencies/Offices: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
National Academies Board on Children, Youth, and Families
The Board on Children, Youth, and Families (BCYF) addresses a variety of policy-relevant issues related to the health and development of children, youth, and families. It does so by convening experts to weigh in on matters from the perspective of the behavioral, social, and health sciences.
The Resource Center, administered by ETR Associates, is the knowledge management training and technical assistance provider to the Corporation for National and Community Service. It connects service programs with targeted training and information.
National Assessment of Educational Progress Test Results
This National Assessment of Educational Progress 1969–2012 report compares the test scores of high school students in reading, writing, mathematics, science, history, economics, civics, and geography with performance over the past four decades. This report includes information on the test scores as well as statistically significant trends.
Developed by SAMHSA, the National Behavioral Health Barometer provides data on key indicators of behavioral health issues at state and national levels. Data on mental illness, suicidal thoughts, substance abuse, underage drinking, and treatment for disorders are included.
The National Behavioral Health Barometer provides national and state level data on key behavioral health care issues including serious mental illness, suicidal thoughts, substance use, underage drinking, and the rates at which Americans seek treatment for these challenges.
The National Center for Safe Routes to School assists states and communities in enabling and encouraging children to safely walk and bicycle to school. The National Center serves as the information clearinghouse for the federal Safe Routes to School program. The organization also provides technical support and resources and coordinates online registration efforts for U.S. Walk to School Day and facilitates worldwide promotion and participation.
National Center on Accessible Instruction Materials
The AIM Center serves as a resource for stakeholders, including state- and district-level educators, parents, publishers, conversion houses, accessible media producers, and others interested in learning more about and implementing AIM and NIMAS.
URL:http://aim.cast.org/ Departments: Department of Education Agencies/Offices: Office of Special Education Programs
National Center on Secondary Education and Transition
The National Center on Secondary Education and Transition (NCSET) coordinates national resources, offers technical assistance, and disseminates information related to secondary education and transition for youth with disabilities in order to create opportunities for youth to achieve successful futures.
URL:http://www.ncset.org/ Departments: Department of Education Agencies/Offices: Office of Special Education Programs
National Center to Improve Practice
NCIP works to promote the effective use of technology to enhance educational outcomes for students with sensory, cognitive, physical and social/emotional disabilities.
The National Resource Center for Tribes will join the Children's Bureau's Child Welfare Training and Technical Assistance (T&TA) Network which is designed to improve child welfare systems and to support States and Tribes in achieving sustainable, systemic change that results in greater safety, permanency, and well-being for children, youth, and families.
URL:http://www.nrc4tribes.org/ Departments: Department of Health and Human Services Agencies/Offices: Administration for Children and Families
National Children's Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety
This Center strives to enhance the health and safety of all children exposed to hazards associated with agricultural work and rural environments. The Center is funded by HHS/CDC/NIOSH and the Maternal and Child Health Bureau within HHS/Health Resources Services Administration
URL:http://www.marshfieldclinic.org/NCCRAHS/ Departments: Department of Health and Human Services Agencies/Offices: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Agencies/Offices: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
National Children's Mental Health Awareness Day 2014 Launch Event
The National Children's Mental Health Awareness Day 2014 launch event featured Honorary Chairperson Chiara de Blasio and her parents (New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York City's first lady Chirlane McCray), senior federal officials, and four incredible young adults who shared their stories of resilience and hope.
National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day 2013 Short Report, May 9, 2013
This report discusses the prevalence of mental health and other related challenges among children and youth in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems, as well as trauma-informed SAMHSA programs, services, and initiatives that support the recovery and resilience of these young people.
National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth (NCFY)
NCFY is a free information service for Community, organizations, and individuals interested in developing new and effective strategies for supporting young people and their families. Their website includes youth development resources, funding announcements for FYSB's programs, free publications, and a calendar of conferences and trainings.
URL:http://www.ncfy.com Departments: Department of Health and Human Services Agencies/Offices: Administration for Children and Families
National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability
NCWD/Youth is your source for information about employment and youth with disabilities. Our partners - experts in disability, education, employment, and workforce development - strive to ensure you will be provided with the highest quality, most relevant information available.
National Community Anti-Drug Institute Primer Series
These primers are aimed at providing guidelines for coalitions navigating the HHS/SAMHSA's Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF). Each primer is designed to stand alone and work with the others in the series. While they primarily focus on the planning process on SAMHSA's SPF, the steps can be applied by any community coalition.
The NCVS is the nation’s primary source for information on criminal victimization. Data is reported on the likelihood of victimization by certain types of assault and by different segments of the population such as women, the elderly, and racial groups.
Established in 1972, the National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) is a federally funded resource offering justice and drug-related information to support research, policy, and program development worldwide.
National Directory of Drug and Alcohol Abuse Treatment Programs 2013
This directory provides updated information on federal, state, and local government and private facilities that provide substance abuse treatment services. Program information is also available online in a searchable format with maps showing the location of each facility.
This document describes the national approach to disaster recovery that focuses on unity and collaboration. The core principles of the approach include individual and family empowerment, leadership and local primacy, pre-disaster recovery planning, partnerships and inclusiveness, public information, unity of effort, timeliness and flexibility, resilience and sustainability, and psychological and emotional recovery.
National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities
We serve the nation as a central source of information on disabilities in infants, toddlers, children, and youth. Here, you'll also find easy-to-read information on IDEA, the law authorizing early intervention services and special education.
URL:http://nichcy.org/ Departments: Department of Education Agencies/Offices: Office of Special Education Programs
National Dropout Prevention Center for Students with Disabilities
The National Dropout Prevention Center for Students with Disabilities (NDPC-SD) supports the national implementation of provisions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to provide successful school outcomes for students with disabilities. NDPC-SD supports states in assisting local education agencies to increase school completion rates and decrease dropout rates among students with disabilities.
URL:http://www.ndpc-sd.org/ Departments: Department of Education Agencies/Offices: Office of Special Education Programs
National Emergency Child Locator Center (NECLC)
In conjunction with the NEFRLS, the National Emergency Child Locator Center (NECLC) is operated by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and activated during Presidentially-declared disasters. Its mission is to help locate displaced children and reunite them with their families. In February 2007, FEMA signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the NCMEC, the American Red Cross, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the U.S.
National Emergency Family Registry and Locator System (NEFRLS)
FEMA’s National Emergency Family Registry and Locator System (NEFRLS) is an online, secure system that helps family reunification when individuals are separated during a disaster. It provides a platform for survivors and their loved ones to communicate their location as well as provide a personalized message. A call center is also available to assist people who do not have Internet access.
The Challenge is an initiative designed to engage educators in the teaching of personal finance and to increase the financial knowledge and capability of high school aged youth so they can take control of their financial futures.
The National Fruit & Vegetable Program is a public private partnership. It is a confederation of government, not-for-profit groups and industry groups working collaboratively and synergistically to increase the consumption of fruits and vegetables for improved public health.
Created by the Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the National Girls Institute website functions as a resource to help meet the needs of agencies and organizations that serve at-risk and delinquent girls, as well as the girls themselves. Users can request training and technical assistance and access information about best practices, tools, research, and events.
The mission of the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program is to intervene in and reclaim the lives of at-risk youth to produce program graduates with the values, skills, education and self-discipline necessary to succeed as adults.
The NGC mission is to provide physicians and other health professionals, health care providers, health plans, integrated delivery systems, purchasers, and others an accessible mechanism for obtaining objective, detailed information on clinical practice guidelines and to further their dissemination, implementation, and use
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration was established by the Highway Safety Act of 1970 to carry out safety programs previously administered by the National Highway Safety Bureau. Learn more about driving and vehicle safety, research in the area, and laws and regulations.
URL:http://www.nhtsa.gov/About Departments: Department of Transportation Agencies/Offices: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
National Human Trafficking Resource Center
The National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC) is supported by a grant from the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Division, Office of Refugee Resettlement, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In addition to operating a national, victim-centered, toll-free hotline, the NHTRC provides referrals, resources, general information, training and technical assistance to build individual and practitioner expertise and strengthen local anti-trafficking infrastructure to improve the nationwide response to human trafficking.
This site acts as the central source of information on vaccines and immunizations for Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
URL:http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/ Departments: Department of Health and Human Services Agencies/Offices: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
National Institute of Corrections
The National Institute of Corrections is a center of learning, innovation and leadership that shapes and advances effective correctional practice and public policy. They have various publications available about effective practices in corrections in their library.
National Institute of Corrections (NIC) - Children of Incarcerated Parents (CoIP) Project
Studies show that the arrest of a parent can be traumatic for children and families and is correlated with behavioral problems and poor outcomes in school. The National Institute of Corrections (NIC) created the Children of Incarcerated Parents Project (CoIP) to assist stakeholders who are involved with affected families by providing a review of existing literature and promising practices and working with stakeholders to build frameworks to apply lessons learned in the field.
National Institute of Corrections’ Video Visiting Guide
This guide can help inform administrators working in correctional settings about the benefits and challenges of using “video visiting,” in which incarcerated individuals communicate with family members via video conferencing technology or virtual software programs.
The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) advances knowledge for agriculture, the environment, human health and well-being, and communities by supporting research, education, and extension programs in the Land-Grant University System and other partner organizations. NIFA replaced the former Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES), which had been in existence since 1994.
URL:http://www.nifa.usda.gov Departments: Department of Agriculture Agencies/Offices: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
National Institute of Justice
NIJ is the research, development and evaluation agency of the U.S. Department of Justice and is dedicated to researching crime control and justice issues. NIJ provides objective, independent, evidence-based knowledge and tools to meet the challenges of crime and justice, particularly at the state and local levels.
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism was established to support and promote the best science on alcohol and health for the benefit of all by increasing the understanding of normal and abnormal biological functions and behavior relating to alcohol use, improving the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of alcohol use disorders, and enhancing quality health care.
National Institute on Drug Abuse - for Parents and Teachers
This website contains links to fact sheets on what parents need to know about marijuana and nicotine, as well as free science-based educational materials developed by NIDA. These materials were developed specifically for parents & teachers
View the video that includes the highlights from the week-long 2011 National Intertribal Youth Summit (NIYS), held last July in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This event was attended by more than 160 youth representing nearly 50 tribes.
In conjunction with the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, JRSA began developing the National Juvenile Justice Evaluation Center (NJJEC) in 2010. This project follows an earlier JRSA project funded by OJJDP, which concluded in 2005, called the Juvenile Justice Evaluation Center. The purpose of NJJEC is to improve the evaluation capacity of states, tribes, and local communities and facilitate the use of evidence-based programs and practices in juvenile justice.
NNCC unites the expertise of many of the nation's leading universities through the outreach system of Cooperative Extension. Our goal is to share knowledge about children and child care from the vast resources of the land grant universities with parents, professionals, practitioners, and the general public.
URL:http://www.nncc.org/ Departments: Department of Agriculture Agencies/Offices: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Volunteers
Volunteers play an integral role in supporting the environmental stewardship conducted every day by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Across the United states and its coastal waters, opportunities exist for volunteers to take part in research, observation and educational roles that benefit science, our citizens and our planet.
The Center assists SEAs to develop and implement rigorous and practical post-school outcome data systems to track the early adult experiences of youth who had IEPs while in high school. It also helps states collect, analyze, and use post-school outcome data to improve the quality of secondary and transition programs for youth with disabilities.
URL:http://www.psocenter.org Departments: Department of Education Agencies/Offices: Office of Special Education Programs
National Preparedness Directorate
The National Preparedness Directorate (NPD) provides the doctrine, programs and resources to prepare the nation to prevent, protect, mitigate, respond to and recover from disasters while minimizing the loss of lives, infrastructure and property. NPD is responsible for enhancing the nation’s readiness through a comprehensive preparedness cycle of planning, organizing and equipping, training, exercising, evaluating and improvement planning.
National Prevention Council 2013 Annual Status Report
This report illustrates how the 17 departments that make up the National Prevention Council are incorporating prevention into their work to improve the health of all Americans and meet the goals set forth in the National Prevention Strategy.
This toolkit is designed to help communities and organizations plan and hold National Prevention Week 2014 events. It contains ideas and tips for planning and executing events, information on working with partners, fact sheets, promotional tools, and additional resources.
Funded by the Second Chance Act of 2008, and launched by the Council of State Governments Justice Center in 2009, the National Reentry Resource Center provides education, training, and technical assistance to states, tribes, territories, local governments, service providers, non-profit organizations, and corrections institutions working on prisoner reentry.
National Resource Center for Permanency and Family Connections
The National Resource Center for Permanency and Family Connections at the Hunter College School of Social Work is a training, technical assistance, and information services organization dedicated to help strengthen the capacity of State, local, Tribal and other publicly administered or supported child welfare agencies in order to: institutionalize a safety-focused, family-centered, and community-based approach to meet the needs of children, youth and families.
URL:http://www.nrcpfc.org/ Departments: Department of Health and Human Services Agencies/Offices: Administration for Children and Families
National Resource Center for Youth Development
NRCYD's overall goal is to build the capacity of States and Tribes to provide high-quality services to their youth in out of home placements, former foster youth and other youth in at-risk situations.
URL:http://www.nrcyd.ou.edu/ Departments: Department of Health and Human Services Agencies/Offices: Administration for Children and Families
National Resource Center on Legal and Judicial Issues
National Resource Center on Legal and Judicial Issues provides consultation, training, and technical assistance on all legal and judicial aspects of the child welfare system, including federal law, court improvement, agency and court collaboration, permanency planning, legal representation, and other emerging child welfare issues.
The National Runaway Switchboard is a national communications system that assists youth who have run away or are considering running away and their families. With its database of more than 17,000 resources, NRS links youth and families across the country to shelters, counseling, medical assistance, and other vital services. In addition, NRS works to prevent youth from running away. By helping youth and adults resolve problems constructively, staff and volunteers diffuse escalating tensions, promote dialogue and reduce youths' desire to run away.
URL:http://www.1800runaway.org/ Departments: Department of Health and Human Services Agencies/Offices: Administration for Children and Families
National Secondary Transition Technical Assistance Center
The Center 1) Assists states with collecting, reporting, and using Indicator 13 data to improve transition services 2) Generates knowledge of evidence-based secondary transition practices 3) Builds state capacity to implement evidence-based secondary transition practices 4) Disseminates information regarding evidence-based secondary transition practices
URL:http://www.nsttac.org Departments: Department of Education Agencies/Offices: Office of Special Education Programs
National Secondary Transition Technical Assistance Center
The National Secondary Transition Technical Assistance Center (NSTTAC) helps states build capacity to support and improve transition planning, services, and outcomes for youth with disabilities and disseminates information and provides technical assistance on scientifically-based research practices with an emphasis on building and sustaining state-level infrastructures of support and district-level demonstrations of effective transition methods for youth with disabilities.
URL:http://www.nsttac.org/ Departments: Department of Education Agencies/Offices: Office of Special Education Programs
National Service-Learning Clearinghouse
The National Service-Learning Clearinghouse (NSLC) supports the service-learning community in higher education, kindergarten through grade twelve, community-based organizations, tribal programs, and all others interested in strengthening schools and communities using service-learning.
National Strategy for Youth Preparedness Education: Empowering, Educating, and Building Resilience
In this publication, FEMA, the Red Cross, and ED outline a vision for a nation of prepared youth through the mobilization of youth preparedness education (PDF, 32 pages) in communities across the country.
National Technical Assistance Center for Children's Mental Health
The National Technical Assistance Center for Children's Mental Health serves as a national resource to support and strengthen the capacity of states, territories, tribes and communities to transform their mental health systems to meet the diverse and complex needs of children and adolescents with or at risk for serious emotional disturbances and their families.
The National Dating Abuse Helpline is the direct service provider behind loveisrespect.org, operating the 24/7 text, phone, and live chat services. The texting function of the Helpline allows for users to text the Helpline advocates 24 hours a day, seven days a week about anything ranging from questions about healthy dating to raising red flags about relationships. The Helpline’s peer advocates serve thousands of teens and young adults through the 24/7 phone service.
National Workgroup to Address the Needs of Children and Youth Who Are LGBTQI2-S and Their Families
The Child, Adolescent and Family Branch (CAFB), Center for Mental Health Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services initiated the National Workgroup to Address the Needs of Children and Youth Who Are LGBTQI2-S and Their Families to support and enhance services for children and youth who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, intersex, or two-spirit (LGBTQI2-S).
This site provides resources and links for the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign partners, community groups, and the media. The site allows people to view Media Campaign television, print, radio, and banner ads.
This annual survey of law enforcement agencies is developed and implemented by the National Gang Center and is used to assess the extent of gang problems by measuring the presence, characteristics, and behaviors of local gangs in jurisdictions throughout the country.
The National Youth in Transition Database (NYTD) will collect case-level information on youth in care including the services paid for or provided by the State agencies that administer the Chafee Foster Care Independence Program (CFCIP), as well as the outcome information on youth who are in or who have aged out of foster care.
Natural disasters such as flood, fire, earthquake, tornado and windstorm affect thousands of people every year. You should know what your risks are and prepare to protect yourself, your family and community. Recognizing an impending hazard and knowing what to do to protect yourself and your family will help you take effective steps to prepare beforehand and aid recovery after the event. Some of the things you can do to prepare for the unexpected, such as assembling a supply kit and developing a family emergency plan, are the same for all types of hazards.
The NCFY Library is a searchable database, curated and managed by a librarian, which contains abstracts, or summaries, of more than 20,000 publications related to FYSB’s programmatic areas of youth homelessness, adolescent pregnancy prevention, and family violence prevention and services
NCFY Voices: From Homelessness to National Spokesman
After the death of his mother when he was a teenager, Syncere started living on the streets. He then got involved with the Night Ministry, a Chicago youth program, went back to school, and now works for the organization.
This online database provides access and referral to members and resources across a range of classifications such as child traumatic stress, co-occurring disorders, family and consumer engagement, bullying, caregiver issues, etc
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network's (NCTSN) Community Violence webpage features information and resources related to community violence, including tips and resources for young people dealing with the trauma associated with witnessing violence. It also features the NCTSN Community and School Violence Reading List of recommended books and articles on community and school violence.
NDTAC Fact Sheet: Youth with Special Education Needs in Justice Settings
The fact sheet explores the prevalence of youth with special education needs within justice settings (PDF, 4 pages) and describes the characteristics of, and the challenges faced by, the facilities and schools serving these young people.
HUD created Neighborhood Networks in 1995 to encourage property owners to establish multiservice community learning centers in HUD insured and assisted properties. Neighborhood Networks was one of the first federal initiatives to promote self-sufficiency and help provide computer access to low-income housing communities. Neighborhood Networks centers are alike. With support from innovative public-private partnerships, Neighborhood Networks centers sponsor a range of services and programs.
The FTC developed “Net Cetera: Chatting with Kids About Being Online,” a booklet for parents, teachers, and other adults to use when having conversations with young people about online safety. Recent updates to the booklet include tips on using mobile apps and Wi-Fi, ways to recognize text message spam, and changes to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.
New Data Show a Lower Percentage of Students Defaulting on Federal Student Loans
The Department of Education has announced that, for students who entered repayment in FY 2011, the official three-year federal student loan cohort default rate has declined to 13.7%. This drop is seen in all sectors of higher education, including public, private, and for-profit institutions.
New Directions in Child Abuse and Neglect Research
Released by the National Academies’ Institute of Medicine and National Research Council, and commissioned by ACYF, “New Directions in Child Abuse and Neglect Research” examines current research on the extent, causes, and consequences of child abuse and neglect. This report provides recommendations for establishment and implementation of a coordinated national infrastructure to support future research on child abuse and neglect.
If you are starting a new job, this publication provides tips to help you save for your long-term goals in addition to your short-term goals. If you start saving now, the money will have years to grow and you'll have a better chance of being able to do all the things you want to do in the future. Plus, by starting early, you will need to save a lot less later on.
This free online course uses a cognitive behavioral approach to working with angry clients. This course covers a range of topics, including how people respond to getting angry, how to manage anger from people with traumatic brain injury or post-traumatic stress disorder, and how to assess anger and readiness for anger treatment.
New Online Courses Available in School Emergency Management for K-12 Schools and School Districts
The REMS TA Center has developed five new online courses for practitioners in the field of K–12 school emergency management that address the following topics: (1) Developing a Bereavement and Loss Annex; (2) Developing a COOP Annex; (3) Developing a Food Contamination Annex; (4)
This press release from the American Psychological Association reports findings from a study that used data from a national CDC survey and found that more than one in three teens had experienced dating violence.
New Resources Released at ConnectED to the Future Event
On November 19, President Obama hosted “ConnectED to the Future,” a convening of 100 superintendents and educators leading their districts in digital learning. At the event, ED released two new publications:
New State Fact Sheets on Drunk Driving and Restraint Use
The CDC’s Injury Center has released two new fact sheets that provide state-specific data on seat belt use and drunk driving. “Buckle Up: Restraint Use Fact Sheets” provides snapshots of motor vehicle occupant deaths and seat belt use and describes proven strategies to increase the use of appropriate restraints.
NIH-Funded Study: Bullying Decreases among Middle School and High School Students
Published in the American Journal of Public Health, a NIH-funded study found that bullying among students in grades six through 10 declined significantly between 1998 and 2010. A less dramatic decline in fighting among students was also observed. As part of this podcast, the study’s lead author explains the findings and their implications for policy and practice.
Developed by the the White House Task Force to Protect Students From Sexual Assault, NotAlone.gov provides information, tools, and resources for students and schools on how to respond to and prevent sexual assault in schools and on college and university campuses. Resources for students include information on how to file a complaint, find crisis services, and learn more about their rights.
Nutrition Facts Label: Read the Label Youth Outreach Campaign
Read the Label is a youth outreach campaign that encourages youth, ages 9-13, to use the Nutrition Facts Label on food and beverage packages. The campaign’s website contains tips and education materials to help young people make smart and healthful food choices.
Nutrition Facts Label: Read the Label Youth Outreach Campaign
Read the Label is a youth outreach campaign that encourages youth, ages 9-13, to use the Nutrition Facts Label on food and beverage packages. The campaign’s website contains tips and education materials to help young people make smart and healthful food choices.
The Office of Adolescent Health's Teen Pregnancy Prevention Resource Center provides training materials, e-learning modules, podcasts, webinars, and other resources to assist organizations as they work to reduce teen pregnancy.
The Occupational Outlook Handbook is a nationally recognized source of career information designed to help individuals making decisions about their future work lives. The handbook is revised every two years. It includes information on hundreds of jobs and describes the training and education needed, earnings, expected job prospects, what workers do on the job, and working conditions.
Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking
The Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking (OCFT) is part of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB). The office was created in 1993 in response to a request from Congress to investigate and report on child labor around the world. As domestic and international concern about child labor grew, OCFT’s activities significantly expanded.
The Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) was authorized by Congress in the Department of Labor's FY 2001 appropriation. ODEP provides information for families, professionals, and communities on transitioning youth with disabilities into training and employment opportunities.
In 1991, Congress established HUD's Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control to eliminate lead-based paint hazards in America's privately-owned and low-income housing. The OHHLHC provides funds to state and local governments to develop cost-effective ways to reduce lead-based paint hazards.
The Office of Legal Policy coordinates the development of the Department’s anti-trafficking policies and is responsible for compiling the Attorney General’s Annual Report to Congress on U.S. Government Efforts to Combat Trafficking in Persons and the Assessment of U.S. Government Efforts to Combat Trafficking in Persons.
The Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools (OSDFS) administers, coordinates, and recommends policy for improving quality and excellence of programs and activities related to youth safety and drug prevention.
Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services
The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) understands the many challenges still facing individuals with disabilities and their families. Therefore, OSERS is committed to improving results and outcomes for people with disabilities of all ages. OSERS supports programs that serve millions of children, youth and adults with disabilities.
The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) supports a comprehensive array of programs and projects authorized by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that improve results for infants, toddlers, children and youth with disabilities.
The Office of Victims of Crime is committed to enhancing the nation’s capacity to assist crime victims and providing leadership in changing attitudes, policies, and practices to promote justice and healing for all victims of crime.
The Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime, provides legal assistance for victims of human trafficking and funds the Wrap-Around Victims Legal Assistance Network Demonstration Project and the Services for Trafficking Victims Grant Program to sustain services in communities.
The Office on Violence Against Women (OVW), a component of the U.S. Department of Justice, provides national leadership in developing the nation's capacity to reduce violence against women through the implementation of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).
Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons
The Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (JTIP) leads the United States’ global engagement on the fight against human trafficking, partnering with foreign governments and civil society to develop and implement effective strategies for confronting modern slavery.
Official Selections from the First-Ever White House Student Film Festival
On February 28, 2014 the White House held its first-ever Student Film Festival, screening 16 official selections that highlight why technology is so important and how it will change the educational experience for students in the future. Visit the event website to learn more about the film festival, check out the winning films, and watch video of the event.
OJJDP Annual Report 2012: How OJJDP Is Working for Youth Justice and Safety
This report provides an overview of the resources, research and evaluation findings, and training and technical assistance provided by OJJDP. It also describes the nearly $268 million in grants awarded by OJJDP to reduce children’s exposure to violence, intervene in and prevent girls’ delinquency, support mentoring activities and promote family engagement, address the “school to prison” pipeline, facilitate reentry efforts, prevent bullying, improve conditions for tribal youth, fight child exploitation, strengthen the juvenile justice system, and enhance public safety.
OJJDP Family Listening Sessions: Executive Summary
This report provides a summary of the experiences and recommendations for reform offered during four listening sessions conducted by OJJDP, the Campaign for Youth Justice, and the Education Development Center by families and youth with direct experience with the juvenile justice system at local and state levels.
OJJDP, MENTOR Launch National Mentoring Resource Center
OJJDP and MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership have launched the National Mentoring Resource Center, which provides mentoring tools and information, program and training materials, and technical assistance, particularly relating to delinquency prevention, victimization, and juveni
URL:http://www.ojjdp.gov/mpg/ Departments: Department of Health and Human Services Agencies/Offices: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
OJJDP’s Statistical Briefing Book - 2012
The Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention has updated the “frequently asked questions” section of its Statistical Briefing Book. This section provides answers to some commonly asked questions about juvenile justice
Developed by the National Association of Broadcasters and featured on MentalHealth.gov, OK2TALK is a new campaign that aims to encourage young people struggling with mental health challenges to talk about their experiences, without fear of stigma, and to create opportunities for open conversations in schools, in the workplace, and among families about mental health. The campaign includes TV and radio PSAs and an online community where youth can share their story by submitting creative content.
The Federal Trade Commission manages OnGuardOnline.gov, in partnership with other federal agencies. OnGuardOnline.gov is a partner in the Stop Think Connect campaign, led by the Department of Homeland Security, and part of the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education, led by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. This is an educational website, providing educators, parents, kids, and others with information on online safety.
The Department of Justice’s Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center developed a College e-Kit, designed to connect law enforcement, prevention advocates, campus representatives, students, and other community leaders with resources to effectively reduce underage student access to, and consumption of, alcohol.
Online Community for Children of Military Families
MilitaryKidsConnect.org, a Department of Defense-sponsored website, features content for children, tweens, and teens of military families. The site provides an online community that allows these young people to support one another while learning coping and resilience-building skills
The Online Professional Learning Checklist can be used by school district leaders to identify and evaluate online learning opportunities for educators (PDF, 14 pages). Individual educators can also use the tool to evaluate the quality of potential online learning opportunities.
The Department of Health and Human Services’ National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth released this list of recommended resources on sexually transmitted diseases, including information geared specifically to teens and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth.
Online Training: Engaging Families in the Justice System
“Engaging Families in the Justice System” is a web-based training developed by OJJDP and the National Center for Youth in Custody. Participants learn about specific practices used around the nation to increase family engagement and the FAMILY model framework, which helps juvenile justice professionals build partnerships with families at each step in the justice process.
This blog post describes the work of The American Association of People With Disabilities internship program. The program aims to address the underrepresentation of students with disabilities in summer internship programs by engaging 10-30 student interns with disabilities each summer in hands-on work experience and mentoring.
Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness - 2012 Amendment
The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness released the 2012 Amendment to Opening Doors, the comprehensive federal strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness, that specifically addresses strategies for improving the educational outcomes for children and youth, and the steps that need to be taken to advance the goal of ending youth homelessness by 2020.
Opportunity for All: Supporting Asian American and Pacific Islander Families
This document outlines how President Obama’s budget for fiscal year 2015 takes steps to support and create opportunities for Asian American and Pacific Islander families (PDF, 8 pages) in education, employment, health care, and economic growth.
Developed by the Idaho Coalition Against Sexual & Domestic Violence, the Our Revolution campaign engages young people in a social movement to prevent and reduce teen dating violence. The Our Revolution website provides information and resources, including posters, brochures, and a conversation guide, that can help youth-serving professionals engage youth in the campaign
This brief report from the Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics uses data from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study to illustrate trends in out-of-pocket net price for college, which is the price that students and their families pay after grants, loans, work-study, and other aid.
PACER Center's Technical Assistance on Transition and the Rehabilitation Act (TATRA) Project
The Technical Assistance on Transition and the Rehabilitation Act (TATRA) Project offers Parent Information and Training Programs funded by the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) a variety of services to help them achieve their goals. Individualized services for each center are identified in technical assistance plans on an annual basis.
Parental Incarceration and Child Wellbeing: An Annotated Bibliography
This annotated bibliography focuses on quantitative research on the consequences of paternal and maternal incarceration for children that (1) attempts to control for selection using standard statistical techniques, (2) uses broadly representative data, and (3) differentiates consequences of paternal incarceration from consequences of maternal incarceration.
Departments: Department of Justice
Parents Are the Key to Safe Teen Drivers
The Parents Are the Key campaign provides resources and information for parents about teen driving and what they can do to help their teen become a safe driver.
Parents: Tips To Help Your Child Complete the FAFSA
This blog entry from the Department of Education provides answers to some of the common questions that parents have when helping their children fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
Parents’ Influence on the Health of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Teens: What Parents and Families Should Know
CDC’s DASH developed the factsheet, “Parents’ Influence on the Health of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Teens: What Parents and Families Should Know," which provides information for parents on how they can support and promote healthy outcomes for their LGTBQ teens.
Passport in Time (PIT) is a volunteer archaeology and historic preservation program of the USDA Forest Service (FS). PIT volunteers work with professional FS archaeologists and historians on national forests throughout the U.S. on such diverse activities as archaeological survey and excavation, rock art restoration, survey, archival research, historic structure restoration, oral history gathering, and analysis and curation of artifacts. FS professional staff of archaeologists and historians serve as hosts, guides, and co-workers.
PEPNet: Connecting Juvenile Offenders to Education and Employment
This factsheet discusses the process and criteria behind PEPnet, a practice-based system that identifies and promotes effective youth development and employment programs and maintains an extensive database resource.
This is a one-stop resource for applicants and grantees which offers the ability to review the significance of performance measures in light of relevant federal legislation; assist applicants in developing a logic model that sets goals and objectives for their program; helps applicants select appropriate performance measures and identify pertinent data sources for performance reporting; and enables grantees to report their performance measures online.
Physical Activity in U.S. Youth Aged 12–15 Years, 2012
This report from the CDC illustrates the latest findings from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) and the NHANES National Youth Fitness Survey, 2012. The data reflect that one-quarter of youth in the United States, ages 12–15, engaged in moderate to vigorous activity for at least 60 minutes each day.
Podcast Series: A National Conversation on Protecting Our Youth
This series offers strategies to address underage drinking and reduce youth access to alcohol. Experts, parents, researchers, youth groups, law enforcement officers, and others also discuss the health and safety issues associated with youth alcohol use. Learn more.
URL:http://blis.fm/udetc/ Departments: Department of Justice Agencies/Offices: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
Podcast: Teen Pregnancy Prevention for LGBTQ Youth
In a podcast featured in the latest update from the Department of Health and Human Services’ National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth, Bryan Samuels, commissioner of the Administration on Children, Youth and Families, and Andrew Barnett, executive director of the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League, discuss the need to include lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth in teen pregnancy prevention efforts.
Podcast: Tips for Helping Children and Youth Cope in the Aftermath of Disasters
This podcast identifies common reactions of children and youth to disaster and trauma, discusses helpful approaches to support young people’s recovery, and presents examples of how communities that have experienced traumatic events—such as the shooting incident at Virginia Tech—have used coping strategies to promote resilience.
URL:https://www.youtube.com/watch Departments: Department of Health and Human Services Agencies/Offices: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Podcast: Victims of Sex Trafficking
The Department of Health and Human Services’ National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth produced a podcast featuring a Miami street outreach worker, who specializes in helping victims of sex trafficking, discussing how to approach and help sexually exploited youth.
This podcast from the Department of Health and Human Services discusses the epidemic of female binge drinking, which, among women, means having four or more drinks during a short period. Binge drinking can increase a woman’s chance of breast cancer, heart disease, and other health problems.
Podcast: Youth Speak Out: Advocacy and Opportunity
This podcast from the Department of Health and Human Services’ National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth features Gina, a youth advocate for runaway and homeless youth issues, who has attended many statewide and national conferences. Gina shares her thoughts on what makes a successful youth advocate and how adults can support young people in becoming advocates.
Post-Disaster Reunification of Children: A Nationwide Approach
This guide, from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Health and Human Services, aims to help organizations and communities to develop new, or enhance existing, reunification elements of emergency preparedness plans, focusing on the reunification of children separated from their parents or legal guardians during disasters. It offers operational guidance, defines agency roles multiple levels, and provides checklists and emergency planning templates.
Practical Information on Crisis Planning: A Guide for Schools and Communities
Taking action now can save lives, prevent injury, and minimize property damage in the moments of a crisis. Practical Information on Crisis Planning: A Guide for Schools and Communities is designed to help navigate the process of reviewing and revising school and district plans. The guide is intended to give schools, districts, and communities the critical concepts and components of good crisis planning, stimulate thinking about the crisis preparedness process, and provide examples of promising practices.
Practical Tips for Enrolling and Staying in College
This webpage from the What Works Clearinghouse contains information that can help youth-serving and school professionals prepare students to enroll in, and complete, their college education. Resources include tips for educating students and families about college affordability and financial aid, a checklist for helping students complete the steps in the college application process, research on the impact of secondary education interventions, and information that can help schools support students effectively and reduce dropout.
The National Institute of Justice and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention developed the bulletin, "Prediction and Risk/Needs Assessment" as part of the Justice Research Series. This bulletin explores predictions of young adult crime from juvenile histories and assessments of risk, needs, and protective factors.
This Juvenile Justice Bulletin from the OJJDP gives a comprehensive discussion of risk factors for youth violence, including gang membership, across the domains of individual, family, school, peer, and community factors. The Bulletin also gives a brief overview of a study that looked at predictors of violent or serious delinquency by age group and includes a discussion of what the results mean for implementing interventions and appropriately using the identified risk factors.
Highlighted by the National Clearinghouse on Families & Youth, these resources from the Polaris Project, an organization that works to combat sex trafficking and labor trafficking, can help youth-serving professionals learn how to work with youth who are survivors
Prepregnancy Contraceptive Use Among Teens with Unintended Pregnancies Resulting in Live Births, 2004–2008
Data from this Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report from January 2012 offers insight into current statistics about teens not using contraception, teens who give birth, the risks of early childbearing, and why this is a public health issue. The data was collected from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS), which collects state-specific, population-based data on maternal attitudes and experiences before, during, and shortly after pregnancy.
Preserve America Stewards is a designation program that recognizes organizations and agencies for volunteer programs that help care for our historic heritage. Preserve America Stewards run programs that 1) provide volunteers with opportunities to contribute in direct and tangible ways to the preservation of historic properties; 2) address an otherwise unfilled need in heritage preservation through the use of volunteers; and 3) are innovative in areas such as youth involvement, volunteer training, public education, and public/private partnerships.
Prevalence and Characteristics of Sexual Violence, Stalking, and Intimate Partner Violence Victimization — National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, United States, 2011
This report describes the overall prevalence of sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence victimization in the United States using data from 2011. It reveals that nearly 54% of all female victims and 48% of all male victims experienced their first victimizations before age 25, many of whom were first victimized during childhood or adolescence.
Prevalence and Implementation Fidelity of Research-Based Prevention Programs in Public Schools
This report from the Study of the Implementation of Research-Based Programs to Prevent Youth Substance Abuse and School Crime offers the following information which can be applied to gang prevention efforts: collecting background information on substance abuse and school crime, identifying research-based programs and practices, using data collection instruments, developing implementation fidelity measures, and collecting, processing, and analyzing data.
Prevent Trafficking by Reaching Out to Transportation and Hospitality Providers
This article describes how anti-human-trafficking groups are partnering with organizations in the hospitality and transportation industry to prevent the commercial sexual exploitation of youth and what youth programs can do to raise awareness in their communities.
Preventing Drug Abuse among Children and Adolescents.
This In Brief Web edition provides highlights from the Preventing Drug Use among Children and Adolescents: A Research-Based Guide for Parents, Educators, and Community Leaders, Second Edition booklet. It presents the updated prevention principles, an overview of program planning, and critical first steps for those learning about prevention.
Preventing Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Disorders Among Young People
Mental health and substance use disorders among children, youth, and young adults are major threats to the health and well-being of younger populations which often carryover into adulthood. The costs of treatment for mental health and addictive disorders, which create an enormous burden on the affected individuals, their families, and society, have stimulated increasing interest in prevention practices that can impede the onset or reduce the severity of the disorders.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration released, “Preventing Suicide: A Toolkit for High Schools,” which represents the best available evidence on preventing suicide among high school students. The toolkit contains recommended steps and accompanying tools to help schools create and implement strategies and programs that promote behavioral health and prevent suicide.
This article describes SAMHSA’s National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Crisis Center Follow-Up Cooperative Agreements, which support crisis centers within Lifeline’s network in systematically following up with Lifeline callers to check in and follow up on treatment referrals. It also discusses ongoing program evaluation results, which suggest that following up is an effective suicide prevention technique.
Preventing Youth Violence: Opportunities for Action
This report describes the critical problem of youth violence and provides information and action steps that public health and community leaders, young people, families, caregivers, and other adults that work with youth can take to prevent it.
Prevention Pathways offer prevention courses that are free to the public. Some courses are meant for professionals and have continuing education credits available. Other courses are designed to provide helpful information to members of the general public interested in prevention topics.
This blog post outlines recent progress made in promoting the health and welfare of individuals who identify as LGBT, including multiple resources published by SAMHSA related to LGBT youth. Future SAMHSA funding opportunities and changes in data collection procedures related to LGBT populations are also discussed.
Principal Considerations in Selecting Evidence Based Programs
Philip Uninsky discusses principal considerations in selecting evidence based programs at the Emphasizing Evidence Based Programs for Children and Youth Forum held in Washington, D.C. on April 27-28, 2011.
Principles of Adolescent Substance Use Disorder Treatment: A Research-Based Guide
This guide offers research-based principles and approaches for practitioners to consider when treating adolescent substance abuse, as well as information about settings in which treatment occurs, the role of family and medical professions in treatment and recovery, and frequently asked questions about adolescent drug use.
The Problem-Oriented Guides for Police summarize knowledge about how police can reduce the harm caused by specific crime and disorder problems. They are guides to prevention and to improving the overall response to incidents, not to investigating offenses or handling specific incidents.
Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson announced the process for individuals to renew their enrollment in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. To avoid a lapse in the period of deferral and employment authorization, individuals must file renewal requests before the expiration of their current period of DACA.
Progress Blog is a resource from the Department of Education that highlights innovative ideas taking place in America’s classrooms and the creativity and leadership of teachers; school, district, and state leaders; and parents.
Progress Report On the President’s Executive Actions to Reduce Gun Violence
This report outlines the progress made on 21 of 23 executive actions presented in President Obama’s plan to help reduce gun violence, released in January, and the continuing efforts toward completing all 23 (PDF, 10 pages)
ICE, in partnership with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, launched Project iGuardian, a cyber safety campaign aimed at combatting online child sexual exploitation. Project iGuardian partners visit schools and youth groups across the nation, educating students and parents about avoiding risk and staying safe online.
Project LAUNCH is a grant program of the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) which seeks to promote the wellness of young children birth to age eight. Using a public health approach, Project LAUNCH focuses on improving the systems that serve young children and address their physical, emotional, social, cognitive and behavioral growth. The goal: for all children to reach physical, social, emotional, behavioral, and cognitive milestones.
To address the challenges faced by students living in communities of concentrated poverty, Promise Neighborhoods grantees and their partner organizations will plan to provide services from early learning to college and career, including programs to improve the health, safety, and stability of neighborhoods, and boost family engagement in student learning.
Promising Practices Toolkit: Working with Drug Endangered Children and Their Families
This toolkit, developed by the Department of Justice's Federal Interagency Task Force on Drug Endangered Children, aims to help professionals serving drug-endangered children by identifying promising practices in the field, as well as why these practice works and resources to assist in their implementation.
Promoting Health Through Local School Wellness Policies
The Bridging the Gap research program — supported by the CDC and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation — developed a series of seven briefs that highlight opportunities to support wellness policies through evidence-based strategies. These briefs assess policies across school districts nationwide related to seven components of wellness.
Promoting Recovery and Independence for Older Adolescents and Young Adults Who Experience Serious Mental Health Challenges
This report, developed by the Department of Health and Human Services', Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, illustrates that youth who participate in community-based treatment programs can achieve multiple positive outcomes, including improved emotional health, skill improvement, and enrollment in school.
Promoting Recovery and Resilience for Children and Youth Involved in Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare Systems
A report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration illustrates the heightened risk of young people in juvenile justice and child welfare systems having experienced traumatic events and developing mental health conditions. However, as the report states, appropriate care for these children and youth can promote recovery and resilience.
Protecting Student Privacy While Using Online Educational Services: Requirements and Best Practices
The Department of Education's Privacy Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) has released new guidance to help school systems and educators interpret and understand the major laws and best practices protecting student privacy while using online educational services. The guidance also urges schools to go beyond compliance and implement best practices when outsourcing school functions using online educational services, such as mobile applications and computer software.
Psychological First Aid (PFA) is an evidence-informed approach for assisting children, adolescents, adults, and families in the aftermath of disaster and terrorism. The National Child Traumatic Stress Network and the National Center for PTSD are pleased to make the Second Edition of Psychological First Aid Field Operations Guide and accompanying hanouts available. In addition to the English-language edition of PFA, there are versions in Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese.
This article provides information about Psychological First Aid (PFA), an approach to helping people of all ages deal with trauma-related stress. As the article explains, Psychological First Aid for Schools brings this model into schools to help students, staff, and family members cope with feelings of fear, trauma, and stress brought on by emergencies.
Psychosocial Issues for Children and Adolescents in Disasters
This booklet offers resources for those working with children in the wake of disaster. It discusses theories of child development as applied to a youth experiencing the fear, anxiety, and trauma of disaster and offers practical suggestions, case studies, and a resource guide.
PTSD, Trauma, and Comorbid Psychiatric Disorders in Detained Youth
Developed by the Department of Justice as part of the ongoing Beyond Detention series, this bulletin analyzes data from the Northwestern Juvenile project, a longitudinal study of youth detained at the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center in Chicago. The prevalence of trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) seen among the juveniles studied is discussed, as well as the tendency for PTSD and other psychiatric disorders to co-occur in this population.
The role of the Office of Public and Indian Housing is to ensure safe, decent, and affordable housing; create opportunities for residents' self-sufficiency and economic independence; and assure fiscal integrity by all program participants.
Public High School Graduates and Dropouts From School Years 2010-2011 and 2011-2012
This report from the Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics provides information about four-year, on-time graduation rates and dropout rates for school years 2010-2011 and 2011-2012.The data reflect a national four-year cohort graduation rate of 79 percent for school year 2010-2011 and 80 percent for school year 2011-2012, representing the first time that nearly four out of five students receive a regular high school diploma within four years of starting ninth grade.
Public School Graduates and Dropouts from the Common Core of Data: School Year 2009–10
This report reveals that high school graduation rates are at their highest level since 1974. The report states that during the 2009-10 school year, 78.2 percent of high school students nationwide graduated on time, an increase from the 73.4 percent recorded in 2005-6.
Public/Private Ventures' Evaluation of Faith-Based Programs
This factsheet reports the initial findings of a demonstration project to observe faith-based organizations providing services to at-risk youth. The project hopes to foster better connections between these organizations and other institutions.
Putting the Pieces Together: Guidebook for Fact-based Decision Making to Improve Outcomes for Children and Families
This publication from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services’ Technical Assistance Partnership for Child and Family Mental Health, “Putting the Pieces Together: Guidebook for Fact-based Decision Making to Improve Outcomes for Children and Families,” provides important basics that will help staff who are new to using data to more effectively identify, use, evaluate, and monitor practices, services, and outcomes for children, youth, and families.
Q&A: Alicia Wilson-Ahlstrom on Choosing the Right Outcome-Measurement Tool
The National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth spoke with Alicia Wilson-Ahlstrom, a lead author of the report, From Soft Skills to Hard Data, to learn more about how to choose the right outcome-measurement tool for a youth program.
Q&A: Amy Lin of Young Invincibles on Helping Young People Find Health Insurance
This interview features Amy Lin of the health advocacy group Young Invincibles discussing her organization’s work to encourage young people to sign up for health insurance through the Health Insurance Marketplace. Amy also discusses the challenges that young people, including those who are homeless or teen parents, face in accessing healthcare and how youth-serving professionals can help them overcome these obstacles.
The Department of Health and Human Services’ National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth features a Q&A with the executive director of a youth-serving group in which he discusses steps organizations can take to develop good relationships in the community.
Q&A: Helping Families Protect Themselves From Recurring Trauma
Produced by the National Clearinghouse on Families & Youth, this interview with Laurel Kiser, of the University of Maryland’s Family-Informed Trauma Treatment Center, discusses the potential negative effects of anticipatory stress and highlights Strengthening Family Coping Resources, a multi-week program that Kiser and her colleagues facilitate that helps families deal with recurring stre
The Department of Health and Human Services’ National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth has published a Q&A on its website about how youth workers can help young people who have come to the United States illegally, are without a guardian, and may have found themselves in immigration court.
Q&A: Meeting the Needs of Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Youth
The National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth published this Q&A with Shannon Minter, legal director at the National Center for Lesbian Rights, featuring tips for working specifically with transgender and gender non-conforming youth.
In this interview with NCFY, Robin Petering a researcher at the University of Southern California School of Social work discusses the reasons some homeless youth become involved in gangs, addressing young people
Q&A: The CDC Takes a Comprehensive Approach to Teen Dating Violence Prevention
The CDC is leading an initiative to test Dating Matters, a teen dating violence prevention program that includes evidence-based and evidence-informed curricula and training for middle school students, their parents, teachers, and others. This Q&A with Andra Tharp, the CDC health scientist who leads the initiative, explains what she and her colleagues hope to achieve with this project.
Q&A: The CDC Takes a Comprehensive Approach to Teen Dating Violence Prevention
The CDC is leading an initiative to test Dating Matters, a teen dating violence prevention program that includes evidence-based and evidence-informed curricula and training for middle school students, their parents, teachers, and others. This Q&A with Andra Tharp, the CDC health scientist who leads the initiative, explains what she and her colleagues hope to achieve with this project.
Quick Health Data Online provides reliable, easily accessible state- and county-level health data for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories and possessions. Data are available by gender, race, and ethnicity and are organized into 11 main categories, including demographics, mortality, natality, reproductive health, and mental health.
This funding stream supports educational success by adopting standards and assessments that prepare students to succeed in college and the workplace and to compete in the global economy; building data systems that measure student growth and success, and inform teachers and principals about how they can improve instruction; recruiting, developing, rewarding, and retaining effective teachers and principals, especially where they are needed most; and turning around our lowest-achieving schools.
Rape and Sexual Assault Among College-Age Females, 1995 - 2013
This report compares the characteristics of rape and sexual assault victimization of 18-24 year old females enrolled and not enrolled in college. The report examines the relationship of victim and offender, involvement of a weapon, location of victimization, reporting to the police, perceived offender characteristics, and victim demographics.
Ready for Anything: A Disaster Planning Manual for Runaway and Homeless Youth Programs
This manual from the Administration for Children, Youth and Families, Family and Youth Services Bureau, guides youth-serving organizations in creating an emergency preparedness plan and explains the three areas of disaster planning: prevention and preparedness, response, and recovery. It includes worksheets and checklists that can help organizations prepare for disasters before they happen.
The Ready Campaign of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, educating and empowering Americans to prepare for emergencies.
URL:http://www.ready.gov Departments: Department of Homeland Security Agencies/Offices: Federal Emergency Management Agency
Ready.gov Family Plan
This tool from FEMA, provides information, things to consider, and an example plan that families can use in preparing for disasters. In addition to developing a plan, it is important to discuss the plan with all members of the family including youth, and to practice the plan to see if there are any issues.
Recap: Blogging Challenge to End Youth Homelessness
In November, NCFY asked readers to use their blogs to spread awareness of youth homelessness. Read some of the highlights from these posts on topics like adapting programs, meeting the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth, and educating community decision-makers.
Receipt of Reproductive Health Services Among Sexually Experienced Persons Aged 15–19 Years — National Survey of Family Growth, United States, 2006–2010
This report from the CDC analyzes 2006-2010 data from the National Survey of Family Growth to estimate the proportion of sexually experienced young people, ages 15-19, who received reproductive services during the past year.
A new report, based on findings from SAMHSA’s 2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, reveals a downward trend in inhalant use among adolescents. The data show that the number of adolescents, ages 12–17, who used inhalants decreased from 820,000 in 2011 to approximately 650,000 in 2012.
Recognizing When a Child’s Injury or Illness Is Caused by Abuse
This guide can help first-responders and investigators distinguish between types of injuries and differentiate between injuries that result from child abuse (PDF, 28 pages) and those that are accidental.
Recommended Actions to Improve the Health and Well-Being of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Communities
This statement by the Secretary of the HHS addresses the work HHS has engaged in and future recommended actions to address and improve the health and well-being of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities.
Recording Now Available: Performance Partnership Pilots (P3) Bidders Conference
In this webinar, representatives from federal agencies discuss application requirements and selection criteria pertaining to the Notice Inviting Applications on Performance Pa
URL:http://www.workforce3one.org/command/view.aspx Departments: Department of Education, Departments: Department of Health and Human Services, Departments: Department of Labor Agencies/Offices: Corporation for National and Community Service, Agencies/Offices: Institute of Museum and Library Services
Recovery and Employment Assistance Lifelines (REALifelines) Advisor
The REALifelines Advisor provides veterans and transitioning service members wounded and injured as a result of the War on Terrorism, and their family members, with the resources they need to successfully transition to a rewarding career.
Children react differently to a flood and its aftermath depending on their age, developmental level, and prior experiences. Some will respond by withdrawing, while others will have angry outbursts. Still others will become agitated or irritable. Parents should attempt to remain sensitive to each child's reactions.
After a hurricane most families can be expected to recover over time, particularly with the support of family, friends, and organizations. The length of recovery will depend upon how frightening the hurricane was, if evacuation from home was necessary, and the extent of the damage and loss. Children's functioning will be influenced by how their parents and other caregivers cope during and after the hurricane. This webpage from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network provides information about recovering from a hurricane.
Approximately nine in 10 children, ages 6-18 eat too much sodium daily. One in six children has raised blood pressure, an issue that can be improved by eating a healthy diet low in sodium. Tips for parents on improving the health of children include modeling healthy eating and buying the lowest sodium food options at the grocery store.
The Department of Justice’s Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center offers free, web-based, foundational distance learning opportunities that present best practices and strategies for reducing underage drinking. Participants can receive a certificate upon completion.
Reducing Underage Students’ Alcohol Use: A Success Story for Clemson
As profiled by the Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center, which is supported by the Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Clemson University successfully improved its alcohol policies, increased availability of alcohol-free events, and worked with community partners to reduce the frequency of underage student alcohol use.
Developed by the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN), the new web-based Refugee Services Toolkit is designed to help service providers identify the mental health needs of refugee children and their families and connect them with the most appropriate interventions.
Departments: Department of Health and Human Services
Registered Apprenticeship provides young workers with structured, on-the-job training in industries like construction, manufacturing, health care, information technology, energy, telecommunications, and more. Read success stories of people who have participated with Registered Apprenticeship and learn how it could benefit you.
The Departments of Education and Labor have launched a new Registered Apprenticeship–College Consortium which will enable graduates of Registered Apprenticeship programs to earn college credit for their Registered Apprenticeship experience and accelerate attainment of an associate or bachelor degree.
This fact sheet provides general information to help determine whether interns must be paid the minimum wage and overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act for the services that they provide to “for-profit” private sector employers.
The Department of Labor's Reintegration of Ex-Offenders (RExO) Program targets court-involved youth, young adults, and adult ex-offenders through a variety of discretionary grant awards. Organizations partner with juvenile and adult justice systems to assist in providing employment and training to this population of individuals who may find it difficult to obtain employment or training without additional assistance. Projects support a comprehensive strategy for serving youth in a local area to which many are returning from juvenile correctional or detention facilities.
Report of the Attorney General's National Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence
The National Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence published a final report which includes 56 recommendations underscoring the importance of identifying children who are victims of, or witnesses to, violence, and providing services to help them heal.
This report fromt he Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that the employment status of young adults varies by education, illustrated by the finding that, at age 25, people with more education were more likely to be employed than their peers with less education.
Report to Congress on the Prevention and Reduction of Underage Drinking 2013
This report, developed by the Department of Health and Human Services's Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, provides an overview of the underage drinking problem in the United States, as well as an overview of the federal government’s response. Also included is information on 25 state underage drinking policies and laws, enforcement activities related to these policies, prevention programs, and state expenditures.
Report to Congress on the Runaway and Homeless Youth Programs
This report to Congress documents the activities and accomplishments for fiscal years 2012 and 2013 of three programs authorized by the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act. The three programs are the Basic Center, Transitional Living, and Street Outreach. The report also describes the related network of support — including the National Communications System; the monitoring system; and other coordinating, training, and research activities.
Report to Congress on the Runaway and Homeless Youth Programs, Fiscal Years 2010-2011
This report, developed by the Department of Health and Human Services, Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB), summarizes FYSB efforts to combat youth homelessness, as well as data about the young people served by the agency’s programs and the services they received.
Rescue & Restore Victims of Human Trafficking campaign
The intent of the Rescue & Restore campaign is to increase the identification of trafficking victims in the United States and to help those victims receive the benefits and services they need to restore their lives. You can help spread the word about the campaign by using their toolkit and promoting the campaign with posters and brochures available on the site.
Research and Training Center on Family Support and Children's Mental Health
The Center is dedicated to promoting the community integration and well-being of children, youth, and families who are affected by mental health difficulties.
URL:http://www.rtc.pdx.edu/ Departments: Department of Education Agencies/Offices: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Research Roundup: What Leads Homeless Youth to Have Run-ins With the Law?
This article from the National Clearinghouse on Families & Youth highlights three studies that identify possible risk factors for criminal justice involvement among runaway and homeless youth, including substance use, length of time living on the streets, and childhood trauma history.
Responding to Transgender Victims of Sexual Assault
This online guide from DOJ's Office for Victims of Crime offers victim service providers, first responders, and health care providers tools to promote the understanding of, support for, and responses to transgender victims of sexual assault.
Results from the 2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) H-47: Mental Health Findings
This report, using data from the 2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, provides national estimates of the prevalence of past year mental disorders and mental health service utilization among the United States population aged 12 years and older.
Results From the 2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Summary of National Findings and Detailed Tables
This report and the accompanying detailed tables, published by the Department of Health and Human Services, provides estimates of measures related to the use of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco, including rates of use and number of users.
Results From the 2014 Monitoring the Future Survey
The annual Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey measures the current drug use by and attitudes toward drugs of students in grades 8, 10, and 12. Results show that use of cigarettes and alcohol and abuse of prescription pain relievers among teens has declined since 2013, but rates of marijuana use were stable.
Right on the Money: Lessons in Social Media Fundraising
The Department of Health and Human Services' National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth website outlines the “three big lessons” about social media fundraising and how these lessons can help youth-serving nonprofits as they try to raise money.
This strategic planning tool developed by the OJJDP helps communities assess the severity of their gang problems and plan their responses. The tools provided include: a community resource inventory to record community assets such as programs and services; planning and implementation questions to help assess what prevention and intervention programs match with their needs; descriptions of risk factors categorized by age and domain (individual, family, etc.); and a program matrix that lists appropriate programs and their descriptions.
A new video, “Robbing the Future,” explores the various ways the tobacco industry targets young people, as well as the growing popularity of products like e-cigarettes and the dangers associated with their use.
The Rural Education Resource Center is designed to disseminate information regarding research and practice to stakeholders on a wide range of topics of particular importance to schools and communities in rural America and to bring renewed attention to the problems and issues of students in rural schools.
The SS/HS Initiative is a unique Federal grant-making program designed to prevent violence and substance abuse among our nation's youth, School, and communities.
URL:http://www.sshs.samhsa.gov Departments: Department of Health and Human Services Agencies/Offices: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Safeguarding Children of Arrested Parents: Trauma Prevention Policy
The Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP), in partnership with the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) created a policy, Safeguarding Children of Arrested Parents. The policy, which reflects input from subject-matter experts and stakeholders, provides strategies for law enforcement to improve their procedures for interactions with children when a parent is arrested.
NHTSA has developed SaferRide, a new app that helps prevent drunk drivers from getting behind the wheel by allowing users to call a taxi or a pre-programmed friend instead. The app’s simple interface, and the fact that it pinpoints the user’s location, make it easy to use to get home safely.
CPSC has long been concerned about hazards in the home, especially as they affect young children. Because similar hazards may be present in organized child care settings, CPSC staff conducted a national study of potential dangers in these settings to identify how to help prevent injuries and ensure greater safety for children.
SAMHSA Behavioral Health Disaster Response Mobile App
The Behavioral Health Disaster Response Mobile App provides behavioral health professionals with evidence-based mental health and substance use information, tools, and resources that can be used to aid disaster survivors. First responders can use the app to find treatment facilities and information about hotlines and critical contacts, access resources including information on psychological first aid, and share information easily with colleagues and survivors.
SAMHSA Helps Communities Across the Nation Enhance Behavioral Health Care Capacity
SAMHSA and the USDA are partnering with universities, schools, and communities to build local capacity to gather and share behavioral health information. The result of this partnership, the Community Early Warning and Monitoring System, will upgrade systems of tracking behavioral health trends and enhance systems for responding to acute needs, such as those related to emergencies.
SAMHSA's Concept of Trauma and Guidance for a Trauma-Informed Approach
This paper introduces SAMHSA’s concept of trauma and offers a framework for how an organization, system, or service sector can become trauma informed by integrating the perspectives of researchers, practitioners, and people with experience of trauma.
SAMHSA’s National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP)
NREPP is a voluntary rating and classification system for mental health and substance abuse prevention and treatment interventions - a system designed to categorize and disseminate information about programs and practices that meet established evidentiary criteria. NREPP began in 1998 as the National Registry of Effective Prevention Programs within the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP). Beginning in 2004, SAMHSA began expanding the NREPP to include reviews of interventions in other SAMHSA domains of substance abuse treatment, and mental health promotion and treatment.
URL:http://www.nrepp.samhsa.gov/ Departments: Department of Health and Human Services Agencies/Offices: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Saving Matters Video
Many workers don't realize how important it is to get an early start on saving for retirement. This Department of Labor Employee Benefits Security Administration video provides information for workers about the importance of saving for retirement and how to get started. The video also has links to additional online tools to help workers take full advantage of their employer-sponsored benefits.
Savings Fitness: A Guide to Your Money and Your Financial Future
This easy-to-understand publication starts you on the way to setting goals and putting your retirement high on the list of personal priorities. This booklet will help clarify your retirement goals and help you make saving for retirement and other goals a habit. You’ll learn that there is no such thing as starting too early or too late. Also available in Spanish.
SBA (Small Business Administration) Young Entrepreneurs
The US Small Business Administration (SBA) offers a wealth of knowledge and resources for young entrepreneurs that want to learn more about starting or growing their own business. Learn about business mentor programs, writing business plans, finding funding for your firm, and networking with other entrepreneurs
This is a comprehensive site offering resources, publications, research findings, best practices, and guidance on policy design and development. The site is designed to meet the needs of a range of audiences, from students and parents interested in learning more about program goals to educators and administrators involved in program management. Random student drug testing is an effective prevention tool for discouraging drug use among a very vulnerable population.
The Departments of Education and Justice created a guidance package to help schools, districts, and states understand the issue of discriminatory school discipline and the role they play in improving school climate and administering student discipline without discriminating on the basis of race, color, or national origin.
This newly released set of tables from the Census Bureau describes the characteristics of children and adults enrolled in school at all levels, by age, sex, race, Hispanic origin, nativity, and foreign-born parentage. A notable trend seen in the data is a drop in college enrollment (both undergraduate and graduate) by 467,000 students in fall 2012 from one year earlier.
Habits and practices related to health and safety are influenced by the entire school environment. Schools can use this self-assessment and planning tool to improve their health and safety policies and programs. The SHI has eight different modules including School Health and Safety Policies and Environment; Counseling, Psychological, and Social Services; and Family and Community Involvement.
School Health Policies and Practices Study (SHPPS) 2012
SHPPS is a national study, conducted periodically, that analyzes school health policies and practices by assessing the characteristics of eight components of school health, including health education, health services, mental health and social services, and nutrition services. The 2012 study collected data at the state and district levels. An accompanying infographic features some of the highlights of the study (PDF, 1 page).
The School Turnaround Learning Community (STLC) is a key element in the U.S. Department of Education’s effort to provide support to state, district, and school leaders working to turn around the nation’s lowest-achieving schools. The site offers resources, training, and discussion tools enabling users to share school turnaround practices and lessons learned and facilitate networking to support schools more effectively.
School Violence: Echoes From the Digital Playgrounds
Developed by the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance, the purpose of this publication is to educate school administrators, school resource officers, and law enforcement personnel about the relationship between online communities, such as video games and virtual worlds, and violent behavior and to provide strategies that can be used to improve school safety.
School-Located Vaccination Planning Materials and Templates
These documents were designed to provide information for planning and conducting school-located 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccination clinics that target school-aged children enrolled in school and potentially other groups in the community. The page also includes a link to CDC's seasonal flu information.
Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS)
In 1990, the Secretary of Labor appointed a commission to determine the skills our young people need to succeed in the world of work. The commission's fundamental purpose was to encourage a high-performance economy characterized by high-skill, high-wage employment. Although the commission completed its work in 1992, its findings and recommendations continue to be a valuable source of information for individuals and organizations involved in education and workforce development.
The Seniorcorps Foster Grandparent website offers information on becoming a foster grand parent. As a foster grandparent, you're a role model and friend. Serving at one of thousands of local organizations, you help children learn to read, provide one-on-one tutoring, and guide children at a critical time in their lives.
Services Available to Victims of Human Trafficking: A Resource Guide for Social Service Providers
This publication from the Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Refugee Resettlement can help professionals learn how to connect victims of human trafficking to resources including food, shelter, clothing, medical care, legal assistance, and job training.
As part of a partnership called Pathways to Progress, CNCS and the Citi Foundation have created ServiceWorks, a program that will deploy 225 Americorps VISTA members in 10 cities to help build large-scale volunteer programs that address the crisis of low college and career attainment.
This letter to Chief State School Officers and State Attorneys General, issued by Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, highlights the importance of supporting youth in juvenile justice facilities. The letter also describes how federal funding can support improved services and indicates future work will involve clarifying the components of high-quality correctional education.
Sesame Workshop's newest initiative, Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration provides much-needed bilingual (English/Spanish) multimedia tools for families with young children (ages 3-8) who have an incarcerated parent. These FREE resources include a resource kit with A Guide for Parents and Caregivers, a Children's Storybook, and a new Sesame Street video; an Incarcerated Parent Tip Sheet; and the Sesame Street: Incarceration mobile app for smart phones and tablets.
The Healthy Homes program offers seven steps to having a healthy home, providing homeowners and rental property owners with practical information about how to prevent health and safety hazards. These steps include the importance of keeping your home pest- and contaminant-free, as well as dry, clean, well-ventilated and well-maintained.
URL:http://www.cybertipline.org Departments: Department of Justice Agencies/Offices: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
Sexually Transmitted Diseases Surveillance, 2011
This report by the Department of Health and Human Services and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention presents statistics and trends for sexually transmitted diseases in the United States through 2011.
This feature highlights the progress of, and opportunities for, women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) fields. Profiles of women at the CDC who pursued public health careers are featured, as well as their tips for girls and young women who are interested in STEM.
The Department of Health and Human Services wants teens to take control of their health by staying informed about the facts-especially when it comes to smoking. They also provide a texting service that helps teens quit through encouraging tips and resources.
SNAP: Clarification of Policies Barriers Facing Homeless Youth
This document clarifies eligibility requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to ensure that homeless youth, and other vulnerable populations, have access to the food they need.
This series of tip sheets is designed to help state and local education agencies expand online engagement. The first tip sheet focuses on innovative engagement, highlighting new and creative ways in which states are engaging with audiences.
Social Security Benefits For Children With Disabilities
This booklet is for the parents, caregivers or representatives of children younger than age 18 who have disabilities that might make them eligible for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments. It helps these individuals decide if their child is eligible.
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's (OJJDP's) Socioeconomic Mapping and Resource Topography (SMART) system is a free, Web-accessible application that communities can use to position local resources to help stop crime and delinquency.
Soft Skills to Pay the Bills: Mastering Soft Skills for Workplace Success
The Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy released this collection of career development exercises that aim to improve the "soft skills" of young workers, including those with disabilities.
This site provides technical assistance to state interagency collaborations working to promote successful transitions to adulthood for at-risk youth.
URL:http://www.syvsd.ou.edu/ Departments: Department of Health and Human Services Agencies/Offices: Administration for Children and Families
Some Kids Use Tobacco, E-Cigarettes Together, Study Finds
A new study indicates that American children and teens, 9-18 years old, who smoke may also use a variety of other nicotine delivery systems, including e-cigarettes, cigars, smokeless tobacco, hookahs, and pipes.
The Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention has released a Spanish translation of a publication for youth who were abducted as children and are working towards recovery.
Spanish Version: Tips for Talking With and Helping Children and Youth Cope After a Disaster or Traumatic Event: A Guide for Parents, Caregivers, and Teachers
This Spanish version of the guide educates parents and teachers about common reactions children and youth may have after experiencing a disaster or traumatic event and provides tips for responding in a helpful way.