Action Steps

Federal agencies and interagency working groups have undertaken a number of different approaches to support and improve outcomes for the most vulnerable youth—those who are disconnected from school, work, or family and those facing violence or homelessness. Below are examples of some of those programs and efforts.

• Interagency Forum on Disconnected Youth (IFDY)
  The IFDY, established in March 2012, is an out-growth of the President’s 2013 Budget proposals for Performance Partnership Pilot authority and targeted funding to support cross-agency initiatives to support disconnected youth.  The IFDY is committed to improving educational, employment and other key outcomes for this population through interagency and intergovernmental collaboration.  The IFDY issued a Request for Information (RFI) on Disconnected Youth to gather information on how states and localities could use the proposed Performance Partnership Pilot authority as well as existing best practices for serving this population. Learn more about disconnected youth, the IFDY and view the summary of responses from the RFI.

• U.S. Department of Labor’s Demonstration and Evaluation Project of Promising Models to Serve Disconnected Youth
  The U.S. Department of Labor is designing a demonstration in multiple sites to test and rigorously evaluate promising or evidence-based strategies or models that will substantially improve outcomes for youth who are disconnected or at risk of disconnection.  The proposed demonstration project will seek out, pilot, and test comprehensive strategies, such as community/neighborhood-based strategies, sector/industry-based training programs that connect youth in the treatment group to occupations that are in demand and growing, a mix of school and wage-paying work, provision of supportive services, mentoring, follow-up services, and other activities. 

• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Youth Demonstration Development Project
  HHS is developing a conceptual framework for programs supported by the Administration for Children and Families that serve at-risk youth.  The framework focuses on improving the well-being and economic self-sufficiency of youth, including their career workforce trajectories and avoidance of public assistance.  It will help inform HHS decisions about possible demonstrations and evaluations of innovative program approaches to improving youth outcomes.

• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Risk and Protective Factor Framework
  HHS is developing a framework to guide strategies to promote protective factors, build resilience, and promote the development of social and emotional well-being across the populations served by the Administration for Children and Families.  The model should serve as a guide to address program, evaluation, and research needs, based on identified gaps.  In 2012, HHS also distributed an Information Memorandum on Promoting Social and Emotional Well-Being for Children and Youth Receiving Child Welfare Services.

• U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness Youth Framework
  In 2012, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness amended Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Youth Homelessness.  The amendment was developed to address what strategies and supports should be implemented to improve educational outcomes for children and youth, and the steps that need to be taken to assist unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness.  The amendment includes a logic model and preliminary research-based intervention model to guide continuing practice and research.  The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness has committed to an approach to better understand the number of unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness, and for the first time, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will include youth in its Point-in-Time count.

• National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention
  The National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention (the Forum) is a network of communities and federal agencies that work together, share information, and build local capacity to prevent and reduce youth violence.  The Forum operates on three key principles: 1) multidisciplinary partnerships, 2) balanced approaches that include prevention, intervention, enforcement, and reentry strategies, and 3) data and evidence-driven strategies.  The goals of the Forum are to elevate youth and gang violence as an issue of national significance, enhance local capacity, and sustain progress and systems change through engagement, alignment, and assessment.