2014 Transitional Living and Maternity Group Home Program Grant Awards

The Family and Youth Services Bureau has announced the recipients of fiscal year 2014 grants for the Transitional Living and Maternity Group Home Program. These grants fund programs that house older homeless youth, including pregnant and parenting teens and their children, and prepare them for adulthood.  View the results here: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/fysb/resource/2014-tlp-awards 

LGBT Human Services Report – Exploring Provider Experiences Serving LGBTQ RHY

The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) in HHS’s Administration for Children and Families (ACF) has sponsored a study to learn about strategies for identifying and serving LGBTQ RHY, the challenges programs face in understanding and addressing the needs of this population, and potential areas for future research. The study focused on four local agencies receiving grants from the Administration for Children and Families’ RHY Program.

The Identifying and Serving LGBTQ Youth: Case Studies of RHY Grantees report can be accessed here:
http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/14/lgbt-rhy/rpt_lgbtq%20rhy.cfm

Key findings included:

Two of the four agencies collect information on sexual orientation through questions on intake or assessment forms completed by staff or youth. In three agencies, intake or assessment forms include questions on gender identity that feature response options for transgender status. Staff also sometimes gather information on sexual orientation and gender identity when youth share it during less structured interactions.

• Agencies were not always able to completely or accurately collect data on sexual orientation and gender identity data due to youths’ reticence in answering questions, concerns among staff members about recording these characteristics in agency records, and the absence in some agencies of standardized protocols for gathering sexual orientation or gender identity information.
• Many staff providing direct services indicated that they consider the sexual orientation or gender identity as they create service plans for individual youth. Staff use this information to tailor some services (such as referrals for counseling) and (1) to determine housing and bathroom accommodations, (2) for assignment to case managers, and (3) in making appropriate health care referrals.
• Staff generally felt that homeless youth face similar types of risks, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity. Nevertheless, some types of risks—emotional distress and poor mental health, substance abuse and sexual risk behavior, and problems with family and personal relationships—were perceived to be particularly salient or frequent among LGBTQ youth.
• Challenges that affect efforts to improve services for LGBTQ RHY include (1) lack of local resources that focus on LGBTQ youth; (2) difficulty of overcoming social stigma, especially toward LGBTQ youth of color and transgender or gender-nonconforming youth; and (3) staff concerns about singling out a specific population of RHY, while continuing to help all youth who need an agency’s services.
• Staff recommended future research in six general areas: (1) the size of the LGBTQ RHY population in local areas, (2) characteristics of subpopulations of LGBTQ RHY youth, (3) risk and protective factors among LGBTQ RHY, (4) factors contributing to LGBTQ youth homelessness, (5) experiences of LGBTQ youth involved in multiple systems, and (6) service models that focus on LGBTQ RHY.

National Condom Week

February 14, 2014 marks the first day for National Condom Week! Not only can you celebrate this week by keeping safe, but you can also teach youth around you to do the same!

Here are some helpful resources to help you “have the talk”.

Planned Parenthood - http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-topics/birth-control/condom-10187.htm - Want to learn about condoms?  This is a great place to do it!

Bedsider - http://bedsider.org/  - This is an easy to navigate, interactive site that provides information on many types of birth control.

Sex, etc. - http://sexetc.org/ - This is an easy to navigate, interactive site that provides Sex Ed by teens.

I Know Mine – http://www.iknowmine.org/#sthash.FuGUbcBr.dpbs   - This is an informative, youth-friendly sexual health site.

Going to teach others about sexual health?  - Or, want to learn more before giving the talk? 

The following sites provide trainings to make it easier!

The Office of Adolescent Health - http://www.hhs.gov/ash/oah/resources-and-publications/webinars.html

The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy - http://www.thenationalcampaign.org/

Advocates for Youth - http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/ - This is a comprehensive site for youth, professionals and teachers.

ETR Associates – http://www.etr.org/ - Provides brochures such as:

• Condoms: Think About It (Bilingual)
• STD Facts – highly recommended
• Condoms and STDs
• Condoms: How to Use Them (Blingual)
• Gay Men and Oral Sex

January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month

In January 2013, President Obama issued a Presidential Proclamation that declared January National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month to shed light on the exploitation of nearly 27 million women, men and children worldwide1; these victims are often overlooked, and those who routinely interact with victims and survivors may lack awareness or tools to properly identify and assist them. Therefore, many victims go without help. Building on the strong record of the President’s Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, the Federal Strategic Action Plan on Services for Victims of Human Trafficking in the United States (SAP) was developed in 2013 to support the ongoing battle against modern-day slavery to ensure that all victims of human trafficking in the United States have access to the tools and services they need to escape exploitation and rebuild their lives. The Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) and all of its grantee partners are crucial to that effort.

View the federal strategic action plan here.