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.
Video: The Sobering Consequences of Underage Drinking
Supported by a grant from BJA, the Center for Public Safety Innovation and the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America released a video featuring a panel of experts discussing trends in underage drinking, consequences of underage drinking on adolescent health, and intervention and prevention strategies.
Resource: Drug Courts
This article (PDF, 2 pages) provides an overview of the varying types of drug courts. Criminal defendants and offenders, family members, criminal justice practitioners, and drug treatment professionals can use this information to understand the purpose and function of drug courts and to find related research and resources.
Resource: Mentoring as a Component of Reentry
This resource (PDF, 45 pages), developed by the National Reentry Resource Center, provides recommendations to help community-based organizations integrate adult mentoring into existing reentry programming. This resource can also help organizations build effective partnerships with correctional agencies, learn about promising practices in adult mentoring, such as peer mentoring, and increase effective data collection and evaluation through stronger collaboration between reentry programs and research partners.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Resource: Narrative Writing Exercises for Promoting Health Among Adolescents: Promises and Pitfalls
This resource describes a literature review that explores the potential mental health benefits and concerns of using narrative writing with youth and young adults.
Resource: Helping Youth Prevent Suicide Among Their LGBTQ Peers
This article highlights free resources educators and youth service providers can use to implement the Trevor Project’s Lifeguard Workshop, a program encouraging young people to be “lifeguards” for one another by having the knowledge to help in a crisis. Professionals can request a free, in-person workshop or use the resources highlighted in the article to create personalized trainings.
Resource: Integrating Medical and Mental Health Care for Teen Moms
This article describes the mental health challenges teen moms face and highlights a Denver-based program that integrates mental health screening and treatment into their existing medical care.
Parents, Lock Up Your Drugs
While children and teens are home on winter break, parents are encouraged to hide or secure their medications to avoid accidental ingestion or abuse.
Resource: Support for Families When a Suicide Attempt Hits Home
This resource provides information, tips, and useful links to families who have experienced a suicide attempt to assist in getting appropriate help and to foster resiliency.
Report: 2016 Monitoring the Future Survey
This webpage provides information on the 2016 Monitoring the Future Survey, an annual survey of drug use and attitudes among 8th, 10th, and 12th graders in the U.S. The results show a continued long-term decline in the use of many substances, including marijuana, alcohol, and tobacco, and the misuse of some prescription medications.
Report: Monitoring the Future 2017 Survey Results
This annual survey of eighth-, 10th-, and 12th-graders measures how teens in the U.S. report their drug and alcohol use and related attitudes. In 2017, 47,703 students from 360 public and private schools participated in the survey.
Problem-Oriented Guides for Police
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.
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.
Resource: Mental Health Needs of Youth
This webpage, developed by the National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability, provides multiple resources on the mental health needs of youth, especially as they relate to employment. Youth service practitioners can use this information to better understand the needs of youth, and policymakers can utilize it in their work to address system and policy obstacles and improve service delivery systems for youth with mental health needs.