Breadcrumb
- Federal Resources
Federal Resources
Bureau of Justice Assistance Training and Technical Assistance
This resource provides technical assistance to practitioners in state, local, and tribal justice systems.
Gang Resistance and Education Program
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.
Resource: Leveraging the Every Student Succeeds Act to Improve Educational Services in Juvenile Justice Facilities
This policy brief (PDF, 12 pages), developed by the American Youth Policy Forum, the National Reentry Resource Center, and the Council of State Governments Justice Center, provides information to state and local policymakers as well as education and juvenile justice leaders about how to use requirements under the Every Student Succeeds Act to improve education and workforce outcomes for youth in long-term juvenile justice facilities.
Share with Youth: A Roadmap to Behavioral Health: A Guide to Using Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Services
This guide (PDF, 24 pages) can help people understand how to use health insurance coverage to improve their mental and physical health. It provides an eight step road map for understanding behavioral health, finding and accessing appropriate providers, and staying on the road to recovery.
'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 trafficking in New York.
Bought and Sold: Helping Young People Escape from Commercial Sexual Exploitation
This booklet provides youth workers with an overview of the issue of human trafficking as well as concrete information about how to help survivors. Information about populations of youth that may be more at risk for trafficking, signs of sexual exploitation, tips for providing appropriate supports and services to survivors, and suggestions for when to involve the victim’s family and the police are included.
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. The article recommends that youth workers have the knowledge to recognize the signs of trafficking, go appropriately off-script in their interactions with youth if they suspect trafficking is taking place, and maintain a non-judgmental stance when speaking with youth to build trust.
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.
Don't Call Them Dropouts
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.
Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB)
FYSB supports the organizations and communities that work every day to reduce the risk of youth homelessness, adolescent pregnancy and domestic violence. Learn more about FYSB programs.
Most At Risk: Population-Based Approaches for Helping Trafficking Victims
This set of articles explores youth populations who are most prone to trafficking and what youth and family workers can do to help them recover from that trauma.
Mental Health: The First Step to Well Being
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.
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.
Preparing Staff to Work with Trafficked Youth
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 of human trafficking. A slideshow developed for service professionals provides an overview of the issue of human trafficking, associated myths, and challenges to victim identification and offers suggestions for raising awareness of human trafficking in local communities, reaching out to potential victims, and assessing and working with survivors. A downloadable assessment form is also available for youth-serving professionals to use to assess potential victims of human trafficking.
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 stressors.
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.
Trauma and the Teen Brain
The National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth conducted an interview that educates readers about the effect that trauma can have on teen brain development. Research suggests that the brains of teens who experience homelessness or abuse can develop differently than the brains of their peers who grow up in safe and supportive homes.
Understanding and Supporting Trafficking Victims
Highlighted by the National Clearinghouse on Families & Youth, this cheat sheet from the Polaris Project, an organization that works to combat sex trafficking and labor trafficking, provides youth-serving professionals with a brief overview of the issue of human trafficking, as well as related laws, statistics, and common myths and misconceptions.
Web Forum Shares Tips on Providing Services to Young Victims of Human Trafficking
This article provides highlights from the web forum, Providing Services to Runaway Youth and Victims of Human Trafficking, which was cosponsored by the Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime and its Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Tips and takeaways from the forum include collecting data from trafficked youth to support future applications for funding, understanding that trafficked youth may not see themselves as victims, and promoting a victim-centered approach, versus seeing victims of human trafficking as criminals.
Voices from the Field: Why People Take Risks
This podcast features Dr. Carl Lejuez of the University of Maryland discussing his research on risk taking and the implications of his findings for traumatized youth.
What Promotes Resilience Among Alaska Native Youth?
This article describes the findings of a recent study that looked at the everyday struggles of Alaska Native teens and how they have dealt with these challenges. The authors of the study found that the means through which Alaska Native youth found strength during difficult times, such as helping their families and giving back to their communities, reflect unique cultural values and provide insight into how providers can promote health among this population.
Improving Attachment Between Mothers and Children
This article describes a recent study on whether new mothers dealing with past trauma would be able to develop an attachment to their babies. If the mothers could develop an attachment, the study examined if addressing the mother’s issue would help with bonding. The results show that all the mothers in the study who were dealing with past trauma had trouble bonding with others and over 75% of the mothers with unresolved trauma had insecurely attached infants. The researchers found that being in the process of dealing with past trauma can help mothers form secure bonds with their children, despite the mothers themselves having difficulty attaching to others around them.
5 Tips for Providing Trauma-Informed Sex Education
This article highlights the work of two researchers who are pioneering changes in sex education that bridge the gap between sex education and trauma-informed care by better understanding how sex education could be more sensitive to students’ traumatic experiences. This article also offers tips, based on this research, for implementing a trauma informed approach to sex education.
Report: New Partners in the Fight Against Trafficking
This report examines multiple youth programs that are working to prevent human trafficking and support survivors. It also provides guidance for providers who are working with young human trafficking survivors who have recently exited abuse.
Slideshow: 5 Collaborations to Ensure Trauma-Informed Care for Youth and Families
This slideshow highlights five types of professionals that runaway and homeless youth program managers can collaborate with to support youth who have experienced trauma.