Federal Resources

MilitaryKidsConnect.org, a Department of Defense-sponsored website, features content for children, tweens, and teens of military families. The site provides an online community that allows these young people to support one another while learning coping and resilience-building skills

This clearinghouse helps providers identify, select, and implement evidence-based programs and practices to address wide-ranging family and mental health issues. The searchable database includes effective and promising intervention programs as well as resources and strategies to ensure the welfare of military families. 

This website provides resources and information related to HUD programs, including newly added partnership-building resources for communities in their efforts to end youth homelessness. This blog post from the National Clearinghouse on Families & Youth highlights some of the resources that are useful for advocates and service providers. 

This guidebook series helps Continuum of Care stakeholders and practitioners engage partners in efforts to prevent and end youth homelessness. The series includes three guidebooks, including System Planning, Mainstream System Collaboration, and Promising Program Models.

This report (PDF, 98 pages) provides point-in time estimates of both sheltered and unsheltered homelessness on a single night, as well as estimates of the number of people experiencing homelessness within particular populations and demographics. The report shows that 549,928 people experienced homelessness on a single night in 2016, a decline of 14% since 2010.

This annual report (PDF, 96 pages) provides a snapshot of homelessness, both sheltered and unsheltered, on a single night in late January in the U.S., including estimates for particular populations such as youth. The data show 35,686 unaccompanied homeless youth were counted. Eighty nine percent were between the ages of 18 and 24, and 11% were under the age of 18. There were 9,800 parenting young adults between 18 and 24 years of age, and 92 parents under the age of 18. 

This resource provides specific criteria and benchmarks for ending unaccompanied youth homelessness. Communities can use this resource to reduce the number of unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness and build lasting solutions to respond to future needs. 

These resources provide information and tools on topics related to ending youth homelessness:

1. Coordinated Entry for Youth Brief — Provides an overview of the four core elements of coordinated entry for youth: access, assessment, prioritization, and referral.
2. Engaging Youth in Decision Making — Provides guidance on how to engage youth in project development and governance.
3. Using a Housing First Philosophy When Serving Youth — Provides an overview of housing first philosophy and how it applies to youth-serving projects.
4. Rapid Re-Housing for Youth — Provides a suite of tools and products on rapid re-housing for youth, including a Jump Start Tool, set of frequently asked questions, and a checklist.

The Board on Children, Youth, and Families (BCYF) addresses a variety of policy-relevant issues related to the health and development of children, youth, and families. It does so by convening experts to weigh in on matters from the perspective of the behavioral, social, and health sciences.

Mental health and substance use disorders among children, youth, and young adults are major threats to the health and well-being of younger populations which often carryover into adulthood. The costs of treatment for mental health and addictive disorders, which create an enormous burden on the affected individuals, their families, and society, have stimulated increasing interest in prevention practices that can impede the onset or reduce the severity of the disorders. Prevention practices have emerged in a variety of settings, including programs for selected at-risk populations (such as children and youth in the child welfare system), school-based interventions, interventions in primary care settings, and community services designed to address a broad array of mental health needs and populations. Preventing Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Disorders Among Young People updates a 1994 Institute of Medicine book, Reducing Risks for Mental Disorders, focusing special attention on the research base and program experience with younger populations that have emerged since that time.

The Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics produces this publication annually on the well being of children and families across the U.S.