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Collaboration With Early Childhood Programs

These organizations and websites offer information on ways child welfare and child abuse prevention programs work with early childhood programs to improve services to children and families, including State and local examples.

National Quality Improvement Center on Early Childhood Generates and disseminates robust evidence and new knowledge about program and systems strategies that contribute to child maltreatment prevention and optimal developmental outcomes for infants, young children, and their families. Partnerships, Alliances, and Coordination Techniques (PACT) National Child Care Information and Technical Assistance Center Helps States create, implement, and sustain cross-system partnerships in early care and education, as well as manage and evaluate partnerships to ensure long-term outcomes. The website includes training modules, tools, partnership materials, financing strategies, and more. Strengthening Families Through Early Care and Education Center for the Study of Social Policy Offers information about a network of national, State, and local organizations implementing the Strengthening Families model, an initiative to build protective factors in children and families through early care and education programs, child welfare systems, and home-based child care providers. The website includes a training marketplace, electronic library, discussion forum, and more.

Addressing Missed Opportunities for Early Childhood Mental Health Intervention: Current Knowledge and Policy Implications (PDF - 167 KB)
Task Force on Early Mental Health Intervention (2003)
Recommends ways to improve mental health service delivery in early childhood, including integrating child-centered mental health services into all systems that serve children and youth, and enhancing a public-private health infrastructure to support these efforts.

Allied for Better Outcomes: Child Welfare and Early Childhood (PDF - 329 KB)
Center for the Study of Social Policy (2009)
Identifies early childhood systems as essential partners with child welfare for ensuring the healthy development of young children, and recommends strategies that will help the systems contribute to better results for the children they serve.

Birth to Five Policy Alliance
Promotes policy ideas that support families in their parenting role and ensure positive early childhood development for at-risk children and their families. Website offers information on State-by-State early childhood legislation and policies, links to news and research, and provides an online discussion forum.

Early Head Start—Child Welfare Services Initiative: Final Synthesis Report: Volume 1 (PDF - 406 KB)
James Bell Associates (2009)
Reviews findings from an initiative to improve outcomes for families with infants and toddlers involved in the child welfare system by providing child development, parenting, health, and family support services that relied on intensive collaboration between early head start agencies and local child welfare agencies. See also Volume II: Compendium of Grantee-Specific Findings (PDF - 238 KB)

Key Principles in Providing Integrated Behavioral Health Services for Young Children and Their Families: The Starting Early Starting Smart Experience (PDF - 4040 KB)
Starting Early Starting Smart Steering Committee (2001)
Describes a national, multi-site program that uses pediatric health care and early childhood educational settings to provide coordinated, easily accessible behavioral health services to families with young children in order to improve child and family outcomes.

Making Children a National Priority: A Framework for Community Action (PDF - 341 KB)
Child Welfare League of America (2003)
Outlines the five universal needs of children and describes model programs that promote partnerships and networks of caring relationships to nurture children and their families.

Pre-K Now
Pew Center on the States
Provides assistance to advocates and other leaders working to secure policy changes and public funds that will improve the availability and quality of State-funded pre-k programs.

Protecting the Youngest: The Role of Early Care and Education in Preventing and Responding to Child Maltreatment (PDF - 239 KB)
National Conference of State Legislatures (2007)
Discusses policy options for States to consider to support early care and education programs that would protect young children and prevent abuse and neglect.

The Role of Professional Child Care Providers in Preventing and Responding to Child Abuse and Neglect

Safe Start Center
Supports an initiative to broaden the knowledge of and promote community investment in evidence-based strategies for reducing children's exposure to violence.

Supporting Infants and Toddlers in the Child Welfare System: The Hope of Early Head Start (PDF - 4080 KB)
Early Head Start National Resource Center (2005)
Considers opportunities for Early Head Start (EHS) to nurture and support infants and toddlers in the child welfare system, and highlights unique ways EHS programs have partnered with local child welfare agencies to meet the needs of those children and their families.

ZERO TO THREE
Informs, trains, and supports professionals, policymakers, and parents in their efforts to improve the lives of infants and toddlers. The website offers training and leadership opportunities, with resources on topics related to child health and development.

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State and local examples

Building Partnerships for Children and Families (PDF - 2940 KB)
Shillady (Ed.)
Child Care Bulletin, 35, 2009
Presents articles highlighting efforts in more than 10 States to develop partnerships in the early childhood field to maximize resources, increase the availability and accessibility of care, improve the quality of care, and expand systems of care. The articles address collaboration among child care, prekindergarten, Head Start, and child welfare.

Helping Families Shine: Evaluation of the Family and Community Partnership Palm Beach County, Florida
Lyons & Winje (2007)
Outlines an initiative that has a goal of strengthening the functions and collaborations among programs that provide prevention and early intervention services.

Sustaining Community Partnerships on Behalf of Young Children and Families
Bremond, Midler, & Burger
Zero to Three, 27(2), 2006
View Abstract
Describes a prevention and early intervention program for children at high risk for abuse and neglect in Alameda County, California, that enhanced collaboration among community-based social services organizations to facilitate systems change.

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Updated on February 2, 2010