Q&A

Young people who show up at the doors of youth-serving agencies face a host of problems. They often need housing, medical and mental health care, help staying in school—all issues that can have a legal component. Which means that sometimes, the best ally a youth worker could have in untangling thorny issues for their clients is a lawyer. Even better, a pro-bono lawyer.
An average family in the United States is about half as strong as it has the potential to be. That’s the conclusion of a new study of family assets, or strengths, conducted by the nonprofit research and education group The Search Institute.
Trauma-informed care approaches are important but limited, according to Susan McKenzie-Mohr, primary author of “Responding to the Needs of Youth Who are Homeless: Calling for Politicized Trauma-Informed Intervention” (abstract).
For Kelly Miller, getting hooked on “The Vampire Diaries,” a TV show about two vampire brothers in a small Virginia town, is a job hazard.
The Indian Health Service funds 11 regional centers across the country that treat Native youth with substance abuse problems. We spoke to Skye Bass, an IHS public health specialist, about the culturally specific approach used by the Youth Regional Treatment Centers.  
Until recently, police in St. Paul, MN, had only one question when they released a runaway youth from custody: Did the young person get home?
In February, the Guttmacher Institute released “Facts on American Teens' Sexual and Reproductive Health,” a survey of over two-dozen recent studies and publications on the topic of adolescent sexual behavior. This is the first such survey from the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit that promotes sexual and reproductive health, since 2009.
Births among African American teens have fallen a whopping 47 percent since the early 1990s. Still, half of all African American girls in the United States will get pregnant at least once before their 20th birthdays.
Each year thousands of young women run away from home. To survive, some girls steal. Some sell their bodies for money or a place to stay. Many use drugs and alcohol to cope with life on the streets. Eventually, many girls end up in the juvenile justice system. NCFY spoke with Lawanda Ravoira, director of the National Girls Institute, about how to keep homeless young women out of trouble, out of...
In California’s Fresno County, teens who need a safe place to go have 263 options. The county participates in the Safe Place program, a national initiative that gives youth ages 11 to 17 somewhere to get help when they can’t go home. Local businesses, schools, libraries, fire stations, busses and other locations open their doors and connect young people to the nearest shelter and...
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