Youth Services
Explore evaluation projects focused on approaches for helping youth make healthy choices that lead to self-sufficient adult lives. Efforts include evaluations of teen pregnancy prevention and sexual risk avoidance education strategies and approaches to improve outcomes for at-risk youth.
ACF serves people of all ages through a wide range of programs, many of which include youth in their service populations. However, several ACF programs specifically target youth as their intended service populations. These include the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention, Runaway and Homeless Youth, John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood, and Unaccompanied Refugee Minors programs. OPRE’s youth services portfolio includes research and evaluation related to each of these program areas, conducted in close coordination with the offices that oversee each of the programs.
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To help reduce non-marital sexual activity, teen pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, and other risk behaviors, ACF’s Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) oversees two funding streams within the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention (APP) program: the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) and the Sexual Risk Avoidance Education (SRAE) Program. PREP programs use trauma-informed care and evidence-based practices to educate adolescents on both abstinence and contraception for the prevention of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.
The SRAE Program funds projects that exclusively implement 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. Current and recent research and evaluation efforts for APP programs include descriptive studies, multi-site impact and implementation studies, conceptual model development, performance measurement, data dashboard development, and data and evaluation support for PREP and SRAE grantees.
FYSB’s Runaway and Homeless Youth (RHY) program serves and protects runaway and homeless youth through its Street Outreach Program (SOP), Basic Center Program (BCP), Transitional Living Program (TLP), and Maternity Group Homes for Pregnant and Parenting Youth (MGH) program. OPRE-led research related to RHY programs has focused on the TLP, which provides long-term residential services to homeless youth between 16 and 22 years of age. Recent research and evaluation activities have included a study assessing outcomes for youth participating in TLP services, a pilot study of a randomized controlled trial, and a process evaluation of a demonstration project targeting youth experiencing homelessness and young adults who had been in foster care but were still in need of housing and services.
The John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood (Chafee Program), administered by ACF’s Children’s Bureau provides funding to support youth and young adults in or formerly in foster care in their transition to adulthood. Chafee-funded activities and programs include, but are not limited to, help with education, employment, financial management, housing, emotional support, and assured connections to caring adults. OPRE research and evaluation studies in partnership with the Children’s Bureau have included a multi-site impact evaluation of Chafee-funded programs; formative evaluations of employment and college success programs; evaluation of the Chafee Education and Training Voucher (ETV) program outcomes in 10 states; and examinations of existing services and service needs for pregnant and parenting youth, supportive housing programs, and the extension of Chafee services to age 23 in eligible states with extended federal foster care.
The URM Program serves refugees and other eligible youth within the U.S. who do not have a parent or relative available to care for them. The program is funded by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). Each URM program parallels the child welfare systems in the states where they operate. Services provided include arranging foster care, group homes, independent living situations, or reunification with relatives in the U.S., as well as other child welfare services to promote their well-being. The program also includes services focused on integrating the youth into their new communities while preserving the youth’s ethnic and religious heritage. OPRE conducted a descriptive study to better understand the range of child welfare services and benefits provided through the URM program as well as the characteristics of populations served by the program.
Explore OPRE research and evaluation projects related to youth services below.
Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention and Sexual Risk Avoidance Research and Evaluation Snapshot
OPRE’s work in the area of youth services is guided in part by the ACF Research and Evaluation Agenda for adolescent pregnancy prevention and sexual risk avoidance. In setting the research and evaluation priorities for this agenda, ACF takes into account legislative requirements and Congressional interests; the interest and needs of ACF, HHS, and administration leadership; program office staff and leadership; ACF partners; the populations served; researchers; and others. ACF routinely interacts with these groups through a variety of engagement activities that inform our ongoing research and evaluation planning processes. Learn more by exploring this snapshot of Agenda guidance directing OPRE’s youth services research and evaluation.
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Projects on this Topic
Phase III (2019-2028)
Phase III of YARH (YARH-3) will continue to provide important information to the field by supporting organizations from Phase II in evidence-building activities, including providing evaluation-related TA; assessing sites’ readiness for summative evaluation; designing and conducting a federally led evaluation of at least one comprehensive service model, including an implementation study and an impact study; and disseminating knowledge gained through project activities. The evaluation team will work closely with ACF, a broad range of stakeholders, and selected experts so that the TA activities and evaluation will yield timely findings that inform policy and practice.
The John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood (Chafee Program) provides funding to states, territories, and tribes to help support youth currently and formerly in foster care. States use Chafee funding for a variety of activities, including employment and college success programs, services for pregnant and parenting youth, supportive housing programs, and the extension of Chafee services to age 23 in eligible states with extended federal foster care.
OPRE’s child and family development work includes research and evaluation projects primarily concerned with child care and child welfare. This portfolio additionally examines the culturally diverse experiences of children and families served by ACF programs.
Discover research and reports summarizing the current understanding of human trafficking, resources addressing human trafficking in the child welfare population, and practice-relevant research studies.
Learn about the evaluation of the Domestic Victims of Human Trafficking (DVHT) Program and explore findings. The program assessed grantee site policies, practices, and services, including the focus of this grant program on access to long-term housing options, substance abuse treatment, and integration of survivor-informed services.
In this annual report, learn about OPRE's family strengthening research portfolio. Explore current research and evaluation projects related to strengthening relationships within families, supporting fatherhood, nurturing children through their families, reducing teen pregnancy, supporting youth in their transition to adulthood, and preventing family violence.
The Learning, Engaging, and Creating with Black Youth in Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention (APP) Programming project, or LEGACY, is a 2.5-year study that aims to advance our understanding of how the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) and the Sexual Risk Avoidance Education (SRAE) grant recipients work to address the barriers and circumstances created by racial inequity through APP programs, including making programming more equitable for Black youth.
The purpose of this contract is to build and expand the adolescent pregnancy prevention knowledge base by supporting grantees to conduct rigorous program evaluations to improve programming, and ultimately youth outcomes. The contract will include a range of activities that strengthen and support the local evaluations of recipients and subrecipients implementing the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) grants: PREP Innovative Strategies (PREIS), Tribal PREP, State PREP, and Competitive PREP.
Explore OPRE's Studies of Performance Measures and Adulthood Preparation Subjects (PMAPS) for reports and briefs on the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) performance measures, and the six conceptual models developed to demonstrate how inclusion of adulthood preparation subjects can enhance or expand youth outcomes.
Learn about the PREP PLUS project designed to support high-quality performance measurement for PREP-funded programs.
In 2013, OPRE commissioned four interrelated reports on self-regulation and toxic stress from a team at the Center for Child and Social Policy at Duke University. That team and other experts have since created multiple practice-oriented resources grounded in the initial reports. Together, these reports and resources comprise the ’Self-Regulation and Toxic Stress Series.’
Discover program models to promote healthy futures for youth through sexual risk avoidance.
Discover how the Sexual Risk Avoidance Education National Evaluation (SRAENE) project is addressing congressionally mandated Sexual Risk Avoidance Education (SRAE) research and evaluation methods in three distinct projects.
Sexual Risk Avoidance Education Performance Measures Technical Assistance and Data.
Explore studies of youth served through the Transitional Living Program (TLP) and services related to housing, education, employment, social and emotional well-being, COVID-19, and permanent connections.
The National Domestic Violence Hotline Visit disclaimer page (The Hotline) and loveisrespect Visit disclaimer page (LIR; the help line targeted towards young people) are supported by the Division of Family Violence Prevention and Services within ACF’s Family and Youth Services Bureau. They are critical partners in the intervention, prevention, and resource assistance efforts of the network of family violence, domestic violence, and dating violence service providers. They provide:
OPRE launched the Youth Demonstration Development Project (YDD) in 2009 to systematically review the current field of research on youth development and successful transition to adulthood. The primary objective of YDD, which is being conducted for OPRE...
Explore findings from OPRE's descriptive study about the range of child welfare services and benefits provided through the Unaccompanied Refugee Minors (URM) Program.
The Design Options for Estimating the Incidence and Prevalence of Homeless and Runaway Youth study developed a plan of options for estimating the incidence and prevalence of runaway, throwaway, and homeless experiences among youth, a plan for regularly...
OPRE jointly sponsored with the Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration (ETA) a study of subsidized summer 2010 employment opportunities for low-income youth operated with the TANF Emergency Fund offered as part of the American...
The purpose of the Family Preservation and Family Support (FP/FS) Services Implementation study was to evaluate how states and communities implemented the FP/FS program, the ways in which program implementation altered the pre-existing service delivery...
The purpose of the Healthy Marriage/Relationship Education: Models and Measures project, awarded to Child Trends, is to bring together experts in the field to develop recommendations for “next-generation” marriage/relationship education...
Explore findings on families experiencing homelessness that cover a range of domains: behavioral health, well-being, self-sufficiency, family separations, foster care, employment, family transitions, TANF receipt, SNAP receipt, and more.
Explore OPRE's sexual risk cessation project that developed conceptual and program models, and a curriculum module, to assist sexually-experienced youth in avoiding sexual risk for the prevention of teen pregnancy and other associated risks to teen sex.
Explore OPRE's project to develop a conceptual model to understand the pathways to sexual risk avoidance for the prevention of teen pregnancy.
The Permanency Innovations Initiative (PII) is a multi-site federal demonstration project designed to improve permanency outcomes among children in foster care who have the most serious barriers to permanency. This initiative supports six grantees, each with a unique intervention designed to help a specific subgroup of children leave foster care in fewer than three years.
Explore the PREP Multi-Component Evaluation for information on how PREP grantees planned and implementation their programs, plus information on programs' infrastructure, scope, participants served, participant behaviors at program entry and perceived effects at program exit.
Learn more about Promising Youth Programs, a contract with two primary goals: 1) to provide local evaluation support to Tribal PREP and PREIS grantees; and 2) to develop curricula for underserved youth.
The John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood (Chafee program; formerly the John H. Chafee Foster Care Independence Program) was created following the passage of the Foster Care Independence Act (FCIA) of 1999 (Public Law 106-169). The program provides assistance to help youth currently and formerly in foster care achieve self-sufficiency by providing grants to States and eligible Tribes that submit an approvable plan.
This project investigated how existing work on racial and ethnic disparities could inform more accurate identification and interpretation of ethnic and racial differences in programs administered by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). Through this work, this project...
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a significant problem in the United States, with 23% of women and 14% of men experiencing severe physical violence by an intimate partner in his or her lifetime, based on 2010-2012 data (Smith et al., 2017 Visit disclaimer page ). Given the goal of healthy marriage and relationship education (HMRE) programs (which are administered by the Office of Family Assistance at the Administration for Children and Families) to strengthen and improve the quality of marriages and relationships, addressing IPV for healthy relationship program participants is of critical concern.
Literature reviews and economic analyses on the benefits of delayed sexual activity and the success sequence.
Explore evaluation findings from a large multi-site random assignment impact and process evaluation of HMRE programs serving adults and youth.
Effect sizes are increasingly applied to describe the magnitude of findings about program effectiveness across a range of policy contexts. Though more researchers are recognizing the importance of including effect sizes in manuscripts, at times these...
The Understanding the Value of Centralized Services (VOCS) project is a broad inquiry to examine the advantages, disadvantages, and costs of providing multiple social services for families with low incomes at one location.
The purpose of the Youth Education and Relationship Services (YEARS) Project, awarded to Child Trends, was to better understand the services that federally-funded Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education (HMRE) programs are providing to youth. The project described the organizations implementing HMRE programs...
The goal of this project is to collect data that will inform educational topics and strategies for an optimal-health sexual risk avoidance (SRA) approach to reducing teen pregnancy and improving youth well-being.