Children and Youth

There are an estimated 73.8 million children and youth under the age of 18 in the United States. 1 This population is becoming increasingly diverse with complex physical, psychological, and emotional needs to ensure healthy development. 2

Resources:

Child Welfare Information Gateway

Home Page

Description: The Child Welfare Information Gateway offers resources and publications to help strengthen families and protect children with specific pages on topics like child abuse, adoption, and family-centered practice. The diverse populations and communities page offers information for working with diverse families for child welfare workers.

American Bar Association

Counseling Children and Youth in Crisis

Description: This link leads to a PDF by the Children’s Rights Litigation Committee of the American Bar Association Section of Litigation. The publication outlines tips for assessing, building rapport, and addressing challenges specific to working with children and youth in crisis.

Advocates for Youth

Serving Youth of Color

Description: This featured article on the Advocates for Youth site is originally from the academic journal, Transitions. The article outlines tips and strategies for creating culturally competent programs to serve youth of color.

National Center for Cultural Competence

Description: These resources provide practitioners, supervisors and organizers the opportunity assess their own cultural competence and areas for growth in their practice. Material is tailored towards medical and mental health practitioners.

Useful Resources Include:

Mentor: The National Mentoring Partnership

Mentoring Immigrant and Refugee Children Toolkit

Description: This comprehensive toolkit from Mentor lays out the steps to creating a successful and culturally competent mentoring program for immigrant and refugee children.

Cultural Competence in Working with Children

Resource Page Here

Description: This page was developed by the organization FRIENDS to provide educational material and links to further resources for organizations working with children.

Facts for Families

Multiracial Children PDF

Description: This brief PDF is a resource for parents and providers on the subject of multiracial children. The PDF addresses the specific emotional needs of multiracial children and the ways in which parents can support children’s health, well-being, and identity.

National Coalition for the Homeless

Fact Sheet Home Page

Description: This site offers a variety of quick reference sheets including but not limited to basic demographic information, why people are homeless, and ways to help. They also offer guides for specific homeless socio-demographic groups, specifically homeless children and youth.

Services:

Child Inc

Child Inc Home Page

Description: Child Inc provides early childhood education to over 2,000 children ages 0-5 each year. Head Start certified instructors work to provide quality education and engage families in their children’s educational journey.

The SAFE Alliance

SAFE Alliance Home Page

Description: The SAFE Alliance provides housing and support for survivors of child abuse, sexual assault and exploitation, and domestic violence. SAFE offers services such as housing at the Austin Children’s Shelter, LGTBQIA services, legal advocacy, and a 24/7 hotline.

Salvation Army

Salvation Army Austin Home Page

Description: A Christian organization, The Salvation Army has an emergency shelter, women and children shelter, and adult rehabilitation center that partners with other local providers to support individuals experiencing homelessness.

Texas Health and Human Services

Early Childhood Intervention Services

Description: This site provides a comprehensive overview of services made available to people with a wide range of disabilities in the state of Texas.

Out Youth

Out Youth

Description: Out Youth provides a place where LGBTQIA+ youth can feel accepted and supported. Programs include a drop in center, individual counseling, and LGBTQIA+ media and text library.

  1. https://www.childstats.gov/americaschildren/tables.asp
  2. http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/tables/103-child-population-by-race#detailed/1/any/false/870,573,869,36,868/68,69,67,12,70,66,71,72/423,424