Prevention-focused child welfare agencies partner with communities and other systems to provide services that prevent maltreatment and family separation, strengthen families’ capacity to thrive, and promote children’s well-being. The prevention framework describes prevention as occurring along a three-level continuum:
- Primary prevention connects families to needed resources and supports within their community.
- Secondary prevention provides families with services to address family needs and prevent child abuse and neglect.
- Tertiary prevention services are provided to families in which child maltreatment has already occurred with the goal of preventing recurrence and to avoid family separation.
The ideal approach to prevention within a community encompasses all three levels and includes tailored, equitable services to halt unnecessary separations of children and parents and improve their outcomes. Prevention services should address power imbalances between families and agencies, value family input, and prioritize community-centered and culturally responsive services.
The Family First Prevention Services Act provides funding for evidence-based prevention services to build the capacity of communities to support families. The law offers an opportunity for child welfare systems to infuse race equity, lived expertise, and kin-first culture into prevention practices across the continuum.
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Working Across the Prevention Continuum to Strengthen Families
View a three-tiered prevention continuum for child abuse and neglect that defines primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention. Tertiary prevention strategies target families where maltreatment has occurred with the aim of preventing its recurrence.
Transforming Child Welfare: Prioritizing Prevention, Racial Equity, and Advancing Child and Family Well-Being
Explore the need for a transformational shift of the child welfare system to become more focused on the prevention of child maltreatment and racial equity and learn how the child welfare system should improve and sustain child and family well-being.
Prevention-Focused Systems
Explore resources on preventing child maltreatment, preventing foster care entry, and increasing child and family well-being by strengthening families in their communities to help create a prevention-focused child welfare system.
2023/2024 Prevention Resource Guide
Find information on actions taken as a society and within communities, organizations, and families to address the root causes of child abuse and neglect and how communities are doing purposeful prevention work to help children and families thrive.
Visioning for Prevention: Protecting Children Through Strengthening Families
Find a collection of publications and resources that give child welfare agency leaders and managers the information needed to develop a more prevention-focused system.
Reflecting on Racial Equity and the Family First Prevention Services Act
Watch this video from the Capacity Building Center for States to explore the connection between racial equity and the Family First Prevention Services Act.
Levels of Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect: Strategies and Resources for Tribal Communities
Learn about primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of prevention within Tribal communities and how prevention efforts align with traditional values and knowledge and serve as protective factors for families and children.
Narrow the Front Door: Community Partnerships and Primary Prevention
Outlines how child welfare agencies can work with community partners to develop primary prevention initiatives and provides links to more information about working with the community.
What is Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect?
Discusses community-based child abuse prevention programs, including the types of prevention activities that are funded across the country.