TARRANT COUNTY, TX
Community Youth Development
About CYD
Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, Prevention and Early Intervention Division (PEI), partners with community-based programs and agencies across the state of Texas to provide a variety of opportunities to promote positive outcomes for children, youth, and families. These programs are free of charge to the public and participation is voluntary. As part of its array of prevention programming, PEI funds community level CYD programming in communities throughout the state.
The CYD Program was established in 1995 with funds authorized by the 74th Legislature to assist communities in alleviating conditions in the family and community that lead to juvenile crime. In 2015, the CYD statute moved to the Texas Family Code from the Texas Human Resources Code without any amendments and is as follows:
Sec. 265.057. COMMUNITY YOUTH DEVELOPMENT GRANTS. (a) Subject to available funding, the department shall award Community Youth Development grants to communities identified by incidence of crime. The department shall give priority in awarding grants under this section to areas of the state in which there is a high incidence of juvenile crime. (b) The purpose of a grant under this section is to assist a community in alleviating conditions in the family and community that lead to juvenile crime.
The program has expanded over the last 25 years and supports youth by fostering safe spaces, positive relationships, and structured opportunities to build developmental assets and skills. These supports lead to strengthened connection, engagement, and contribution to their community. PEI has adopted a Positive Youth Development approach for CYD to meet the goal of assisting communities in alleviating conditions in the family and community that lead to juvenile crime. This approach encompasses more than solely providing early intervention or preventing risk behaviors that lead to juvenile crime; it also builds skills, attributes, and developmental assets that are needed to prepare young people to grow into thriving adults.
