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- Federal Resources
Federal Resources
'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.
4 Ways to Help Homeless Students Overcome Barriers to Scholarship Funding
Having a GED instead of a high school diploma, difficulty getting parental permission, lack of a GPA, and incomplete transcripts can all be obstacles that homeless students can face when seeking scholarship funding. In this blog post, Cyekeia Lee, director of higher education initiatives at the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth, shares strategies for youth-serving professionals who are helping students navigate the scholarship application process.
All the Pointers You Need to Help Homeless Students Finish High School--And Go on to College
This article highlighs a series of tip sheets, developed by the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth, which is divided into five sections which each address a different aspect of attempting to help keep homeless youth in school, including information on McKinney-Vento Act’s Education for Homeless Children and Youth Program, easing homeless youths’ paths to college, and helping homeless youth access basic services
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.
Ending Youth Homelessness
This website developed by FYSB illustrates how the programs operated through the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act help to meet the needs of homeless youth and young adults and contribute to the goal of ending youth homelessness by 2020. It also provides information on the issue of youth homelessness and ways users can contribute to the efforts to end homelessness among youth.
Everything You Need to Know About Helping Homeless Youth Apply for Medicaid
In this article, Graham Bowman, an Equal Justice Works fellow at The Law Project of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, offers advice on encouraging and helping runaway and homeless youth to apply for Medicaid.
Evidence-Based Treatments for Homeless Youth
This article features a Q&A with professor and researcher Natasha Slesnick about the work she and her colleagues are doing to understand what evidence-based treatments might be effective in working with homeless youth.
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.
FYSB: New Video
Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) provides news and resources related to issues such as homelessness, adolescent pregnancy, and domestic violence. Watch FYSB's new video “The Family and Youth Services Bureau — Join Us” to learn more about FYSB work and programs.
Five Key Ways the Affordable Care Act Affects Young People
This blog post from the National Clearinghouse on Families & Youth links to multiple resources that can help youth-serving programs understand how the Affordable Care Act (ACA) affects youth, including homeless and runaway youth. The post also provides some of the highlights from a recent webinar that discussed what youth and youth workers need to know about the ACA.
Hotline Numbers Every Youth Should Have
The National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth (NCFY) published this short list of hotline numbers that every youth should have, especially youth dealing with homelessness.
Information Memorandum: Serving Youth Who Run Away From Foster Care
This Information Memorandum provides guidance on services for youth under age 18 who run away from foster care and come in contact with runaway and homeless youth programs.
Looking Ahead: Five Years to End Youth Homelessness
Four youth workers share what they plan to do in their communities over the next five years in order to meet the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness’s goal of ending youth homelessness by 2020.
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.
NCFY Voices: From Homelessness to National Spokesman
After the death of his mother when he was a teenager, Syncere started living on the streets. He then got involved with the Night Ministry, a Chicago youth program, went back to school, and now works for the organization. In this podcast from the FYSB event "Ending Youth Homelessness: A Call to Action,” Syncere shares his experiences and discusses his dream to open a 24-hour youth resource center.
NCFY Voices: Bringing Street Outreach Experience to DC's Point-in-Time Count
In this podcast, a street outreach worker in Washington, DC, discusses his experience joining 350 volunteers for the city’s annual count of people experiencing homelessness. He shares what outreach professionals who work with young people bring to this important event.
NCFY Voices: Up From Trauma
As part of FYSB's event "Ending Youth Homelessness: A Call to Action" in October 2014, multiple young people shared their personal stories and recommendations for serving youth more effectively. One of the speakers, Anthony Ross, who witnessed violence in his home as a child and ended up homeless as a teenager, shared his story of perseverance.
Piecing It All Together During National Runaway Prevention Month
This resource from the National Runaway Safeline provides ideas and resources for individuals, organizations, and communities that are planning activities related to National Runaway Prevention Month.
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.
Podcast: Youth Speak Out: Advocacy and Opportunity
This podcast from the Department of Health and Human Services’ National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth features Gina, a youth advocate for runaway and homeless youth issues, who has attended many statewide and national conferences. Gina shares her thoughts on what makes a successful youth advocate and how adults can support young people in becoming advocates.
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.
Primary Sources: Learning How Service Providers and Policy Makers Can Help LGBTQ Homeless Youth
This article provides information about a research review that aimed to determine directions for research, public policy, and practice related to serving homeless youth who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning. The article also includes potential implications of the research for policies and practices of youth-serving organizations. Researchers at Harvard Medical School conducted the research review.