I
104TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 2807
To consolidate Federal youth prevention and youth development programs
and create a new process and structure for providing Federal assistance
for these programs, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
DECEMBER 18 (legislative day, DECEMBER 15), 1995
Mr. WATTS of Oklahoma (for himself, Ms. MOLINARI, Mr. PAYNE of New Jer-
sey, and Mr. TALENT) introduced the following bill; which was referred
to the Committee on Economic and Educational Opportunities, and in ad-
dition to the Committees on the Judiciary and Commerce, for a period
to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consider-
ation of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee
concerned
A BILL
To consolidate Federal youth prevention and youth develop-
ment programs and create a new process and structure
for providing Federal assistance for these programs, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the
‘‘Youth Development Community Block Grant Act of
1995’’.
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents is
as follows:
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Findings.
Sec. 3. Purposes.
Sec. 4. Definitions.
Sec. 5. General distribution of funds.
Sec. 6. Distribution of State allotments.
Sec. 7. Distribution of local allocations.
Sec. 8. Distribution to other entities.
Sec. 9. Distribution to grant recipients.
Sec. 10. Reallotment and reallocation.
Sec. 11. Community Youth Development Board.
Sec. 12. Duties of Community Boards.
Sec. 13. Duties of the States.
Sec. 14. Duties of the Assistant Secretary.
Sec. 15. Repeals.
Sec. 16. Conforming amendments.
Sec. 17. Transfer of funds.
Sec. 18. Effective date and transition provisions.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) In an increasingly complex and competitive
world economy, the human capital of the United
States is its most important resource. Too many
young people in the United States are reaching
adulthood unprepared to be productive workers, ef-
fective parents, or responsible citizens.
(2) Over the past decade, public concern related
to young people has focused primarily on improving
academic performance and combating youth prob-
lems such as substance abuse and juvenile delin-
quency.
(3) Young people who lack self-confidence, self-
discipline, respect for others, and a sense of connec-
tion to their families and communities, are unlikely
to be successful in school, and far more likely to en-
gage in high-risk behaviors.
(4) Parents have primary responsibility for the
social, moral, emotional, physical, and cognitive de-
velopment of their children. However, tremendous
social and demographic changes during the last 30
years have had a significant effect on family life and
youth development, increasing the need for programs
to strengthen families and help parents meet the so-
cial, moral, emotional, physical, and cognitive needs
of their children.
(5) The lack of supervision of youth by parents
and the lack of meaningful activity after school for
youth contributes to the spread of violent juvenile
delinquency in the form of youth and gang violence,
drug trafficking, dangerous and self-destructive be-
havior, and lack of hope among youth in our Nation.
(6) The United States expects too much of its
schools if the Nation asks the schools to meet single-
handedly the needs described in paragraph (4) in ad-
dition to accomplishing their basic educational mis-
sion. Only a strong partnership among community-
based youth development organizations, community-
based youth-serving organizations, community-based
family-serving organizations, local government, law
enforcement, juvenile and family courts, local schools
and local educational agencies, local businesses (in-
cluding small businesses, businesses that produce or
sell products that may be abused, and large indus-
tries), philanthropic organizations, the religious com-
munity, and families can create a community envi-
ronment that truly supports the youth of the Nation
in reaching their highest potential.
(7) Youth development programs, including
youth clubs, sports and recreation programs,
mentoring programs, leadership development activi-
ties, and community service programs, make a major
contribution to helping youth develop the life skills
and values that will prepare the youth for the chal-
lenges of adolescence and the independence and re-
sponsibilities of adulthood.
(8) Participation in positive youth development
programs can lead to a reduction in high-risk behav-
iors, including school failure, teenage pregnancy, use
of alcohol and drugs, and juvenile delinquency. Many
youth who would greatly benefit from such programs
do not have access due to factors that include lack
of coordination among the programs and inequitable
distribution of existing resources.
(9) Community-based youth-serving organiza-
tions, private and public, are an effective resource in
developing and implementing community youth de-
velopment plans, both because of the responsiveness
of the organizations to local community values and
concerns, and the ability of the organizations to mo-
bilize community resources.
(10) Notwithstanding the efforts of community-
based youth-serving organizations, in most local
communities youth development efforts are so frag-
mented that millions of youth nationwide go
unserved, and no process exists through which key
groups regularly come together to develop a com-
prehensive approach to youth development. Without
a mechanism for coordination, narrowly focused
Federal programs are unable to meet the com-
prehensive needs of the youth of the Nation.
(11) Narrowly targeted categorical programs
have created a multitude of Federal funding streams
which have become a barrier to effective program co-
ordination and the provision of comprehensive serv-
ices for children and youth.
(12) It is critical that the Federal Government
adopt a comprehensive strategy in promoting the
positive development of youth, and encourage and
empower communities to develop and implement
comprehensive youth development plans.
SEC. 3. PURPOSES.
It is the purpose of this Act to create a single, com-
prehensive Federal strategy for community-based youth
development programs, and to support communities in de-
signing community strategic plans for youth development
that—
(1) support the primary role of the family in
positive youth development;
(2) give priority to prevention of youth prob-
lems and crime through youth development;
(3) promote increased community coordination
and collaboration in meeting the developmental
needs of youth;
(4) support the development and expansion of
community-based youth development programs to re-
spond to local needs; and
(5) promote community partnerships that link
youth development programs with services provided
by community-based youth development organiza-
tions, community-based youth-serving organizations,
community-based family-serving organizations, local
government (including parks and recreation agen-
cies), law enforcement, juvenile and family courts,
and local schools and local educational agencies, and
other segments of the community.
SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.
As used in this Act:
(1) ASSISTANT SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Assist-
ant Secretary’’ means the Assistant Secretary for
Children and Families of the Department of Health
and Human Services.
(2) COMMUNITY-BASED.—The term ‘‘commu-
nity-based’’—
(A) used with respect to an organization,
means an organization that is representative of
a community or a significant segment of a com-
munity and is engaged in providing services to
the community; and
(B) used with respect to a program or
service, means a program or service provided to
the community in which the program or service
is located.
(3) COMMUNITY BOARD.—The term ‘‘Commu-
nity Board’’ means a Community Youth Develop-
ment Board established under section 11.
(4) COUNTY.—The term ‘‘county’’, used to
refer to a political subdivision of Vermont, Rhode Is-
land, Connecticut, Hawaii, Alaska, or another State
with similar local government, means a city, town,
township, village, or other general purpose political
subdivision.
(5) LOCAL EDUCATIONAL AGENCY.—The term
‘‘local educational agency’’ has the meaning given
the term in section 14101 of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 8801).
(6) LOW-INCOME FAMILY.—The term ‘‘low-in-
come family’’ means a family with an income below
the poverty line.
(7) OUTCOME OBJECTIVE.—The term ‘‘outcome
objective’’ means an objective that relates to the im-
pact of a program or initiative, with respect to the
participants in the program or initiative, the fami-
lies, peer groups, or schools of the participants, or
the community that the program or initiative serves,
including—
(A) an objective relating to changes in the
competencies described in paragraph (15)(A) of
individual participants in the program or initia-
tive;
(B) an objective relating to reducing the
incidence of high-risk behaviors, such as school
failure, violence, teenage pregnancy, use of alco-
hol, use of illegal drugs, and juvenile delin-
quency, among youth in the community; and
(C) an objective relating to increasing pro-
tective factors and reducing risk factors for the
participants, the families, peer groups, or
schools of the participants, or the community.
(8) OUTLYING
AREA.—The term ‘‘outlying
area’’ means the United States Virgin Islands,
Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the
Northern Mariana Islands, the Republic of the Mar-
shall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia,
and the Republic of Palau.
(9) POVERTY LINE.—The term ‘‘poverty line’’
means the poverty line (as defined by the Office of
Management and Budget, and revised annually in
accordance with section 673(2) of the Community
Services Block Grant Act (42 U.S.C. 9902(2)) appli-
cable to a family of the size involved.
(10) PROCESS OBJECTIVE.—The term ‘‘process
objective’’ means an objective that relates to the
manner in which a program or initiative is carried
out, including—
(A) an objective relating to the degree to
which the program or initiative is reaching its
intended target population;
(B) an objective relating to the degree to
which the program or initiative addresses
known risk factors for youth problem behaviors
and incorporates activities that inhibit the be-
haviors and that build on protective factors for
youth;
(C) an objective relating to the number,
age, gender, and ethnicity of the youth involved
in the program or initiative;
(D) an objective relating to the degree to
which the services delivered are consistent with
the intended program model; and
(E) an objective relating to the cost of de-
livering services under the program or initiative.
(11) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means each of
the several States of the United States, the District
of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
(12) SUBSTANCE ABUSE.—The term ‘‘substance
abuse’’ has the meaning given the term in section
534 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C.
290cc–34).
(13) YOUTH.—The term ‘‘youth’’ means an in-
dividual who is not younger than age 6 and not
older than age 18.
(14) YOUTH DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATION.—
The term ‘‘youth development organization’’ means
a private nonprofit youth-serving organization with a
major emphasis on providing youth development pro-
grams.
(15) YOUTH
DEVELOPMENT
PROGRAM.—The
term ‘‘youth development program’’ means a pro-
gram that—
(A) in order to enable youth to deal suc-
cessfully with the challenges of adolescence and
prepare the youth for the independence and re-
sponsibilities of being parents, workers, and
citizens, attempts to help the youth to de-
velop—
(i) social competencies, such as work
and family life skills, problem-solving
skills, and communication skills;
(ii) moral competencies, such as per-
sonal values, ethics, and a sense of respon-
sibility and citizenship (including participa-
tion in civic life and community service);
(iii) emotional competencies, such as a
sense of personal identity, self-confidence,
autonomy, and the ability to resist negative
peer pressure;
(iv) physical competencies, such as
physical conditioning, endurance, and an
appreciation for and strategies to achieve
lifelong physical health and fitness; and
(v) cognitive competencies, such as
knowledge, reasoning ability, creativity,
and a lifelong commitment to learning and
achievement;
(B) conducts activities with a primarily
nonacademic focus;
(C) employs primarily active and experien-
tial learning methods;
(D) builds relationships between positive
adult role models and youth in a program set-
ting; and
(E) promotes the competencies described
in subparagraph (A) through group and one-to-
one activities, which may include activities in
youth clubs, sports and recreation, peer coun-
seling and teaching, mentoring, the arts, values
education, leadership development, crime and
delinquency prevention, community service or
volunteerism, literacy, before school and after
school programs, prevention of violence (includ-
ing violence in the home), mediation skills