Print Version

The Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) provides national leadership on youth and family issues. The Bureau promotes positive outcomes for children, youth, and families by supporting a wide range of comprehensive services and collaborations at the local, Tribal, State, and national levels.

FYSB’s services focus on reducing risks by strengthening families and communities and helping all youth to thrive. Target populations include runaway and homeless youth, victims of family violence, children of prisoners, and youth at risk for early sexual activity.
In its youth programs, FYSB encourages communities to support young people through Positive Youth Development (PYD). PYD suggests that all young people can grow into successful adults if they have a supportive environment in which to build skills, exercise leadership, and contribute to their communities.

FYSB’s programs to assist America's families and youth:

• Runaway and Homeless Youth
• Basic Center Program
• Transitional Living Program for Older Homeless Youth
• Education and Prevention Services to Reduce Sexual Abuse of Runaway, Homeless, and Street Youth Program (Street Outreach Program)
• National Runaway Switchboard(24-hour hotline: 1-800-RUNAWAY)
• Research and Development
• Family Violence Prevention and Services Program
• Battered Women’s Shelters and Services
• National Resource Centers
• National Domestic Violence Hotline (800-799-SAFE (7233); TTY: 800-787-3224)
• Mentoring Children of Prisoners Program
• Abstinence Education Programs
• State Abstinence Education Program
• Community-Based Abstinence Education Program

Runaway and Homeless Youth Programs
Authorized by the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act, as amended by the Reconnecting Homeless Youth Act of 2008 (Public Law 110-378), FYSB’s Runaway and Homeless Youth Program assists homeless youth, providing basic necessities, reuniting youth with their families when possible, and aiding the transition to adulthood for older homeless youth who cannot return home.

The Runaway and Homeless Youth Program provides four primary services:

1. Basic Center Program provides financial assistance to establish or strengthen community-based programs addressing the immediate needs of runaway and homeless youth and their families. Basic centers provide youth, under age 18, with emergency shelter, food, clothing, counseling, and health care referrals. Centers seek to reunite young people with their families, whenever possible, or to locate appropriate alternative placements. In FY 2008, $52.9 million was available for the Basic Center Program.

2. Transitional Living Program grantees provide long-term, supportive assistance to older homeless youth, ages 16 to 22, who can’t return to their families but are not yet equipped to live on their own. The programs ease the transition to adulthood for these young people, offering them housing, life skills training, counseling, and education and employment support. Generally, services are provided for up to 21 months, or until the youth turns 18. A subset of the Transitional Living Program, the Maternity Group Homes program allows young women vulnerable to abuse, neglect, and poverty to live with their children in community-based, adult-supervised environments. In addition to the services that youth receive in all transitional living programs, young women in maternity group homes receive child care assistance and parenting advice. In FY 2008, $43.3 million was available for the Transitional Living Program.

3. The Street Outreach Program funds local youth service providers that conduct street-based education and outreach and that offer emergency shelter and related services to young people who have been, or who are at risk of being, sexually abused or exploited. With the goal of helping young people leave the streets, outreach teams go to the places frequented by youth, educating them about services available to them and providing them with basic necessities, such as food, clothing, access to emergency shelter, and health care referrals, as well as referrals to other services, including mental health and substance abuse counseling. In FY 2008, $17.3 million was available for the Street Outreach Program.

4. The National Runaway Switchboard (1-800-RUNAWAY) is a national communications system that assists youth who have run away, or are considering running away, and their families. NRS links youth and families across the country to shelters, counseling, medical assistance, and other vital services.

To complement its runaway and homeless youth services, FYSB’s research and demonstration projects enhance knowledge about key issues in serving young people and build capacity in the youth service field. The Bureau’s Support Systems for Rural Homeless Youth and Rural Host Homes for Basic Center projects are exploring ways to improve support services to runaway and homeless young people in rural communities.

Family Violence Prevention and Services Program
Authorized by the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (42 U.S.C. 10401 et. seq.), as extended by the Consolidated Security, Disaster Assistance, and Continuing Appropriations Act of 2009 (Public Law 110-329), the Family Violence Prevention and Services Program awards grants to State agencies, Territories, and Tribes for the provision of shelter to victims of family violence and their dependents, and for related services, such as emergency transportation and child care. These funds supplement many already established community-based family violence prevention and services activities. They also allow States and Tribes to expand current service programs and establish additional services in rural and underserved areas, on Native American reservations, and in Alaskan Native Villages. In FY 2008, $125.5 million was available for the program.

The Family Violence Prevention and Services Program’s primary areas include:

Battered Women's Shelters and Services. State Agencies and Native American Tribes and Alaskan Native Villages operating battered women’s shelters provide emergency shelter, crisis counseling, information and referral, legal and service advocacy, transportation, emergency child care, and referrals for health care.

National Resource Centers. ACF funds five national resource centers that provide information, technical assistance, and research findings via toll-free telephone numbers.

1. The National Resource Center on Domestic Violence (800-537-2238) is operated by the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence and provides information and resources, policy development and technical assistance designed to enhance community response to and prevention of domestic violence.
2. The Resource Center on Civil and Criminal Law, known as the Battered Women's Justice Project (800-903-0111), provides training, technical assistance and other resources through a partnership with the Domestic Abuse Intervention Project, the National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women, and the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
3. The Resource Center on Child Custody Protection (800-527-3223) is operated by the National Center of Juvenile and Family Court Judges Family Violence Project and provides information, consultation, training and legal research related to child protection and custody.
4. The Health Resource Center on Domestic Violence (888-792-2873 or 800-313-1310) is operated by the Family Violence Prevention Fund and provides specialized health care information, technical assistance, and library services.
5. Sacred Circle, National Resource Center to End Violence Against Native Women (877-733-7623) is operated by Cangleska, Inc., the Oglala Sioux tribal organization at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. It provides resource information and materials, technical assistance, and consultation to Tribes, Tribal organizations and other individuals and entities seeking to assist Tribes and Tribal organizations within the context of domestic violence.

National Domestic Violence Hotline (1-800-799-SAFE [7233]; TTY: 1-800-787-3224). Available 24 hours every day, the toll-free hotline provides information and referral services, counseling, and assistance to victims of domestic violence, their children, other family members, and the general public. Hotline counselors are available for non-English speakers and for people who are hearing impaired. The hotline operates in all 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

Mentoring Children of Prisoners Program
Authorized by the Child and Family Services Improvement Act of 2006 (Public Law 109-288), the Mentoring Children of Prisoners Program awards grants to community organizations that match children and youth of incarcerated parents with trained, screened, and supervised adult mentors. Each mentoring program ensures that mentors provide young people with safe and trusting one-to-one relationships through: healthy messages about life and social behavior, appropriate guidance from a positive adult role model, and opportunities for increased participation in education, civic service, and community activities. In FY 2008, $48.6 million was available for the program.

Caregiver’s Choice Voucher Program
In 2006, Congress created a New Service Delivery Demonstration Program that allows the use of program vouchers to increase access to mentoring services nationwide. The program funds 24,000 vouchers over a 3-year period.

Abstinence Education
Through its Abstinence Education Programs, FYSB awards grants to State agencies and community-based organizations that fund abstinence education, as well as mentoring, counseling, and other services designed to reduce the proportion of adolescents who have engaged in premarital sexual activity, the incidence of out-of-wedlock pregnancies among adolescents, and the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases among adolescents. The goal of the programs is to influence the youth most likely to bear children out of wedlock.

Section 510 State Abstinence Education Program grants enable States to create or augment existing abstinence education programs and, at the option of the State, provide mentoring, counseling, and adult supervision to promote abstinence from sexual activity with a focus on those groups most likely to bear children out-of-wedlock. Section 510 of Title V of the Social Security Act was established under Section 912 of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-193). In FY 2008, $50 million was available for the program.

The Community-Based Abstinence Education Program supports public and private entities in developing and implementing abstinence education programs in communities across the country. Projects funded by the program must promote abstinence education as defined by Section 510 of Title V of the Social Security Act. Grantees’ interventions aim to reduce the proportion of youth who have engaged in premarital sexual activity, including but not limited to sexual intercourse, the incidence of out-of-wedlock pregnancies among youth, and the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases among youth. In FY 2008, $108.9 million was available for the program.

Administration on Children, Youth and Families
Family and Youth Services Bureau
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
1250 Maryland Avenue, S.W.
Washington, DC 20024
Phone Number: 202.205.8102
Fax Number: 202.205.9721
Visit Our Website
E-mail Us

Updated January 2009
Office of Public Affairs (OPA)