Dept. of Health and Human Services

National Foster Care Month is a time to acknowledge the 463,000 American children and youth in foster care and the family members, foster parents, volunteers, mentors, child welfare professionals, and policymakers who help them find permanent homes and connections.

It’s not surprising that motor vehicle crashes continue to be the leading cause of death among our youth. Motorists need to realize that driving is a privilege, not a right, and it brings with it a tremendous responsibility to exercise good judgment. That includes the responsibility to stay alcohol- and drug-free, each and every time you get behind the wheel.

More than 55 million young people will return to school in the United States this fall. While schools remain relatively safe, any amount of violence is unacceptable. Students, parents, teachers, and administrators expect schools to be safe havens of learning. Acts of violence disrupt the learning process. Violence has a negative effect on students, the school itself, and even the broader community.

This paper responds to/recognizes the impact of trauma on behavioral health and beyond, and introduces the concept of trauma and offers a framework for how to become trauma-informed.

Teen dating violence is an often-unrecognized subcategory of domestic violence. Although there is research on rates of crime and victimization related to teen dating violence, research that examines the problem from a longitudinal perspective and considers the dynamics and perceptions of teen romantic relationships is lacking.

For the first time since the early 1990s, the overall rates of pregnancy and birth among teenagers and young women increased from 2005 to 2006 and continued to increase in 2007.

May is Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is doing a lot to raise awareness. In fact, a recent report of preliminary date released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that teen birth rates fell in all but three states during 2007–2010

Each September, thousands of prevention, treatment, and recovery programs and services around the country celebrate their successes and share them with their neighbors, friends, and colleagues in an effort to educate the public about recovery, how it works, for whom, and why.

In recent years, the federal government has made investments toward building a scientific evidence base of effective programs and models addressing teen pregnancy prevention. In addition, funding was made available to provide services to pregnant and parenting teens, who need strong support networks and a comprehensive array of resources to help them transition to parenthood and adulthood and improve their educational outcomes.

The Community Improvement Through Youth (CITY) Project uses Youth Community Action, a Cornell Cooperative Extension Signature Program, as a model for promoting civic engagement, workforce preparation, and asset development among youth (13-18 years old) in New York State’s Children, Youth and Families At Risk (CYFAR) Project. Using a broad-based community collaboration approach, the CITY Project is working in Broome County and New York City to empower at-risk youth to become community change agents.