Family and Youth Services Bureau

The mission of the Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) is to provide national leadership on youth issues and to assist individuals and organizations in providing effective, comprehensive services for youth in at-risk situations and their families. The goals of FYSB programs are to provide positive alternatives for youth, ensure their safety, and maximize their potential to take advantage of available opportunities. FYSB is a Bureau within the Administration on Children, Youth and Families; Administration for Children and Families; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

FYSB encourages communities to support young people through a Positive Youth Development approach. That approach suggests that the best way to prevent young people’s involvement in risky behavior is to help them achieve their full potential. Youth development strategies, therefore, focus on giving young people the chance to exercise leadership, build skills, and become involved in their communities. The Positive Youth Development approach also acknowledges that helping young people requires strengthening families and communities.

FYSB supports communities in implementing a Positive Youth Development approach to helping young people and their families. Through its Research and Demonstration Program, for example, FYSB is funding 9States to develop and support innovative youth development strategies. In addition, FYSB promotes Positive Youth Development through its three grant programs, described below.

Through the Basic Center Program, FYSB provides financial assistance to establish or strengthen community-based programs that address the immediate needs of runaway and homeless youth and their families. The central purpose of these programs is to provide youth with emergency shelter, food, clothing, counseling, and referrals for health care. The Basic Centers seek to reunite young people with their families, whenever possible, or to locate appropriate alternative placements.

The Basic Center Program in Action. Wayne, age 14, was guided to a Basic Center through a Street Outreach Program also funded by FYSB. Wayne’s family had been troubled by homelessness and substance abuse, and Wayne himself had been physically abused by a family member. He had not been to school in a year at the time he entered the Center.

The Center provided Wayne shelter, helped him enroll in school, and offered other services to help address his experiences of abuse. Wayne now is living in a foster home, finishing high school, and offering peer support to other youth from troubled situations.

Transitional Living Program (TLP) grantees assist older, homeless youth, including pregnant and parenting teens, in developing skills and resources to promote their independence and prevent future dependency on social services. TLPs provide housing and a range of services for up to 18 months to youth ages 16–21 who are unable to return to their homes.

The TLP in Action. Shannon entered a TLP at age 16 after she and her sister relocated to the Dallas area and found themselves homeless. She completed the program, which gave her the skills she needed to live on her own. The TLP required her to pay a modest rent, half of which was later returned to her to use in establishing permanent housing.

Shannon applied her funds to a down payment on a home. Today, at age 19, she is a longstanding employee of a local hotel, a student at the local community college, and a homeowner.

The Street Outreach Program funds local youth service providers to conduct street-based education and outreach and offer emergency shelter and related services to young people who have been, or who are at risk of being, sexually abused or exploited. The goal of these efforts is to help young people leave the streets.

The Street Outreach Program in Action. A Street Outreach Program staff person met 16-year-old Matthew at a mobile soup kitchen. Matthew had been sporadically homeless and absent from school because of congenital health problems. Perhaps because of his health condition and experiences, he at first was withdrawn and unwilling to engage in conversation with the outreach worker.

After several weeks of repeated contact, however, he gained enough trust to allow the outreach worker to link him with medical services. In addition, the outreach staff helped him enroll in a program that could assist him in obtaining his GED.

Through the Mentoring Children of Prisoners Program, FYSB awards grants to community organizations that provide mentoring services to children of incarcerated parents. The goals of the program are to provide services, both directly and in collaboration with other local agencies; to strengthen bonds between children and their incarcerated parents, whenever possible and appropriate; to preserve families; and to cultivate mentors from within the child's family and community. FYSB began funding this program in 2003.

For information about FYSB programs, contact the National Clearinghouse on Families & Youth; P.O. Box 13505; Silver Spring, MD 20911-3505; (301) 608-8098; fax: (301) 608-8721; Web site: www.ncfy.com.

The Family and Youth Services Bureau