The mission of the Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) is to provide national leadership on youth and family issues; promote positive outcomes for children, youth and families; and support comprehensive services and collaborations at the local, Tribal, State and national levels. FYSB programs provide positive alternatives for youth, ensure their safety and maximize their potential.

Purpose

FYSB’s Transitional Living Program supports projects that provide long-term residential services to homeless youth. The Program accepts youth ages 16-21. The services offered are designed to help young people who are homeless make a successful transition to self-sufficient living.

Transitional living programs are required to provide youth with stable, safe living accommodations, and services that help them develop the skills necessary to become independent. Living accommodations may include host-family homes, group homes, maternity group homes, or supervised apartments owned by the program or rented in the community.

Services

Transitional Living Program grantees are required to offer or refer for the following services:

• Safe, stable living accommodations
• Basic life-skill building, including consumer education and instruction in budgeting, the use of credit, housekeeping, menu planning, food preparation and parenting skills
• Interpersonal skill building, including enhancing young people’s abilities to establish positive relationships with peers and adults, make decisions and manage stress
• Educational opportunities, such as GED preparation, post-secondary training and vocational education
• Assistance in job preparation and attainment, such as career counseling and job placement
• Education, information and counseling to prevent, treat and reduce substance abuse
• Mental health care, including individual and group counseling
• Physical health care, including routine physicals, health assessments and emergency treatment

Transitional living programs also incorporate the Positive Youth Development, or PYD, approach into their programs. PYD suggests that the best way to prevent risky behavior is to help youth achieve their full potential. Youth development strategies focus on giving young people the chance to exercise leadership, build skills and become involved in their communities.

History

Thousands of young people run away or are forced to leave their homes each year. Since 1975, the Federal Government has funded emergency shelter programs for runaway and homeless youth to provide for their immediate needs and promote family reunification. Unfortunately, many homeless young people can’t go home. In response to growing concern for youth in need of long-term, supportive assistance that emergency shelter programs were not designed to provide, Congress created the Transitional Living Program for Older Homeless Youth as part of the 1988 Amendments to the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974. FYSB funded the first transitional living programs in 1990.

Grant Award Process

FYSB funds the Transitional Living Program under the provisions of the Reconnecting Homeless Youth Act of 2008 (Public Law 110-378). In FY 2009, 218 programs received a total of $41 million.

FYSB solicits applications for the Transitional Living Program by posting funding announcements on the Grants.gov Web site. Applications are competitively reviewed by peer panels, and successful applicants receive five-year grants.

Contact Us

National Clearinghouse on Families & Youth
P.O. Box 13505, Silver Spring, MD  20911-3505

TEL:  (301) 608-8098
FAX:  (301) 608-872

ONLINE
NCFY:  ncfy.acf.hhs.gov
E-MAIL: ncfy@acf.hhs.gov
FYSB:  www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/fysb