For more than 30 years, the Family and 

Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) has provided national leadership 

on youth and family issues. FYSB 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 is a bureau within the Administration on Children, Youth and 

Families; Administration for Children and Families; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The core of FYSB’s mission 

is Positive Youth Development. This approach suggests that giving 

young people positive opportunities and helping them reach their 

full potential is the best way to prevent them from engaging in 

risky behaviors. When young people have the chance to exercise 

leadership, build skills, and get involved, they gain self-confidence, 

trust, and practical knowledge—qualities that help them grow into 

healthy, happy, self-sufficient adults.

FYSB collaborates with other Federal partners to convene conferences, 

meetings, and forums for youth and youth-serving professionals and 

to coordinate Federal policies and programs related to the Nation’s 

young people. The Bureau involves youth in reviewing grant proposals 

from community- and faith-based organizations, believing that young 

people know best what makes a good youth program. Several crisis 

hotlines supported by FYSB also give young people opportunities to 

volunteer assistance to their peers and communities.
 division of youth 

 services

FYSB’s Division of Youth Services 

supports local community- and faith-based 

organizations in their efforts to help two 

groups of young people in great need: 

runaway and homeless youth and children 

of prisoners. The division also sponsors 

special initiatives that promote Positive 

Youth Development for all young people.

Runaway and Homeless Youth 

Programs

Each year, thousands of U.S. youth run 

away from home, are asked to leave their 

homes, or become homeless. FYSB funds 

organizations and shelters that serve and 

protect these young people.

Grant Programs

Through the Basic Center Program, community-based organizations 

provide short-term shelter (up to 21 days) and address the immediate 

needs of runaway and homeless youth under the age of 18 and their 

families. Youth receive emergency shelter, food, clothing, counseling, 

and referrals for health care. Basic Centers seek to reunite young 

people with their families whenever possible or to arrange appropriate alternative placements.

The Transitional Living Program for Older Homeless Youth

promotes the independence of youth between 16 and 21 years 

old who are unable to return to their homes. Over a period of up 

to 21 months (with a provision that allows younger youth to stay 

until their 18th birthdays), grantees provide housing and a range of 

services, including life skills training, financial literacy instruction, 

and education and employment services. Youth might live in group 

homes or in their own apartments, depending on the program and 

each young person’s independent living skills. The Transitional Living Program includes maternity group homes that offer an intensive 

array of services to meet the short- and longer-term needs of pregnant and parenting youth and to prepare them to live independently.

youth services
The Street Outreach Program reaches youth at their most vulnerable. 

Grantees 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.

A Network of Support

FYSB’s Runaway and Homeless Youth Program grantees and other 

adults who want to help youth in need get assistance from FYSB’s 

“Network of Support,” which includes:

National Runaway Switchboard

Since 1974, the National Runaway Switchboard has been the 

official “national communications system” authorized by Congress 

to help runaway and homeless youth make contact with their 

families and with service providers. The 24-hour hotline handles 

more than 115,000 calls a year.

(800) RUNAWAY 

www.1800runaway.org 

info@nrscrisisline.org

Training and Technical Assistance

FYSB’s training and technical assistance centers answer grantees’ dayto-day program management questions and provide ongoing training 

in person, online, and by phone. The centers also host forums, 

networking events, and conferences to keep grantees up to date on 

important issues related to serving runaway and homeless youth.

(800) 806-2711

www.rhyttac.ou.edu

rhytraining@ou.edu

rhytechnicalassistance@ou.edu

Runaway and Homeless Youth Management Information 

System (RHYMIS)

RHYMIS is an automated management information tool that 

captures data on the runaway and homeless youth served by FYSB 

grantee programs, including demographics and services provided 

to them. These statistics are accessible via the Web.

(800) RHYMIS4 

extranet.acf.hhs.gov/rhymis 

rhymis_help@csc.com

youth services
National Clearinghouse on Families & Youth (NCFY)

NCFY provides grantees and the public with information about 

effective strategies for supporting young people and families. A 

searchable online literature database contains abstracts of thousands of youth-related publications, and NCFY’s Reading Room 

is open to the public 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. 

NCFY publications about youth development issues are requested 

for conferences, trainings, and community outreach efforts.

(301) 608-8098 

ncfy.acf.hhs.gov 

ncfy@acf.hhs.gov

youth services
Special Initiatives

FYSB’s research and demonstration projects and other special 

initiatives advance Positive Youth Development and create opportunities for young people to contribute to their communities. 

Past projects have expanded access to shelters for minority youth, 

improved services in rural areas, tested home-based services, and 

worked to prevent exploitation of young people, and promoted 

collaboration between State and local agencies on Positive Youth 

Development.

Currently, three States participate in Support Systems for Rural 

Homeless Youth: A Collaborative State and Local Demonstration, 

a 5-year FYSB initiative aimed at improving services provided to 

rural runaway and homeless youth in transitional living programs, 

as well as to rural homeless youth aging out of State child welfare 

systems and into independent living programs. 

Mentoring Children of Prisoners 

Program

Approximately 2 million children and 

youth in the United States have at least one 

parent in a Federal or State correctional 

facility. These young people need adult 

and community support. Data indicate that 

young people who have adult mentors are 

more likely to develop trusting relationships with supportive, caring adults and 

less likely to get in trouble. 

Congress established the Mentoring 

Children of Prisoners Program to provide 

100,000 new mentors to children of 

incarcerated parents. More than 200 

community- and faith-based organizations 

and State and local governments across the country receive grants 

from FYSB to match adult mentors with children of prisoners.

The program works to strengthen bonds between children and 

their parents whenever possible and appropriate, to preserve 

families, and to cultivate mentors from within the child’s family 

and community.

youth services
 division of abstinence

To help youth make smart choices 

about their health and future, 

FYSB’s Abstinence Education 

Programs promote abstinence 

from sexual activity. The division 

also has collaborated with other 

Federal offices to create booklets 

and online abstinence resources 

for youth and parents, available 

at www.4parents.gov. 

Community-Based Abstinence Education Program

FYSB’s Community-Based Abstinence Education Program provides 

funding to public and private entities to develop and implement 

abstinence education programs for young people ages 12 to 18. 

Programs give adolescents information, skills, and encouragement 

to postpone sexual activity until marriage. Through these efforts, 

the programs seek to reduce the number of youth who engage 

in premarital sexual activity, as well as the incidence of out-ofwedlock births, sexually transmitted diseases, and other risks 

associated with premarital sex. FYSB charges grantees with 

developing culturally sensitive and age-appropriate abstinence 

education approaches, consistent with the needs of a diverse 

population of adolescents.

State Abstinence Education Program

FYSB’s State Abstinence Education Program grants enable States 

to create abstinence education programs or augment existing ones 

and, if the States chooses, provide mentoring, counseling, and 

adult supervision to promote abstinence from sexual activity. 

The program helps States teach their young people the social, 

psychological, and health gains to be realized by abstaining from 

sexual activity. FYSB awards abstinence education funds to States 

proportionally, based on the number of low-income children in 

each State.

abstinence education
division of family violence

FYSB’s Division of Family Violence funds programs that provide 

shelter and related services, such as emergency transportation and 

child care, to victims of family violence. The division also supports 

organizations offering a range of resources related to family violence, from training and technical assistance for service providers 

to crisis counseling and legal and health services for victims.

Formula Programs

FYSB awards formula grants to 

State agencies, Territories, and 

Indian Tribes operating battered 

women’s shelters and offering 

crisis counseling, information 

and referral, legal and service advocacy, transportation, emergency 

child care, and health care referrals. FYSB also provides funding to 

State domestic violence coalitions 

that provide technical assistance 

and training to local domestic 

violence programs.

Discretionary Programs

Each year, FYSB funds a range of discretionary programs in family 

violence prevention and services. The programs aim to improve 

family violence prevention, victim protection, service delivery and 

design, data collection on the incidence of family violence, and 

understanding of issues related to family violence. 

Past funding priorities have included services for disabled and 

immigrant victims of domestic violence, prevention of adolescent 

dating violence, and minority training grants in domestic violence 

for historically Black, Hispanic-serving, and Tribal colleges and 

universities.

family violence prevention
Supporting Victims of Domestic Violence and 

Service Providers

To augment the services provided by its family violence prevention 

and services grant programs and to continually improve the systems 

that address family violence, FYSB funds a national hotline for 

victims and their families, as well as a network of resource centers 

specializing in issues related to domestic violence.

National Domestic 

Violence Hotline 

The National Domestic Violence 

Hotline aids victims of domestic 

violence 24 hours a day. Hotline 

advocates assist victims, and 

anyone calling on their behalf, 

by providing crisis intervention, 

safety planning, and referrals 

to local service providers. The 

hotline receives more than 

16,000 calls a month.

(800) 799-SAFE (7233)

(800) 787-3224 (TTY) 

www.ndvh.org

National Domestic Violence Resource Network 

Comprised of five centers, FYSB’s National Domestic Violence 

Resource Network works to strengthen the existing support 

systems serving battered women, their children, and other victims 

of domestic violence.

National Resource Center on Domestic Violence (800) 537-2238

Resource Center on Civil and Criminal Law (Battered Women’s 

Justice Project) (800) 903-0111

Resource Center on Child Custody Protection (800) 527-3223

Health Resource Center on Domestic Violence (800) 792-2873 

(800) 313-1310

Sacred Circle (National Resource Center to End Violence Against 

Native Women) (877) 733-7623

For more information about the resource network, go to www.acf.

hhs.gov/programs/fysb/content/familyviolence/index.htm.

family violence prevention

This brochure was developed for the Family and Youth Services Bureau; 

Administration on Children, Youth and Families; Administration for 

Children and Families; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; 

by JBS International, Inc., under contract No. GS10F0285K to manage the 

National Clearinghouse on Families & Youth.
for more information

For up-to-date information about FYSB and its programs, 

go to www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/fysb, or contact

National Clearinghouse on Families & Youth

P.O. Box 13505

Silver Spring, MD 20911-3505

(301) 608-8098

ncfy@acf.hhs.gov 

ncfy.acf.hhs.gov

For information about open funding opportunities, 

go to the Federal Government’s central funding database, 

Grants.gov, or visit the Administration for Children and 

Families Grant Opportunities Web site, 

www.acf.hhs.gov/grants/index.html.