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- Federal Resources
Federal Resources
Children's Bureau
The Children's Bureau (CB) is one of two bureaus within the Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Administration for Children and Families, of the Department of Health and Human Services. The Children's Bureau seeks to improve the safety, permanency and well-being of children through leadership, support for necessary services, and productive partnerships with states, tribes, and communities. It has the primary responsibility for administering federal programs that support state child welfare services.
Upcoming Event: November is National Adoption Month
This observance aims to increase national awareness of the need for permanent families for children and youth in the foster care system. This year’s theme, “We Never Outgrow the Need for Family—Just Ask Us,” reflects a focus on the importance of identifying permanent families for the thousands of 15- to 18-year-olds in foster care who are currently less likely to be adopted or who may age out of the system without a stable home. A new tip sheet, Talking with Older Youth About Adoption (PDF, 2 pages) provides child welfare professionals with a framework for how to talk with older youth about permanency and includes suggestions for how to make these conversations more effective.
Report: Child Maltreatment 2015
This report from the Child Welfare Information Gateway provides state-level data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System on reports of abuse and neglect made to child protective services (CPS) agencies, the children involved, types of maltreatment, CPS responses, child and caregiver risk factors, services, and perpetrators.
Resource: Engaging Youth in Foster Care
This podcast shares the perspective of a youth formerly in foster care. It provides tips to caseworkers for engaging youth in developing their case plans and identifying supportive adults in their lives. This resource can help caseworkers as they work with youth who are in foster care or preparing to transition to adulthood.
Share with Youth: Being an Engaged and Involved Teen in Foster Care
This webpage provides information to teens in foster care about their permanency options, tools to help them transition to adulthood, and how to find support from other teens who have been in foster care.
Supporting Families Impacted by Incarceration — A Dialogue with Experts
This report, developed by the National Child Abuse and Neglect Technical Assistance and Strategic Dissemination Center, is the outcome of a meeting that convened national child welfare experts on families impacted by incarceration. It features key issues around this topic for practitioners and identifies needed resources and tools to support the workforce and families, along with a practical framework of intervention points from arrest to release.
John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood
The John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood (the Chafee program) provides funding to support youth/ young adults in or formerly in foster care in their transition to adulthood. The program is funded through formula grants awarded to child welfare agencies in States (including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands) and participating Tribes. Chafee funds are used to assist youth/ young adults in a wide variety of areas designed to support a successful transition to adulthood. Activities and programs include, but are not limited to, help with education, employment, financial management, housing, emotional support and assured connections to caring adults. Specific services and supports are determined by the child welfare agency, vary by State, locality and agency, and are often based on the individual needs of the young person. Many State or local agencies contract with private organizations to deliver services to young people.
Resource: Healthy Native Youth
This website provides culturally-relevant health curricula for Native youth. Tribal health educators, teachers, and parents can use this website to access training and tools for delivering effective, age-appropriate programs. This website was produced collaboratively by the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board, the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, Inc., and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
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.
IACP Launches No-Cost Online Training on Child Trafficking
The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), in collaboration with COPS and the FBI’s Violent Crimes Against Children Section, released “Child Sex Trafficking: A Training Series for Frontline Officers.” This free, self-paced online course will educate frontline officers on how to recognize and respond to victims of child sex trafficking.
Resource: Focused Deterrence of High-Risk Individuals: Response Guide No. 13
This guide, developed by the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing, describes the concept of focused deterrence initiatives (FDI), administering and leading an FDI, and applying focused deterrence to specific crime problems. Police and police departments can use this guide to design and implement local FDIs.
Share with Youth: FAFSA: Determining Your Dependency Status
Before students are ready to complete the FAFSA, they need to determine whether they will be under an independent or dependent status. This video describes how dependent applicants may need to include parental financial information.
Share with Youth: StudentLoans.gov/Repay
This website helps student find the loan repayment option that is best for them. By answering no more than five questions, the site helps borrowers identify repayment options, the materials needed, and the steps to register.
Above the Influence
This is the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign's site for teens. The site allows teens to examine the negative influences in their lives and how to rise above them. It offers extensive drug information in a fun, exploratory way
Drug Free Communities Support Program
The Drug-Free Communities Support Program is led by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). This anti-drug program provides grants of up to $100,000 to community coalitions that mobilize their communities to prevent youth alcohol, tobacco, illicit drug, and inhalant abuse. The grants support coalitions of youth; parents; media; law enforcement; school officials; faith-based organizations; fraternal organizations; State, local, and tribal government agencies; healthcare professionals; and other community representatives. The Drug-Free Communities Support Program enables the coalitions to strengthen their coordination and prevention efforts, encourage citizen participation in substance abuse reduction efforts, and disseminate information about effective programs.
Evidence-based Principles for Substance Abuse Prevention
This website presents a set of research-based principles upon which prevention programming can be based, as developed by ONDCP.
Methamphetamine Resources
The Federal government's central Web site for information and resources related to methamphetamine. The site was developed to assist policy makers, law enforcement, educators, health care professionals, and others who are working to reduce meth production, trafficking, and abuse. The site features a listserv to promote information sharing and interactive communication with professionals across the Nation.
Springtime: A Good Time to Think About Our Kids and Steroids
This blog post was written by Don Hooten, president of the Taylor Hooton Foundation, an advocacy group that raises awareness about the dangers of young people’s use of appearance- and performance-enhancing drugs (APED). It describes the prevalence and perception of APED use among youth and shares the story of Hooten’s son Taylor, who died after using anabolic steroids.
A Circle of Healing for Native Children Endangered by Drugs
“A Circle of Healing for Native Children Endangered by Drugs” is a seven-part video series that highlights best practices for meeting the needs of drug-endangered youth in tribal communities. Produced in collaboration with tribal and federal partners, the videos feature testimonials and examples of cultural practices that tribal communities can use to help traumatized children who are healing from drug endangerment.
Multicultural Implications of Restorative Justice: Potential Pitfalls and Dangers
This document examines concerns practitioners of restorative justice must keep in mind when working with people from different cultures.
Office of Victims of Crime
The Office of Victims of Crime is committed to enhancing the nation’s capacity to assist crime victims and providing leadership in changing attitudes, policies, and practices to promote justice and healing for all victims of crime.
Office of Victims of Crime Initiatives
The Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime, provides legal assistance for victims of human trafficking and funds the Wrap-Around Victims Legal Assistance Network Demonstration Project and the Services for Trafficking Victims Grant Program to sustain services in communities.
Responding to Transgender Victims of Sexual Assault
This online guide from DOJ's Office for Victims of Crime offers victim service providers, first responders, and health care providers tools to promote the understanding of, support for, and responses to transgender victims of sexual assault.
Training and Technical Assistance Center - Victims of Crime
This resource provides technical assistance to victim service providers and allied professionals.
Victims, Judges, and Juvenile Court Reform Through Restorative Justice
This Bulletin discusses the expansion of the role of victims in juvenile courts through the increased use of Restorative Justice.