Announcements

This webpage highlights resources to help raise awareness of the many struggles, challenges, and triumphs of Alaskan Native and American Indian youth, including youth who identify as Two-Spirit or Native LGBTQ+. The webpage also includes a video explaining the origins of the term “Two-Spirit” in Native American cultures. Learn more. 

This tool supports child welfare teams in preparing for and conducting a psychological safety assessment. Teams should debrief the results together and make a collaborative plan for growth. Learn more. 

Grants.gov Deadline: May 9, 2024, 8:59 pm ET 
JustGrants Deadline: May 14, 2024, 8:59 pm ET 

Solicitation Webinar: March 19, 2024, 2:00 pm ET. Register to attend. 

With this solicitation (PDF, 33 pages), BJA will fund programs that support cross-system collaboration to improve public safety responses and outcomes for individuals with mental health disorders (MHDs) or co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders (MHSUDs). This program will focus on pretrial, prosecution, courts, probation/parole, and addressing the needs directly related to the criminal activity of people in the following categories: 

• People with mental health conditions 

• People experiencing homelessness 

• Marginalized communities with minimal access to treatment, needing wrap around services, in the criminal justice system, and leaving incarceration 

Learn more and apply. 

This resource is designed to help child welfare teams build shared understanding of psychological safety, its connection to safety science, and the conditions associated with psychologically safe teams. Users can engage in individual reflections, team activities, and discussion to explore strategies for fostering psychological safety on their team. Learn more.  

This tip sheet is designed to help young people, their caseworkers, and supportive adults ensure that vital documents (e.g., birth certificates, social security cards or information, driver’s licenses, health insurance information, medical records) and information related to credit reports are provided well before transition from foster care. Learn more. 

This report (PDF, 42 pages) presents a synthesis of select findings from National Institute of Justice-supported research projects on public mass shootings, including school mass shootings, and identifies areas of need and interest for future research and recommendations.  Learn more. 

This tool (PDF, 22 pages) is designed to help state education agencies (SEAs), local education agencies (LEAs), and other educators work collaboratively to leverage relationships with families and establish meaningful engagement. By using a continuous improvement process, teams at local, district, and state levels will assess current family engagement practices, identify gaps, determine improvement practices that align with the components of authentic engagement, prioritize practices to implement, and monitor and adjust practices family engagement practices to improve school engagement and attendance supports and outcomes for continuous improvement. Learn more (PDF, 22 pages). 

This program provides qualified college or university students in intelligence or cybersecurity career paths the opportunity to work alongside highly skilled intelligence or cybersecurity professionals at DHS, gain hands-on technical experience, interact with experts and peers at professional development events and expand their professional network at national conferences. The program places a particular focus on recruiting students at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). During the 12-week program, participants will be immersed in a federal work environment by collaborating with subject matter expert mentors on projects and performing assigned tasks on the intelligence and cybersecurity track. Learn more and apply. 

This webpage contains a set of fillable worksheets to bring together teams’ varied expertise, skills, and perspectives to guide child welfare change and implementation activities. Child welfare teams should complete the worksheets to: 

• Review team membership and discuss representation on their change and implementation team 

• Consider engagement of individuals who have direct experience with the issue being addressed or the services that will be delivered 

• Discuss how the team operates and how it supports inclusive and equitable teaming practices 

• Identify next steps to strengthen a diverse and inclusive team 

Learn more. 

This toolkit provides agency teams with tools and discussion questions to better understand the connections among ongoing federal and agency efforts, identify opportunities for including people with lived experience in these initiatives, and examine disproportionality and disparities in services and outcomes. Learn more. 

This report (PDF, 114 pages) draws on data from the National Juvenile Court Data Archive (Archive) to profile delinquency cases and petitioned status offense cases handled in 2021 by U.S. courts with juvenile jurisdiction. The report also tracks trends in delinquency and petitioned status cases between 2005 and 2021. Learn more. 

This lesson plan contains student activities and teacher prompts to help teens make healthy choices about cannabis use. Learn more. 

This quiz tests players' knowledge on what causes drug overdoses and how to save a life using naloxone. Learn more. 

The Race Equity Challenge is designed to promote a culture of learning, reflection, and action among child welfare professionals. This Challenge is an opportunity for up to 500 child welfare professionals to participate in an experience that examines their own biases, identifies how these biases show up in child welfare, and creates actions that are rooted in equity. Participation in the challenge includes:  

• Kick-off event on February 26th 

• Completion of 20-minute asynchronous interactive learning modules: 

• The Road to Equity: Open February 26th to March 1st 

• Building on Protective Factors: Family Networks: Open March 4th to March 22nd 

• Understanding Disproportionality in Child Welfare: Open March 25th to April 12th 

• Culture in Child Welfare: Open April 15th to May 3rd 

• Shared Trauma, Collective Resilience, and Healing: Open May 6th to May 24th 

• Closing event in June 

Participants can register as individuals or as part of a team. Learn more and register. 

This webpage contains a collection of resources to help enhance agency culture and climate, identify areas that need attention, and implement improvements. The webpage features tips and strategies for improvement and examples from child welfare staff, agencies, stakeholders, and family leaders. Additional resources are provided. Learn more. 

This webpage shares guidance on how to design, implement, and enhance a parent partner program as a strategy for engaging families through peer mentoring and support. The Navigator supports child welfare administrators, staff, and family leaders through essential steps of planning and implementing successful parent partner programs and provides tips on applying these four domains of program development: 

1. Assessing needs, readiness, and capacity 

2. Program design 

3. Program management 

4. Engagement and partnerships 

Learn more. 

This podcast episode features a discussion between a father and a child welfare agency administrator about how to make family engagement easier. The podcast explores how authentic engagement of people with lived experience can benefit parents, agencies, and improve outcomes for families, children, and youth. Learn more. 

Application deadline: Rolling basis 

The American Connection Corps (ACC) is an AmeriCorps service experience dedicated to advancing economic prosperity in rural and legacy communities. ACC Members commit to a year of local service addressing the digital divide while serving in one of three program areas: 

1. Community & Economic Development 

2. Health & Social Capital 

3. Agriculture & Natural Resources.  

Full-time members attend quarterly training intensives and receive a $33,000 stipend; a $7,395 AmeriCorps Education Award; medical, dental, and vision coverage; access to a national network of members, community partners, alumni, and 1:1 supports; and student loan forbearance and child care support. The service year will begin in early September 2024. Learn more and apply. 

This guide aims to help parents understand and identify the current medications and popular nonapproved substances teens are misusing. The guide describes the problem of drug misuse among teens, where and how they are getting drugs, and misconceptions of prescription drug use. Learn more (PDF, 60 pages). 

This map highlights some of the organizations and efforts around the country working in one or more of the following roles to provide students with the academic, social, mental health, and other supports they need to recover from the impacts and disruptions of the pandemic and thrive: 

• Academic Tutors 

• Mentor 

• Post-Secondary Transition Coaches 

• Student Success Coaches 

• Wraparound Integrated Student Support Coordinators 

Inclusion on this map does not necessarily mean the program is affiliated with the National Partnership for Student Success (NPSS) or its supporting champions. Learn more.