The child welfare-to-prison pipeline describes the systems that funnel youth from the child welfare system into the juvenile justice system. The child welfare system often targets and disproportionately surveils black and brown families—largely those living in poverty and dealing with the challenges of mental health, substance use, and over-policing by the criminal legal system. The National Association of Counsel for Children (NACC) will host a webinar on March 22, 2022 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. ET. Speakers will stress the importance of strengthening community resources and preventing family disintegration as a tool to end the child welfare-to-prison pipeline. There is a registration fee for non-NACC members to attend this webinar.

The Hartford, Connecticut Generation Work local partnership aims to elevate the importance of positive youth development as a strategy for employment and training organizations across sectors to better support young people’s employment readiness and success. This brief examines how the Hartford Generation Work partnership adapted its efforts to engage young adults more authentically by establishing a youth advisory council called the Young Legends to help shape its work. The brief also focuses on the benefits and challenges of the partnership’s efforts, offers examples of ways in which Young Legends has elevated young people’s voices, and describes how the Young Legends’ input has influenced action and change.

This fact sheet provides a brief overview of findings from a study of challenges and strategies for young people (ages 14 to 24) seeking support from key safety net programs. The fact sheet draws findings based primarily on a series of conversations with young people and staff members of youth-serving organizations. Young people and staff members identified key challenges with safety net policies and practices that do not reflect the needs or developmental life stage of young people. The resource also provides context about how structural racism affects people’s experiences with the safety net. Strategies for simplifying access and supporting young people in navigating processes, empowering and supporting young people in decision making, replacing punitive approaches with support and minimized burden, and making structural changes are also presented.

On June 7 and 10, 2021, the Children’s Bureau and the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) brought experts together virtually to discuss findings from the Building Co-Regulation Capacity to Support Positive Development for Youth with Foster Care Experience report. Participants included child welfare program directors, researchers with expertise in self-regulation and child development, federal staff, foster parents, and therapists, with several attendees having lived experience in the child welfare system.

The Casey Life Skills (CLS) Toolkit assesses independent skills youth need to achieve their long-term goals and aims to guide youth toward developing healthy and productive lives. Functional areas that the toolkit assesses include daily living and self-care activities, maintaining healthy relationships, work and study habits, using community resources, money management, computer literacy and online safety, civic engagement, and navigating the child welfare system. The toolkit provides CLS assessments, a Practitioner’s Guide (that includes best practices for administering and scoring the assessments), and a Resources to Inspire Guide (a list of resources that can help strengthen independent life skills).

The National Runaway Safeline and the Family and Youth Services Bureau jointly developed this toolkit in recognition of National Runaway Prevention Month, a public awareness campaign created to “shine a light” on the experiences of runaway and homeless youth. This toolkit is designed for community-based organizations, advocacy groups, runaway and homeless youth service providers, schools, and other stakeholders committed to supporting vulnerable youth. It contains resources to help successfully engage with stakeholders to build awareness of the issues runaway and homeless youth face.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation brief describes perceived benefits of Youth At-Risk of Homelessness comprehensive service models for youth and young adults and child welfare systems. The brief provides recommendations for implementing models intended to reduce homelessness among youth and young adults with child welfare involvement.

The U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy has released a Center for Advancing Policy on Employment for Youth (CAPE-Youth) brief which discusses the ways states increased participation and performance in career and technical education (CTE) programs for students with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The brief also identifies lessons learned and how policymakers can incorporate these lessons after the pandemic to support the aims of the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V) and the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation brief describes the experiences of six employment programs participating in the Next Generation of Enhanced Employment Strategies (NextGen) Project. The brief presents key takeaways from their efforts to maintain and develop new connections with employers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Four of the programs serve people with mental illness; one serves TANF participants with disabilities or who care for dependents with disabilities; and one serves young adults with disabilities who are transitioning from school to work. The brief offers lessons for other employment programs about promising strategies for working with employers that might endure beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.