The National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction

• The Street Outreach Program funds local youth service providers that conduct streetbasededucation and outreach, and that offer emergency shelter and related services toyoung people who have been, or who are at risk of being, sexually abused or exploited.• The National Runaway Switchboard (1-800-RUNAWAY) is a national communicationssystem that assists youth who have run away, or are considering running away, and theirfamilies.b. Children’s BureauThe Children's Justice Act (CJA) provides grants to States to improve the investigation,prosecution and judicial handling of cases of child abuse and neglect, particularly child sexualabuse and exploitation, in a manner that limits additional trauma to the child victim. This alsoincludes the handling of child fatality cases in which child abuse or neglect is suspected andsome cases of children with disabilities and serious health problems who also are victims ofabuse and neglect.States direct these system improvement funds to a variety of projects, a few of the State CJAprojects address child exploitation, human tracking and internet safety. Support is provided toState and local police, child welfare staff and others for training and the purchase of equipmentand technology to support efforts to prevent child exploitation.http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/programs_fund/state_tribal/justice_act.htmThe National Resource Center on Youth Development, a service of the Children’s Bureau (CB)is part of CB’s Training and Technical Assistance Network (T&TA Network). The purpose ofthe T&TA Network is to build the capacity of State, local, Tribal, and other publiclyadministered or publicly supported child welfare agencies and family and juvenile courts. T&TANetwork members provide assistance to States and Tribes in improving child welfare systemsand ensuring the safety, permanency, and well-being of children and families.The NRC on Youth Development collaborates with several outside agencies and organizations tocontinuously improve their ability to offer appropriate technical assistance and training.Included in the workplan for the NRC is focus and work on the prevention of exploitation ofyouth. These efforts will continue collaboration between CB, the NRC, other Resource Centersand the Family and Youth Services Bureau (and their Runaway and Homeless Youth Trainingand Technical Assistance Centers).http://www.nrcys.ou.edu/yd/default.htmlc. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and EvaluationThe Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 (P.L. 109-248) requires that HHSconduct a study to assess the feasibility of establishing a national child abuse and neglect registryand present the results in a Report to Congress.About 45 states maintain child abuse registries, which are databases that allow child protectiveservices investigators routine access to child abuse history information to inform better currentinvestigations. Most states also use their registries to conduct pre-employment background90