Programs/Initiatives

Runaway and Homeless Youth Program

According to Missed Opportunities: Youth Homelessness in America, National Estimates, a 2017 study by Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, around one in 10 young adults ages 18-25 (an estimated 3.5 million) and at least one in 30 youth ages 13-17 (an estimated 700,000) experienced unaccompanied homelessness within a 12-month period. On the street, youth can become victims of violence, develop serious mental health and addiction problems, and be forced to trade sex for basic needs. The Runaway and Homeless Youth Program serves as the national leader for the provision of shelter services to homeless youth. Grants are administered to public and private organizations to establish and operate street outreach, youth emergency shelters, and transitional living programs.

Basic Center Programs: Fund grants to community-based public and private agencies for the provision of emergency shelter for up to 21 days; food, clothing, and medical care; mental and physical health services; education and employment assistance; outreach; crisis intervention; individual, group, and family counseling; family reunification; and aftercare services to runaway and homeless youth and their families.

Transitional Living Programs: Provide grants to public and private organizations for community-based, adult-supervised group homes, family homes, and scattered site apartments for youth ages 16 to under 22 years who cannot safely live with their own families. These services are designed to help youth that are homeless develop the skills necessary to make a successful transition to self-sufficient living. These programs provide long-term, safe and stable shelter for homeless youth; individual and group counseling; life skills training; interpersonal skill building; educational advancement; job attainment skills; and physical and behavioral health care.

Maternity Group Home Programs: Funded through the Transitional Living Program, are specifically designed to meet the needs of pregnant and parenting youth and their young families. Maternity group homes provide parenting support in addition to all the services available through Transitional Living Programs.

Street Outreach Programs: Fund grants to provide prevention and intervention services to runaway, homeless, and street youth, who have been subjected to, or are at risk of being subjected to, sexual abuse, human trafficking, or sexual exploitation. Services include basic needs, including food, clothing, hygiene or first aid packages; and information about services and safe places, and encouragement to seek shelter or housing.

Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program

Although teen birth rates have been falling for the last two decades, 20.3 per 1,000 teens, ages 15—19, gave birth in 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Adolescent pregnancy and childbearing can carry high health, emotional, social, and financial costs for both adolescent parents and their children. To prevent adolescent pregnancy, the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, and other risky behaviors among adolescents, FYSB takes a holistic approach to support state, Tribal, and community efforts to help youth reduce and avoid risks associated with teen sex and other risk behaviors.

State and Competitive Personal Responsibility Education Programs​​​​: Promote proven methods for reducing adolescent pregnancy, delaying sex among young people, and increasing the use of condoms and other contraceptives among sexually active youth, including American Indian and Alaska Native youth.

Tribal Personal Responsibility Education Program: Helps Tribes combat the disproportionately high rates of teen pregnancy and birth among American Indian and Alaska Native youth.

Personal Responsibility Education Innovative Strategies Program: Supports organizations that are using innovative strategies to prevent pregnancy among youth ages 10—19 who are homeless, in or “aging out” of foster care, live in geographic areas with high teen birth rates, or come from vulnerable populations of youth, as well as pregnant and parenting youth under the age of 21.

General, State and Competitive Sexual Risk Avoidance Education Programs: Support state and community organizations implementing sexual risk avoidance education that teaches youth how to voluntarily refrain from non-marital sexual activity, empower youth to make healthy decisions, and provide tools and resources to prevent youth engagement in other risky behaviors.