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- Federal Resources
Federal Resources
You For Youth
This site helps youth professionals connect and share resources with colleagues, provide professional development and technical assistance opportunities, and offer tools for program improvement. The site provides information focused on afterschool programs.
Weather Alerts
Regular updates and alerts from the National Weather Service.
Webcast Archive: Make the Connection: How Positive Youth Development Offers Promise for Teen Health and Teen Pregnancy Prevention
The archive of this OAH webcast, which highlighted the role of positive youth development in the prevention of teen pregnancy and other risky behaviors, is now available for viewing. A resource list (PDF, 4 pages) of suggested readings from the webcast speakers is also available, as well as the archived #TeenPYD Twitter conversation.
Positive Youth Development
This webpage provides a definition of positive youth development, information on the eight key practices organizations can consider when implementing the approach, and resources communities or programs can use to incorporate positive youth development into their work.
Promise Neighborhoods
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.
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. It includes information on the collection and use of sexual orientation and gender identity data, needs and capacities among LGBTQ runaway and homeless youth, approaches to serving this population, and gaps in research and services for practitioners and policymakers to consider.
Choice Neighborhoods
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. In addition to public housing authorities, the initiative will involve local governments, non-profits, and for-profit developers in undertaking comprehensive local planning with residents and the community.
Neighborhood Networks
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. Nearly all centers offer job training and educational opportunities, and many also provide programs that include access to healthcare information and microenterprise development.
SCOTUS Decision Supports LGBT Behavioral Health
This blog post by SAMHSA Administrator Pamela Hyde describes the importance of the Supreme Court’s historic ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which states that the Constitution requires LGBT couples be allowed to marry no matter where they live, and marriages performed in one state must be recognized in every state. The post also highlights other steps the federal government has taken this year to improve the health and well-being of LGBT people.
Report: Ending Conversion Therapy: Supporting and Affirming LGBTQ Youth
This report presents research, clinical expertise, and expert consensus on therapeutic practices related to children's and adolescent's sexual orientation and gender identity, and makes the case for eliminating the use of conversion therapy among this population.
Resource: LGBTQ Youth: Voices of Trauma, Lives of Promise
This video features the voices of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth describing their experiences with trauma related to their identities and how mental health professionals have helped them.
Resource: Top 10 Tips for Engaging with Young People
This guide (PDF, 4 pages) advises service providers and others how to engage successfully with youth, using specific examples to illustrate effective (and ineffective) communication.
Resource: SAMHSA’S Youth Engagement Guidance
This resource includes information and tools that can help federal staff and contractors appropriately engage youth before, during, and after government-sponsored events and meetings.
Resource: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's Youth Engagement Guidance
This resource guides administrators and prevention professionals on how to appropriately engage youth in government-sponsored events and meetings. Includes resources regarding a youth services approach, youth development, youth leadership, civic engagement, and youth organizing.
Resource: Understanding and Addressing Trauma and Child Sex Trafficking
This policy brief (PDF, 4 pages), developed by The National Child Traumatic Stress Network, describes child sex trafficking, including what it is, who is at risk, the potential consequences, and what can be done to address it. Policymakers and other stakeholders can use this resource to better understand child sex trafficking and its relationship to child trauma, and to develop policy-relevant and child- trauma-focused recommendations to assist with developing responses.