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- Federal Resources
Federal Resources
Children in Foster Care with Parents in Federal Prison: A Toolkit for Child Welfare Agencies, Federal Prisons, and Residential Reentry Centers
Roughly 10% of incarcerated mothers in state prison have a child in a foster home or other state care. Some estimates indicate that as many as 1 in 8 children who are subjects of reports of maltreatment and investigated by child welfare agencies have parents who were recently arrested. Though there is clearly overlap between the prison system and the child welfare system, it is often difficult for prison officials to know how to help incarcerated parents stay in touch with their children in foster care and work towards reunification. Similarly, it is difficult for child welfare agencies to know how to engage parents in prison. The purpose of this toolkit is to help facilitate communication and cooperation between child welfare agencies and federal prisons so that parents can stay engaged in their children's lives.
Children of Incarcerated Parents – Fact Sheet
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 2007, an estimated 1.7 million children under the age of 18 had a parent in prison, an increase of almost 80 percent since 1991. The negative consequences for children with an incarcerated parent can be substantial, including financial instability, changes in family structure, shame, and social stigma. However, research also shows that supporting healthy and positive relationships between these vulnerable children, who are the innocent bystanders of adult decisions, and their families has the potential to mitigate negative outcomes.
An interagency group, that includes the Departments of Justice, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Education, and Agriculture as well as the Social Security Administration, has partnered with stakeholders both inside and outside of government to identify opportunities to support these children and their caregivers. This fact sheet describes the efforts of the interagency group.
Center for Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships
The Center works with HUD field and program offices to offer over 40 organizational capacity building workshops annually around the country. These one- and two-day trainings are designed for smaller grassroots non-profits seeking to strengthen their effectiveness by covering topics like organizational development, strategic planning, financial management, logic models, and the science of finding and applying for grants.
Choice Neighborhoods
The Choice Neighborhoods initiative will transform distressed neighborhoods and public and assisted projects into viable and sustainable mixed-income neighborhoods by linking housing improvements with appropriate services, schools, public assets, transportation, and access to jobs. A strong emphasis will be placed on local community planning for access to high-quality educational opportunities, including early childhood education. In addition to public housing authorities, the initiative will involve local governments, non-profits, and for-profit developers in undertaking comprehensive local planning with residents and the community.
Ending Housing Discrimination against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Individuals and Families
This HUD website maintains a list of states that enumerate sexual orientation and gender identity in their state fair housing laws. It also provides information and resources to report housing discrimination.
Family Unification Program
Eligibility: Youth aged 18-21 who have aged out of foster care
Focus: Housing
The Family Unification Program provides Housing Choice Vouchers to communities to help assist in the transition of youth out of foster care. The Public Housing Authority administers the vouchers and the child welfare agency provides supportive services to youth. Vouchers are used to provide rental assistance to youth aged 18 to 21 who transition from foster care or who leave foster care at age 16 or older. The voucher subsidizes the rent of eligible youth for up to eighteen months.
Healthy Homes Program Brochure
The Healthy Homes program provides homeowners and rental property owners with practical information about how to prevent health and safety hazards. Specific problems such as asthma, allergies and mold are discussed.
Healthy Homes Website
The Healthy Homes program provides homeowners and rental property owners with practical information about how to prevent health and safety hazards. Specific problems such as asthma, allergies and mold are discussed.
HUD Strategic Plan FY 2010 -2015
This document lays out the strategic goals and implementation plan for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
McKinney Vento Education for Homeless Children and Youth Program
Under this program, state educational agencies (SEAs) must ensure that homeless children and youth have equal access to the same free, appropriate public education as other children and youth. Homeless children and youth should have access to the educational and other services that they need to enable them to meet the same challenging state student academic achievement standards to which all students are held. In addition, homeless students may not be separated from the mainstream school environment. States and districts are required to review and undertake steps to revise laws, regulations, practices, or policies that may act as a barrier to the enrollment, attendance, or success in school of homeless children and youth.
Neighborhood Networks
HUD created Neighborhood Networks in 1995 to encourage property owners to establish multiservice community learning centers in HUD insured and assisted properties. Neighborhood Networks was one of the first federal initiatives to promote self-sufficiency and help provide computer access to low-income housing communities. Neighborhood Networks centers are alike. With support from innovative public-private partnerships, Neighborhood Networks centers sponsor a range of services and programs. Nearly all centers offer job training and educational opportunities, and many also provide programs that include access to healthcare information and microenterprise development.
Office of Public and Indian Housing Training and Technical Assistance
This resource provides technical assistance to public and Indian housing authorities.
Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control
In 1991, Congress established HUD's Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control to eliminate lead-based paint hazards in America's privately-owned and low-income housing. The OHHLHC provides funds to state and local governments to develop cost-effective ways to reduce lead-based paint hazards. In addition, the office enforces HUD’s lead-based paint regulations, provides public outreach and technical assistance, and conducts technical studies to help protect children and their families from health and safety hazards in the home
Public and Indian Housing
The role of the Office of Public and Indian Housing is to ensure safe, decent, and affordable housing; create opportunities for residents' self-sufficiency and economic independence; and assure fiscal integrity by all program participants.
Resident Opportunities and Self Sufficiency Program
ROSS links public housing residents with supportive services, resident empowerment activities, and assistance in becoming economically self-sufficient
Seven Steps to a Healthy Home
The Healthy Homes program offers seven steps to having a healthy home, providing homeowners and rental property owners with practical information about how to prevent health and safety hazards. These steps include the importance of keeping your home pest- and contaminant-free, as well as dry, clean, well-ventilated and well-maintained.
AmeriCorps Resource Center
The Knowledge Networks page, on the AmeriCorps website, provides training and technical assistance resources organized by focus area. It connects service programs with targeted training and information.
Fatherhood Is a Community Value
This blog post describes President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative and the administration’s efforts to provide guidance, mentoring, and support to all children, including young boys and young men.
Resource: The Mentoring Toolkit 2.0: Resources for Developing Programs for Incarcerated Youth
This toolkit, developed by the National Technical Assistance Center for the Education of Neglected or Delinquent Children and Youth, provides information, program descriptions, and links to important resources that can assist juvenile correctional facilities and other organizations with designing effective mentoring programs for neglected and delinquent youth, particularly those who are incarcerated.
21st Century Community Learning Centers
This program supports the creation of community learning centers that provide academic enrichment opportunities for children, particularly students who attend high-poverty and low performing schools. The program: helps students meet state and local student standards in core academic subjects, such as reading and math; offers students a broad array of enrichment activities that can complement their regular academic programs; and offers literacy and other educational services to the families of participating children.
AmeriCorps
Each year, AmeriCorps offers 75,000 opportunities for young people of all backgrounds to serve through a network of partnerships with local and national nonprofit groups.
National Service-Learning Clearinghouse
The National Service-Learning Clearinghouse (NSLC) supports the service-learning community in higher education, kindergarten through grade twelve, community-based organizations, tribal programs, and all others interested in strengthening schools and communities using service-learning.
Promise Neighborhoods
To address the challenges faced by students living in communities of concentrated poverty, Promise Neighborhoods grantees and their partner organizations will plan to provide services from early learning to college and career, including programs to improve the health, safety, and stability of neighborhoods, and boost family engagement in student learning.
You For Youth
This site helps youth professionals connect and share resources with colleagues, provide professional development and technical assistance opportunities, and offer tools for program improvement. The site provides information focused on afterschool programs.
Recent Events: AfAmWomenLead Initiative
This blog post describes the African American Women Lead (AfAmWomenLead) Initiative, established by the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans to support the development of Black women and girls. On March 12, 2016, AfAmWomenLead participating organizations throughout the country engaged in a day of service, celebrating cultural experiences and exploration.