Featured Grant OpportunitySchool Emergency Response to Violence (Project SERV) (Funding Opportunity) 

Featured Grant OpportunityShare with Youth: NOAA Student Opportunities Database

Featured Grant OpportunityShort Courses in Social Determinants of Health for Research Education in Nursing Research (Funding...

Featured Grant OpportunityResearch on Law Enforcement Responses to Opioid Overdoses (Funding Opportunity)

Featured Grant OpportunityComprehensive Partnerships to Advance Cancer Health Equity (CPACHE) Program (Funding Opportunity)

Featured Grant OpportunityRisk and Protective Factors of Family Health and Family Level Interventions (Funding Opportunity)

Featured Grant OpportunityPersonnel Development to Improve Services and Results for Children with Disabilities--Doctoral...

Featured Grant OpportunityStanding Announcement for Tribal Title IV-E Plan Development Grants (Funding Opportunity)

Featured Grant OpportunityProviding Research Education Experiences to Enhance Inclusivity for a Diverse Substance Use and...

Featured Grant OpportunityFY 2024 Research on School-Based Hate Crimes (Funding Opportunity)

Featured Grant OpportunityChallenge America (Funding Opportunity)

Featured Grant OpportunityResearch and Evaluation on Firearm Violence and Mass Shootings (Funding Opportunity)

Featured Grant OpportunityNational Juvenile Court Data Archive (Funding Opportunity)

Featured Grant OpportunityGraduate Research Fellowship (Funding Opportunity)

Featured Grant OpportunityCommunity Programs for Outreach and Intervention with Youth and Young Adults at Clinical High Risk...

Featured Grant OpportunityPrint and Disseminate Child Victims and Witnesses Support Materials (Funding Opportunity)

## Other Youth Topics

## Breadcrumb

            -  Youth Topics 
            -           Service Level: Engaging Families as Partners in Decision-Making      

# Service Level: Engaging Families as Partners in Decision-Making

## Description of Family Engagement at the Service Level

Family engagement is essential in promoting positive child and youth outcomes in education, mental health, health, child welfare, and juvenile justice. These key child and youth serving systems are incorporating practices, policies and processes within their agencies to strengthen and implement meaningful family engagement at the service level. Increasingly, staffs are collaborating with family members in planning and decision-making regarding their children’s and youth’s needs, services, plans, and goals. Child and youth serving agencies are creating distinct family engagement approaches that align with their agency’s mission, goals, and performance and outcome measures. Each child serving system has focused their family engagement efforts on important service areas as reflected in the following diagram:

## Family Engagement Focuses on Key Service Areas

**Education** — Meaningful family engagement in schools means that families and educators work in partnership to support all students in academics, social emotional learning and development and ultimately educational success, using research-based practices and supports in schools, classrooms, and at home.1

**Child Welfare** — Caseworkers engage families in individualized planning and goal setting related to safety, permanency and well-being for every young person and family receiving child protective services.2 Each family is to be respected and recognized as having expertise about their own family and need to be actively involved in making decisions for the young person.3

**Juvenile Justice** — Parents and families are actively engaged in the rehabilitation of juvenile justice-involved youth by serving in key roles as recipients, direct supports, extenders, or managers of services.4 Justice system providers are highly motivated and actively work to routinely integrate parent and family engagement within their system.

**Mental Health** — A family-driven care approach guides youth mental health providers including child psychiatrists, on how to effectively engage families in their child’s care.5 Family-driven care means family members have a primary role in decision-making and co-designing their child’s comprehensive service plan and treatment goals, including the selection of culturally and linguistically competent supports.6

**Primary Health** — Patient- and family-centered care is an approach to the planning, delivery, and evaluation of health care that calls for collaboration and partnerships among health care providers, patients, and families. In patient- and family-centered care, patients and families define their “family” and determine how they will participate in care and decision-making.7

## Commonalities in Family Engagement Principles and Practices Across Service Systems

Child and youth service systems share commonalities in their family engagement principles and practices such as shared decision-making, collaboration, partnership, two-way communication, meaningful roles, mutual respect and acknowledgement of family expertise.8 These systems have articulated guiding principles that reflect the organization’s beliefs about why and how they will bring about family engagement.

Guiding principles are most effective when staff and families are involved in developing and regularly revisiting the philosophy that will guide how they operate. Meaningful family engagement also means that families can serve in various roles that contribute to their child’s progress and success in achieving personal goals.

Roles performed by families may include serving as a:
                      - collaborator in service planning,
                      - encourager,
                      - overseer of services,
                      - monitor,
                      - participant in services,
                      - parent peer support provider,
                      - advocate,
                      - decision-maker,
                      - cultural broker,
                      - learner, and
                      - trainer of families and staff to name a few of many roles that families can perform in support of their children.

## Address Staff Readiness for Family Engagement

Although the impact and benefits are clear, implementing family engagement is not clear-cut. Family and staff partnership is most successful when both staff and families are prepared to communicate and collaborate. A lack of communication with and support for families is associated with lower levels of family engagement.9 Professional development on family engagement can help prepare staff and families on how to partner and collaborate. However, each staff and family must work at building trusting relationships as a foundation to engage in difficult conversations about needed change.

Some agencies encourage self-assessments to gauge agency and staff attitudes, beliefs, and readiness to work with families as equal partners. Some agencies also include family engagement metrics or indicators in staff/administrator evaluation and performance systems.10 Family engagement becomes an essential component of any collective impact strategy as human service sectors work to create a culture of shared responsibility for improving outcomes for all youth. Engaging families in our communities requires a shared effort with leadership, educators, providers and community members committing to engage families in purposeful ways to help them support their children’s development.11

## Resources

**Education (K-12)**

**The Family Engagement for High School Success Toolkit: Planning and Implementing an Initiative to Support the Pathway to Graduation for At-Risk Students**This toolkit features the work of 15 pilot sites across the country that developed a comprehensive family–school–community engagement initiative to support at-risk youth on the path to graduation. The toolkit offers structured, data-driven planning and implementation guidance on how to build family engagement and to strengthen school–family connections and partnerships.

**Creating Conditions for Meaningful Family Engagement from Pre-K to High School**This guide is for educators and family leaders interested in strengthening family engagement in schools and classrooms. The guide highlights Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s, Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) Grantees and describes how they have advanced family engagement in their states and schools.

**Parent Engagement in Schools**

This webpage from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides information and resources on parent engagement in schools

**I Have a Question... What Parents and Caregivers Can Ask and Do to Help Children Thrive at School: A Parent Checklist**This tool provides a set of questions families can ask, and important issues to consider when approaching your child’s teachers, principals and counselors about your child’s progress and how to support your child’s learning.

**Mental Health**

**Family-Driven Care: Are We There Yet?**This resource addresses the needs of both school and mental health systems, such as mutual understanding of approach, language, theories, and perspectives. It discusses how positive behavior supports, wraparound, and response to intervention are evidence-based frameworks that have served to unify the efforts of education staff, mental health practitioners, and families to improve youth outcomes. Includes an overview of evidence-based programs that include a family component.

**Family-Driven Care in America: More Than a Good Idea**This resource recounts how the definition and principles of Family-Driven Care have impacted the fields of mental health and child psychiatry. Guided by family-driven principles, youth-serving systems are implementing policies and practices that engage families as active participants in treatment and in policy development and system reform efforts. Research shows that better outcomes are achieved when family members and youth have meaningful roles in their treatment as reflected by featured programs.

**Child Welfare**

**Family Engagement Web-Based Practice Toolkit: Core Principles of Family Engagement Practices**This online toolkit includes an Organizational Self Study on Family Engagement assessment along with guidance, tools and resources for the field on how to improve family engagement practices across child welfare programs.

**Child Welfare Information Gateway**This website presents child welfare practice models to emphasize family engagement as a cornerstone of achieving positive outcomes. These practice models build from a clearly defined vision and set of core values and contain definitions, explanations, and expectations of how an agency will operate and partner with families.

**Primary Health**

**A Roadmap for Patient + Family Engagement in Healthcare**Patient and family engagement is considered essential in improving health care, health outcomes and overall population health. The roadmap highlights opportunities to improve our healthcare system by creating meaningful partnerships with patients and families; and is intended to spark ideas and action from individuals and organizations interested in advancing the work of patient and family engagement.

**Profiles of Change**Profiles in Change is a section of the Patient and Family-centered Care website that features hospitals, clinics, and health systems that are advancing the practice of patient- and family-centered care in systems that specialize in children’s healthcare.

**Engaging Patients and Families in Their Health Care**This resource contains tools and resources for providers and patients and family members on how to improve their healthcare experience and engagement such as tips for patients, questions to ask of their physicians and how to prepare for medical appointments.

**Juvenile Justice**

**Family Engagement in Juvenile Justice**This comprehensive literature review addresses the role of family engagement for youths involved in the juvenile justice system; cites research documenting how jurisdictions have attempted enhanced engagement, including policies that encourage family engagement. The review further addresses resources that help families to understand the juvenile justice process including practices such as parent training, family therapy, and family visitation; and outcome evidence for programs with family engagement strategies as key components.

**Engage, Involve, Empower: Family Engagement in the Juvenile Drug Treatment Courts**This brief provides recommendations for successful engagement of families in the juvenile drug treatment court process informed by key findings of a national survey, which measured court practices and staff perceptions related to family engagement. Also presented is essential information on substance use and addiction among young people; a self-evaluation tool to assess a court’s current practices; and features two juvenile drug treatment courts that demonstrate a strong commitment to family engagement.

**Juvenile Defense Attorneys and Family Engagement: Same Team, Different Roles**This brief is intended for both juvenile defenders and the families of their young clients. It provides an explanation of the roles family members and defenders play in a young person’s case; emphasizes the importance of both sides understanding the other’s role; maps out the benefits of collaboration between defense attorneys and young clients’ families; and outlines the opportunities for family and attorney collaboration throughout the duration of a youth’s delinquency case.

## References

1 U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services and Education, 20162 Child Welfare Information Gateway, 20163 Family Engagement Web-Based Practice Toolkit: Core Principles of Family Engagement Practices4 Burke, Mulvey, Schubert, & Garbin, 20145 American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 20096 National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health, 20087 Institute for Patient and Family Centered Care8 Child Welfare Information Gateway, 20179 Hoover-Dempsey, Walker, Sandler, Whetsel, Green, Wilkins, & Closson, 200510 Wood, Shankland, Jordan, & Pollard, 201411 Westmoreland, Lopez, & Rosenberg, 2009

## Other Resources on this Topic

### Announcements 

                          - 2022 National Drug and Alcohol Facts Week (NDAFW)
                          - 2023/2024 Prevention Resource Guide
                          - Archived Webinar: Innovative Practices to Promote Reunification
                          - Archived Webinar: Leveraging Partnerships in Planning/Hosting a Communities Talk Event
                          - Bipartisan Safer Communities Act Expands School Safety Programs and Funding
                          - Brief: Discriminatory Transgender Health Bills Have Critical Consequences for Youth
                          - Building Staff Co-Regulation to Support Healthy Relationships in Youth: A Guide for Practitioners
                          - Bullying Prevention Awareness Month
                          - Children’s Bureau Express Survey
                          - Department of Justice Awards Nearly $105 Million to Protect Children from Exploitation, Trauma, and Abuse
                          - Disrupting Stigma: How Understanding, Empathy, and Connection Can Improve Outcomes for Families Affected by Substance Use and Mental Disorders
                          - Event: National Conference on Juvenile Justice
                          - First Annual National Fentanyl Prevention and Awareness Day
                          - Healthy and Safe Swimming Week is May 23-29, 2022
                          - HHS Awards $256.6 Million for Equitable and Affordable Title X Family Planning Services Nationwide
                          - June is Internet Safety Month
                          - Justice Department Announces $21.72 Million to Reduce Sexual and Domestic Violence on Campus, Support Children and Youth, and Engage Men and Boys as Allies
                          - National Adoption Month 2022
                          - National Adoption Month 2022
                          - National Crime Victims’ Rights (NCVRW) Week
                          - National Day of Remembrance for Murder Victims
                          - Novavax Approved by CDC as an Additional COVID-19 Vaccine for Adolescents
                          - Observance: 2023 National Adoption Month
                          - Observance: 2023 National Veterans and Military Families Month
                          - OJJDP Seeking Nominations for National Missing Children’s Day Awards
                          - Permanency for Youth on Their Own Terms
                          - Redesigned National Adoption Month Website
                          - Report: A Guide to Effective Collaborations with Community-Based Organizations to Support Students Experiencing Homelessness
                          - Report: Building Co-Regulation Capacity to Support Positive Development for Youth with Foster Care Experience
                          - Report: Lessons from a Historic Decline in Child Poverty
                          - Report: School Health Profiles
                          - Report: Supporting Tribal Youth Attendance Achievement
                          - Report: Take Action for Adolescents: A Call to Action for Adolescent Health and Well-Being
                          - Report: The Condition of Education 2023
                          - Report: The State of Family-School Partnerships: Findings from a Survey of Public-School Parents
                          - Reproductive Rights Task Force
                          - Resource: 2022 Adoption Month Outreach Toolkit
                          - Resource: 2023 Red Ribbon Rally
                          - Resource: 9/11 Service Day Public Service Announcement
                          - Resource: A Handbook for Military Families: Helping You with Child Support
                          - Resource: A Look Inside Sharing Power in Child Welfare: A Podcast
                          - Resource: A Starter Kit on Engaging People with Lived Experience in Child Support Programs
                          - Resource: Addressing the Long-Term Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Children and Families
                          - Resource: Addressing Trauma and Mass Violence
                          - Resource: Advances in Supporting Kinship Caregivers – Part 3
                          - Resource: Advances in Supporting Kinship Caregivers — Part 5  Agencies and departments: Department of Health and Human Ser
                          - Resource: Advances in Supporting Kinship Caregivers Podcast Series
                          - Resource: AFFIRM Caregiver: Affirmative Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Caregivers of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender & Questioning (LGBTQ+) Populations
                          - Resource: Affirming and Supporting LGBTQ Children and Youth in Child Welfare
                          - Resource: All In: The Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness
                          - Resource: AMBER Advocate – Issue 4, 2022
                          - Resource: AMBER Alert Training and Technical Assistance Program Fact Sheet
                          - Resource: American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) Heritage Month Fun Facts
                          - Resource: Astronomy & Astrophysics for the Classroom
                          - Resource: Back to School Checklist for Parents
                          - Resource: Back to School Resources for Success
                          - Resource: Barriers to Authentic Youth Engagement in Permanency Planning
                          - Resource: Behavioral Health Beneficiary Survey
                          - Resource: Beyond the ACE Score: Perspectives on Child Trauma and Adversity Screening and Impact
                          - Resource: Blue Campaign College and University Toolkit on Human Trafficking
                          - Resource: Broadband Access Landscape
                          - Resource: Building Educator Pipelines Through Service 
                          - Resource: Building Multi-Disciplinary Core Planning Teams
                          - Resource: Building Partnerships with Organizations
                          - Resource: Bullying Prevention for Parents of Middle School Students
                          - Resource: CFSR Round 4 Planning and Implementation Tools
                          - Resource: Change and Implementation in Practice: Teaming Worksheets
                          - Resource: Child and Family Services Reviews (CFSRs) Webpage
                          - Resource: Child and Family Services Reviews (CFSRs) Webpage
                          - Resource: Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice System Involvement
                          - Resource: Children In Disasters Emergency Kit Checklists
                          - Resource: Children on the Autism Spectrum: Search Protocols and Questionnaire for First Responders
                          - Resource: Choose AmeriCorps Public Service Announcement
                          - Resource: Co-Regulation in Human Services
                          - Resource: Co-Regulation in Practice Series -- Strategies for Practitioners Who Serve Youth Aged 14-24
                          - Resource: Co-regulation: What It Is and Why it Matters Video
                          - Resource: Common Problems, Common Solutions: Looking Across Sectors at Strategies for Supporting Rural Youth and Families Tool-Kit
                          - Resource: Communities Talk to Prevent Underage Drinking: Success Stories
                          - Resource: Community Violence Intervention: The Chicago Story
                          - Resource: Connecting Conversations
                          - Resource: Court Improvement Programs: Collaboration Between Child Welfare Agencies and Legal and Judicial Communities
                          - Resource: Cultural Responsiveness Overview
                          - Resource: Culturally Responsive Pathways to Peer Programming in Tribal Communities
                          - Resource: Dear Colleague Letter on Addressing the Impacts of Parent and Caregiver Loss on Children
                          - Resource: Defining Child Exposure to Domestic Violence: Lessons From a Historical Review of the Literature
                          - Resource: Department of Defense School Liaison Program
                          - Resource: Department of Justice Awards Nearly $105 Million To Protect Children From Exploitation, Trauma and Abuse
                          - Resource: Determining Youth and Young Adult Eligibility for Services: Grantee Tools and Processes
                          - Resource: Determining Youth and Young Adult Eligibility for Services: Grantee Tools and Processes
                          - Resource: Developing a Graduate Mental Health Internship Program
                          - Resource: Direct Service Providers for Children and Families - Information for Home Visitors
                          - Resource: Distracted Driving
                          - Resource: Diversity & Inclusion Activities Under Title VI Fact Sheet
                          - Resource: Diversity, Racial Equity, and Inclusion in Child Welfare: Our Shared Vocabulary 
                          - Resource: Domestic Violence, Child Welfare, and the School System
                          - Resource: Encouraging Families to Visit a Literacy Website: A Randomized Study of the Impact of Email and Text Message Communications
                          - Resource: Encouraging In-kind Contributions for Communities Talk Activities
                          - Resource: Engaging People with Lived Experience: Resources from Division X Technical Assistance
                          - Resource: Engaging Survivors of Human Trafficking
                          - Resource: Engaging Youth and Young Adults in Community-Based Strategies to Improve Health Literacy
                          - Resource: English Learner Family Toolkit
                          - Resource: Essentials for Parenting Teens
                          - Resource: Establish an Emergency Action Plan
                          - Resource: Establishing Rules – Tips for Talking to Your Child about Appropriate Digital Behavior and Content
                          - Resource: Extended BMI-for-Age Growth Charts
                          - Resource: Families and Caregivers as Partners in School Emergency Management
                          - Resource: Family-Based Justice Center
                          - Resource: Family-Based Justice Center
                          - Resource: Federal Funding to Support LGBTQIA2S+ Children, Youth, Young Adults, and Families
                          - Resource: Flu Vaccine Social Media Toolkit
                          - Resource: Fostering Financial Empowerment for Youth and Young Adults with Disabilities
                          - Resource: From Complaint to Resolution: Understanding the Child Welfare Grievance Process
                          - Resource: From Crisis to Care: Building from 988 and Beyond for Better Mental Health Outcomes
                          - Resource: Future Self Tool
                          - Resource: Gathering and Using Family Input to Improve Child Support and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Services: Approaches from the Human Services Field
                          - Resource: Getting Ahead of a Problem
                          - Resource: Going to a Public Disaster Shelter During the COVID-19 Pandemic
                          - Resource: Guidance for Immigrant and Refugee Families: Parenting in a New Country
                          - Resource: Guidance for Immigrant and Refugee Families: The Child Welfare System
                          - Resource: Guides for How to Incorporate Coregulation with Older Youth in Foster Care
                          - Resource: Having the Normalcy Conversation
                          - Resource: Health-Care Coverage for Children and Youth in Foster Care—and After
                          - Resource: Helping Victims of Mass Violence & Terrorism: Planning, Response, Recovery, and Resources
                          - Resource: Housing Services
                          - Resource: How Schools Can Combat Human Trafficking in Partnership With People With Lived Experience
                          - Resource: How to Help Children and Teens Manage Their Stress
                          - Resource: How to Talk About Bullying
                          - Resource: Human Trafficking Implications for Adolescent Health Outcomes Tip Sheet
                          - Resource: Improving Mental, Behavioral and Academic Supports to Students and Families
                          - Resource: In-Home Services to Strengthen Children and Families
                          - Resource: Infographics on Trauma-Informed Advocacy for Survivors of Human Trafficking at Points of Contact
                          - Resource: Integrating Effective Practices to Identify Youth Victims of Human Trafficking
                          - Resource: Intergenerational Engagement
                          - Resource: Intra-Agency Task Force on Reproductive Health
                          - Resource: It’s All Relative: Supporting Kinship Care Discussion Guides and Video Series
                          - Resource: Judicial Leadership for Community-Based Alternatives to Juvenile Secure Confinement
                          - Resource: Key Considerations for Applying an Equity Lens to Collaborative Practice
                          - Resource: Key Topics for Families
                          - Resource: Letter to State Directors of Special Education on Ensuring a High-Quality Education for Highly Mobile Children
                          - Resource: LGBTQ+ Youth Engagement Virtually and In-Person
                          - Resource: LGBTQIA2S+ Youth Experiencing Homelessness
                          - Resource: Maltreatment in Foster Care
                          - Resource: Mapping Community Resources
                          - Resource: Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention for LGBTQIA2S+ Youth
                          - Resource: Monkeypox Guidance
                          - Resource: Move Your Way Campaign
                          - Resource: Multilingual Learner Toolkits: Find What Works for You
                          - Resource: National Crime Victims’ Rights Week Resource Guide
                          - Resource: National Partnership for Student Success (NPSS) Aligned Programs in all 50 States
                          - Resource: National School Breakfast Program
                          - Resource: National School Lunch Program
                          - Resource: National Teen Driver Safety Week Materials
                          - Resource: National Training and Development Curriculum (NTDC)
                          - Resource: National Veterans and Military Families Month Fact Sheet
                          - Resource: National Veterans and Military Families Month Toolkit
                          - Resource: One Pill Can Kill Campaign
                          - Resource: Our Goals, Our Lives Video Series
                          - Resource: Parent Engagement
                          - Resource: Parent Partner Program Navigator
                          - Resource: Parenting Your Adopted Teenager
                          - Resource: Partnering With Parents for System Change
                          - Resource: Permanency Planning with Youth
                          - Resource: Placement Stability
                          - Resource: Planning Tool for Youth Engagement
                          - Resource: Prescription for Disaster: How Teens Misuse Medicine
                          - Resource: Prevent Unsafe Drinking on Campus
                          - Resource: Preventing ACEs Training Module for Educators
                          - Resource: Preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs): Online Training for Faith, Spiritual, and Religious Communities
                          - Resource: Preventing Childhood Adversity Through Economic Support and Social Norm Strategies
                          - Resource: Preventing Youth Hate Crimes & Identity-Based Bullying Fact Sheet
                          - Resource: Prevention Matters Multimedia Gallery
                          - Resource: Prevention Profiles: Take Five - Jeff Coady, Psy.D.
                          - Resource: Prioritizing Youth Voice: The Importance of Authentic Youth Engagement in Case Planning
                          - Resource: Private Schools: Emergency Management Planning for All Settings
                          - Resource: Probation Reform: A Toolkit for State Advisory Groups (SAGs)
                          - Resource: Productive Partnerships with Youth and Families: Commitment to Lived Expertise
                          - Resource: Racial Equity Reflection Videos
                          - Resource: Raise the Bar: Resources for Parents and Families
                          - Resource: Recovery Planning for Schools and Institutions of Higher Education in the Immediate Aftermath of a Significant or Federally Declared Natural Disaster 
                          - Resource: Recruiting and Supporting Resource Families in Tribal Communities
                          - Resource: Recurrence of Maltreatment
                          - Resource: Recursos en Español
                          - Resource: Red Ribbon Patch Program
                          - Resource: Reducing Homelessness Among Young People Transitioning from Foster Care
                          - Resource: Reducing Homelessness Among Young People Transitioning from Foster Care
                          - Resource: Reentry Matters: Voices of Experience
                          - Resource: Reentry to Foster Care
                          - Resource: Reflections – Stories of Foster Care
                          - Resource: Relationships as a Support for Reunification
                          - Resource: Relationships First: Creating Connections that Help Young People Thrive
                          - Resource: Responding to Human Trafficking Through the Child Welfare System Training
                          - Resource: Responding to Types of Child Abuse or Neglect
                          - Resource: Reunification
                          - Resource: SAFE Family Support Locator
                          - Resource: SAMHSA's National Model Standards for Peer Support Certification (Spanish Version)
                          - Resource: SchoolSafety.com Communications Center
                          - Resource: Screening and Assessment Tools
                          - Resource: Secure Our World
                          - Resource: September 2022 Spotlight on Kinship Care
                          - Resource: Service and Advocacy Organization Leaders Share Insights for an Applied Research Agenda on Black Children and Families
                          - Resource: Services to Support Children Living in Kinship and Nonrelative Foster Care 2008-2009
                          - Resource: Social Influencers of Health and Education Needs Assessment: A Pathway for School Health and Mental Health Professionals
                          - Resource: Social-Emotional Learning and Mental Health Toolkit: Support for Systems and Programs
                          - Resource: Stability of Mental Disorder Prevalence Estimates Among School-aged Children and Adolescents: Findings from the Community-based Project to Learn about Youth
                          - Resource: Standing Together to Prevent Bullying
                          - Resource: State Kinship Care Contacts and Programs
                          - Resource: State Survey Analysis
                          - Resource: Stop Bullying on the Spot
                          - Resource: Stop Overdose
                          - Resource: Strategic Planning in Child Welfare: Agency Process Alignment Toolkit
                          - Resource: Strategies for Involving Parents in School Health
                          - Resource: Strategies to Help Parents and Families Create Healthy and Supportive School Environments
                          - Resource: Strengthening Kinship Care and Prioritizing Equitable Support for Kinship Caregivers
                          - Resource: Study of State Policies to Prohibit Aiding and Abetting Sexual Misconduct in Schools
                          - Resource: Suicide Prevention Resource for Action
                          - Resource: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
                          - Resource: Supporting Families with Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders
                          - Resource: Supporting the Health and Well-Being of Transgender and Gender Diverse Youth
                          - Resource: Thanksgiving Day Fun Facts
                          - Resource: Thanksgiving Impaired Driving Prevention
                          - Resource: The AMBER Advocate, Issue 3, 2022
                          - Resource: The Impact of COVID-19 on College and University Students Who Self-Injure: Risks and Strategies for Mitigation
                          - Resource: The National Partnership for Student Success
                          - Resource: The Power of Partnerships: What Fatherhood Programs Can Learn from Child Welfare
                          - Resource: Tip Sheets on Everyday Parenting Topics
                          - Resource: Tourette Syndrome Education & Training
                          - Resource: Transition to Adulthood & Independent Living Outreach Toolkit
                          - Resource: Transporting Students Experiencing Homelessness
                          - Resource: Trauma-Informed Practice Strategies (TIPS) for Supporting Caregivers of Native Youth in Out-of-Home Care
                          - Resource: Tribal Customary Adoption
                          - Resource: U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on Social Media and Youth Mental Health
                          - Resource: U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on the Healing Effects of Social Connection
                          - Resource: Use of Data in Child and Family Services Reviews
                          - Resource: Using the Summer and Afterschool Needs Assessment to Drive Program Quality: A Companion Guide
                          - Resource: Vaping Prevention and Education: Resources for Talking with Students
                          - Resource: Voices of Youth
                          - Resource: What Does an Effective Support System Look Like?
                          - Resource: What Works Fact Sheet: Violence Prevention
                          - Resource: Why Some Youth Bully
                          - Resource: Working Virtually With Families of LGBTQ+ Youth.
                          - Resource: Working with Immigrant and Refugee Families: A Guide for Child Welfare Agencies
                          - Resource: Working with Immigrant and Refugee Families: A Guide for Child Welfare Caseworkers
                          - Resource: Youth Advisory Councils
                          - Resource: Youth Human Trafficking Scenario Animated Series
                          - Resource: Youth Justice Action Month (YJAM) Toolkit
                          - Resource: Youth Justice Action Month: A Message from John Legend
                          - Resource: Youth Mental Health Report
                          - Resource: Youth Voices
                          - Resource: Youth Voices
                          - Resources for American Indian and Alaska Natives (AI/AN)
                          - Second Chance Month: April 2023
                          - Social Media Campaign: Teen Tuesdays
                          - Social Media Toolkit: National Reunification Month 2022
                          - Supporting LGBTQ+ Youth: A Guide for Foster Parents
                          - Toolkit: National Foster Care Month 2022 Outreach
                          - Toolkit: Preventing Mass Attacks, Saving Lives
                          - U.S. Department of Education Creates National Parents and Families Engagement Council to Help Ensure Pandemic Recovery Efforts Meet Students’ Needs
                          - U.S. Department of Education Disperses Funds to Support Parents of Children with Disabilities
                          - Virtual Training: Preventing Mass Attacks in Our Communities
                          - Webinar Archive: Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Meeting
                          - Webinar Recording: Building Parent Leadership and Power to Support Faster, Lasting Reunification and Prevent System Involvement
                          - Webinar Recording: Elevating the Leadership of Students and Families with Lived Expertise
                          - Webinar Recording: Empowering Youth Finding Points of Connection
                          - Webinar Recording: Enhancing Professional Competencies for Preventing Drug and Alcohol Misuse Among College Students: Strategic Planning
                          - Webinar Recording: Providing Emergency Preparedness Supports for Students Experiencing Homelessness
                          - Webinar Recording: Public Health and STEM with the CDC
                          - Webinar Recording: Social Science Research and the Mental Health Crisis in Minority Youths and Adolescents
                          - Webinar Series: Community of Practice with Healthy Native Youth Part 2
                          - Webinar Series: Rooting Young Adult Mental Health Services in Culturally Sustaining Values & Practices
                          - Webinar Series: Supporting Gender Diverse Indigenous Youth
                          - Webinar: College Planning Made Easy
                          - Webinar: Evidence Innovation: How AmeriCorps Investments are Addressing the Opioid Crisis
                          - Webinar: Participatory Systems Change for Equity: Centering Community Wisdom and Collective Action to Transform Child-, Youth-, and Family-Serving Systems
                          - Working With LGBTQ+ Families in Foster Care and Adoption
                          - Youth Partnership: A Call to Action for State Advisory Groups (SAGs)
                          - Youth Voices Have Moved to YE4C

### Briefs 

                          - Strategic Planning in Child Welfare: Strategies for Meaningful Youth, Family, and Other Partner Engagement

### Collaboration Profiles 

                          - Program Components
                          - Promising Practices/Accomplishments
                          - Y2CONNECT.org

### Data Sources 

                          - 2011-2021 YRBS Data Summary and Trends Report

### Feature Articles 

                          - Healthy Youth Development through Self-Regulation and Co-Regulation
                          - Just Launched! Redesigned YE4C
                          - Resources to Support Youth Who Have Lost a Caregiver

### Programs 

                          - John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood

### Resources 

                          - Webinar Recording: Helping the LGBTQIA+ Community Before Disasters: Preparedness and Mitigation Considerations
                          - Youth Advisory Councils

### Youth Topics 

                          - Family Engagement

## Youth Briefs

How Individualized Education Program (IEP) Transition Planning Makes a Difference for Youth with Disabilities
Youth who receive special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA 2004) and especially young adults of transition age, should be involved in planning for life after high school as early as possible and no later than age 16. Transition services should stem from the individual youth’s needs and strengths, ensuring that planning takes into account his or her interests, preferences, and desires for the future.

Youth Transitioning to Adulthood: How Holding Early Leadership Positions Can Make a Difference
Research links early leadership with increased self-efficacy and suggests that leadership can help youth to develop decision making and interpersonal skills that support successes in the workforce and adulthood. In addition, young leaders tend to be more involved in their communities, and have lower dropout rates than their peers. Youth leaders also show considerable benefits for their communities, providing valuable insight into the needs and interests of young people

How Trained Service Professionals and Self-Advocacy Makes a Difference for Youth with Mental Health, Substance Abuse, or Co-occurring Issues
Statistics reflecting the number of youth suffering from mental health, substance abuse, and co-occurring disorders highlight the necessity for schools, families, support staff, and communities to work together to develop targeted, coordinated, and comprehensive transition plans for young people with a history of mental health needs and/or substance abuse.

Young Adults Formerly in Foster Care: Challenges and Solutions
Nearly 30,000 youth aged out of foster care in Fiscal Year 2009, which represents nine percent of the young people involved in the foster care system that year. This transition can be challenging for youth, especially youth who have grown up in the child welfare system.

Coordinating Systems to Support Transition Age Youth with Mental Health Needs
Research has demonstrated that as many as one in five children/youth have a diagnosable mental health disorder. Read about how coordination between public service agencies can improve treatment for these youth.

Civic Engagement Strategies for Transition Age Youth
Civic engagement has the potential to empower young adults, increase their self-determination, and give them the skills and self-confidence they need to enter the workforce. Read about one youth’s experience in AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC).

## Main navigation

- Family Engagement
- Service Level: Engaging Families as Partners in Decision-Making
- System Level: Engaging Families as Partners in System Improvement
- Impact of Family Engagement
- Components
- Policies
- Strategies
- Special Populations
- References

## Help Spread the Word About youth.gov

Get a Web Badge

## Latest Resources

### Announcements

Webinar: College Planning Made Easy

Event: National Conference on Juvenile Justice

Resource: Change and Implementation in Practice: Teaming Worksheets

### Briefs

Strategic Planning in Child Welfare: Strategies for Meaningful Youth, Family, and Other Partner Engagement

Strategic Planning in Child Welfare: Strategies for Meaningful Youth, Family, and Other Partner Engagement

### Collaboration Profiles

Promising Practices/Accomplishments

Program Components

Y2CONNECT.org

### Data Sources

2011-2021 YRBS Data Summary and Trends Report

2011-2021 YRBS Data Summary and Trends Report

2011-2021 YRBS Data Summary and Trends Report

### Feature Articles

Healthy Youth Development through Self-Regulation and Co-Regulation

Resources to Support Youth Who Have Lost a Caregiver

Just Launched! Redesigned YE4C

### Resources

Webinar Recording: Helping the LGBTQIA+ Community Before Disasters: Preparedness and Mitigation Considerations

Youth Advisory Councils

Webinar Recording: Helping the LGBTQIA+ Community Before Disasters: Preparedness and Mitigation Considerations

### Youth Topics

Family Engagement