Federal Resources

This resource (PDF, 8 pages) can guide youth- and young adult-led organizations that want to make policy changes in the mental health system. Developed bythe Research and Training Center for Pathways to Positive Futures and Portland State University, it contains recommendations and quotes from a series of interviews with young adult leaders from advocacy groups that focus on mental health challenges or living in foster care.

This resource (PDF, 8 pages), developed by Pathways Research and Training Center, introduces service providers to scientifically-informed findings about brain development and trauma specific to young adults, and describes the implications for trauma-informed interventions and trauma-informed engagement of young people in services. 

This policy guide, developed by Pathways RTC (Research and Training Center), is written for youth- and young adult-led groups and organizations that want to make changes in policies related to mental health and other human services that affect them and other transition-age youth. The guide is intended for use by youth and young adults working together within a group or organization to make specific change, usually in partnership with other agencies, groups, or organizations. 

CDC's overview topic page on adolescent health, including alcohol, tobacco, and substance use; adolescent injuries; and youth violence.

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.

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.

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. The site features specific information and resources focused on different types of disasters including bioterrorism, chemical emergencies, natural disasters, radiation emergencies, mass casualties, and others.

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 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 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.

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.

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.

CDC provides a range of social media tools to promote your teen pregnancy prevention efforts. This quick reference guide can be used as a companion to the CDC Social Media Toolkit for Health Communicators  [PDF- 3.76MB], and specifically highlights a number of social media tools with credible, science-based teen pregnancy prevention messages from the CDC. These free, easy-to-use communication tools can help expand the reach of your health messages and help increase public engagement.

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.

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.

This CDC website provides information on youth mental health, including information on school policies and programs to support youth mental health.

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.

CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health provides evaluation technical assistance to Funded Partners through a variety of evaluation resources and tools.

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.

As the Nation's principal health statistics agency, this site compiles statistical information to guide actions and policies to improve the health of our people.

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

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.

This Centers for Disease Control and Prevention created suicide prevention resources developed from federal and local partnerships. The site contains information about a national strategy for suicide prevention, data and trends, and youth-specific information. 

As part of the second CDC Health Disparities and Inequalities Report, this report provides current data on suicide in the United States by sex, race/ethnicity, age, and educational attainment and suggests ways to reduce the rates of suicide among groups that are disproportionately affected. 

The National Youth Risk Behavior Survey (NYRBS) monitors priority health risk behaviors that contribute to health and social problems among youth and young adults. This report shows trends, from the data gathered from NYRBS, in sexual behavior among youth and young adults from 1991 to 2009.