Topics in the Area of Children and Youth
There are many organizations working to provide an even playing ground for youth from all backgrounds. While there are some government departments that promote youth policy priorities, these departments tend to have strong partnerships with non-profit and philanthropic entities.
States are typically wholly autonomous in how they implement and execute their various child and youth policy programs, but the federal government is able to especially ensure the constitutional rights of program participants and has been known to impose fines and to sue states over derelict or poorly funded programing. Further, the philanthropic and business industries increasingly are having an impact on how these programs function and, through the power of their own funding, are able to also have influence on state policies in a more indirect way. Typically, funding works through whatever granting institution sends funds to the states and the state entities are then able to make decisions on how they would like to disburse funds – typically via organizations applying for the funds.
Positive Youth Development (PYD) is an intentional, prosocial, approach that engages youth within their communities, schools, organizations, peer groups, and families in a manner that is productive and constructive. It recognizes, utilizes, and enhances young people’s strengths, and promotes positive outcomes for young people by providing opportunities, fostering positive relationships, and furnishing the support needed to build on their leadership strengths. PYD has its origins in the field of prevention. In the past, prevention efforts typically focused on single problems before they surfaced in youth, such as teen pregnancy, substance abuse, and juvenile delinquency. There is now a belief that particular interventions that promote positive asset building and consider young people as a resource is a better strategy. As a result, the youth development field began examining the role of resiliency - the protective factors in a young person's environment - and how these factors could influence one's ability to overcome adversity. PYD is a pre-emptive way of recognizing the worth of youth and empowering them to take more ownership over their life outcomes.
While there are various national priorities that the government implements, one important initiative is the focus on opportunity youth. Young people who are between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four and who are not engaged in either school or the workforce are considered opportunity youth by the federal government. There are around five million young people in the United States that fall into this category. There have been several federal initiatives that have been developed in order to re-engage this group of young people in work and/or education. The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) was developed by the Department of Labor and the Department of Education to develop work-force and education oriented programs. The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program was developed by the Department of Health and Human Services to give cash assistance to families with children under the age of eighteen who are financially struggling. The United States Department of Agriculture has developed the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to help the families that receive financial support for food from the government to receive job search and vocational training. Finally, the Federal Pell grant program gives need-based grants to low-income undergraduate students with the goal of promoting more accessibility for university education. These federal programs have been created with the intention of fostering upward mobility among opportunity youth.
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is a federal immigration program created by the Department of Homeland Security in 2012 for youth who entered the United States illegally as children with their parents. DACA allows these children to obtain work permits and thus avoid deportation by the government. It also allows them to attend college in the state where they live. However, the law does not provide a path to U.S. citizenship. It was preceded by the DREAM Act, a bill intended to do just that. It was first introduced in 2001 under former President Barack Obama but repeatedly failed in Congress. During the Trump administration, DACA measures were suspended until further notice. There are ongoing efforts under the Biden Administration to bring the program back to life. Further, measures to protect so-called Dreamers continue to be a topic of political debate.
The United States Department of Health and Human Services has conducted research and compiled resources with the goal of preventing bullying among young people. This department defines bullying as unwanted aggressive behavior among school-aged children where there is a real or perceived power imbalance. They classify bullying into three categories: verbal, social, and physical. With the increase of the use of social media, phones, computers, and other digital devices among young people, cyberbullying has increasingly become a larger problem. This can entail sending harmful, mean, or false content about someone else on social media or with others in a way that causes embarrassment or humiliation. While the federal government has acknowledged and compiled resources on these problems, there is no federal law that addresses these problems and each state has addressed this differently. The majority of states and territories have both law and policy that addresses bullying while nine states and territories only have laws. There is a range regarding how bullying prevention is implemented from putting in place these laws and policies, to requiring districts and schools to develop their own regulations.
Some children and youth become involved with the juvenile justice system because they are accused of committing a delinquent or criminal act. Other youth come into contact with the system for status offenses – actions that are illegal only because of a youth’s age – such as truancy, underage drinking, and running away from home. Not all of these cases, however, are formally processed through the courts. During a single year, over two million youth under the age of eighteen are arrested in the United States. Once a young person enters the juvenile justice system, it is very hard for them to be able to access jobs and college education and it takes a very heavy toll on a young person’s mental and physical health. Additionally, the criminalization of young people to enter the juvenile justice system disproportionately affects Black youth and young people of color.
There have been efforts to try to make more rehabilitative programming for young people in the criminal justice system, including through youth court and restorative justice. In youth court, a young person’s student peers serve as the attorneys, jurors, and clerks in the court, allowing them to learn more about the court system, while also administering sentences that they believe are fair such as formal apologies or community service. There has also been increased efforts to promote restorative justice programming for young people in the juvenile justice system. Restorative justice promotes an active dialogue between the victim and the offender and a supportive space where everyone can collectively decide how best to proceed in a way that promotes accountability without criminalizing a young person.
Another important program for young people throughout the United States is the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program (D.A.R.E). This program brings facilitators into schools to teach about substance abuse and addiction prevention. The organization has a set curriculum for elementary, middle, and high school students. There are over 1,700 D.A.R.E programs throughout the United States where facilitators work with schools to teach their curriculum on safety, substance abuse, conflict management, opioids, nicotine, mental health, and much more.
