Funded States

California Department of Public Health

State Essentials for Childhood Initiative: Implementation of Strategies and Approaches for Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention

Overview
The California Essentials for Childhood Initiative is a multi-sector coalition, including representatives from government, medical, non-profit, and advocacy sectors.

Strengthening Economic Supports
The California team is working to increase access to and use of California’s paid family leave benefits and earned income tax credit (known as CalEITC). The team is particularly interested in ensuring applications for both programs are accessible. For example, the team is exploring options to translate the paid family leave application into Spanish. Key partners in this approach include multiple state government agencies and violence prevention organizations, including the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence.

Changing Social Norms
The California team is working to:

• Elevate messaging around community responsibility for children and
• Broaden messaging on help seeking behaviors for parents

With key partners in the California Department of Social Services’ Office of Child Abuse Prevention, the team is engaging local- and state-level stakeholders to promote these messages. In the first and second years of the project, the California team worked to improve and expand data sources on social norms related to child health and parenting. The California team is now developing a toolkit for local health departments to help them “tell their communities’ story” from this new data.

Contact Info
State website: https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CCDPHP/DCDIC/SACB/Pages/EssentialsforChildhood.aspxexternal icon

Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment

State Essentials for Childhood Initiative: Implementation of Strategies and Approaches for Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention

Overview
The Colorado Essentials for Childhood Initiative is a multi-sector coalition, including representatives from government, non-profit, and business sectors.

Strengthening Economic Supports
The Colorado team is working to:

• Increase the use of nutrition benefit programs and
• Increase access to family friendly work policies

The Colorado team is interested in addressing vulnerable populations, particularly socioeconomically disadvantaged communities. The team used state-level data to identify five communities with large disparities between nutrition benefit program eligibility and enrollment. The Colorado team worked with local public health agencies (their partners for this implementation approach) to develop community action plans and tailor efforts to their communities’ unique needs in the first year of this project. In future years, the plan will be used to increase enrollment in the nutrition benefit program. The Colorado team has also partnered with state-level organizations that focus on working parents and businesses to develop toolkits, assessments, and trainings to support the expansion of family friendly work policies in businesses.

Changing Social Norms
The Colorado team’s social norms approach seeks to:

• Increase parental help-seeking behaviors
• Increase the community’s collective awareness that we all have a role to play in preventing child abuse and neglect, and
• Increase other stakeholders’ roles in preventing child abuse and neglect

The Colorado team has partnered with family resource centers in the same five pilot communities identified for the strengthening economic supports approach. Together with the local public health agencies implementing the economic supports approach, the team is working  to increase parental help-seeking and local stakeholder commitment to preventing child abuse and neglect. For example, family resource center staff have  completed training to ensure they can provide evidence-based guidance for families experiencing substance misuse. This helps support and normalize help-seeking behaviors by these families.

Contact Info
State website: https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/cdphe/EssentialsForChildhoodexternal icon

Kansas Department of Health and Environment

State Essentials for Childhood Initiative: Implementation of Strategies and Approaches for Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention

Overview
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment works with the Kansas Power of the Positive (KPoP) Coalition to implement child abuse and neglect prevention strategies across the state to develop and enhance a state action plan and create implementation and evaluation plans for prevention strategies. KPoP is a multi-sector coalition, including representatives from government, non-profit, business, and medical sectors.

Strengthening Economic Supports
The Kansas Essentials for Childhood team is working to increase access to family friendly work policies for low wage workers.

The Kansas team has created a tool, the Kids Are Good Business Survey, to assess current business work policies and how they change over time. Businesses were recruited through their social norms work and agreed to implement the survey. In the first year of this project period, over 200 employees across 3 businesses took the Kids Are Good Business Survey. The Kansas team has awarded mini grants to county health departments and medical centers to further expand the implementation of the Kids Are Good Business Survey in rural communities.

Changing Social Norms
The Kansas team is working closely with KPoP to:

• Promote norms about shared responsibility for children’s well-being and
• Promote the importance of family friendly work policies

They have created and disseminated educational materials to stakeholders across the state. In the first two years of the project, the Kansas team and partners presented at statewide child welfare and regional economic development meetings. They are well on the way to meeting their goal of reaching 5,000 stakeholders with educational materials during this project.

Contact Info
State website: http://www.kansaspowerofthepositive.org/external icon

Massachusetts Department of Public Health

State Essentials for Childhood Initiative: Implementation of Strategies and Approaches for Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention

Overview
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health works with their state leadership team to implement child abuse and neglect prevention strategies across the state, develop and enhance their state action plan, and create implementation and evaluation plans for prevention strategies. The state leadership team is a multi-sector coalition, including representatives from the medical, education, and advocacy sectors.

Strengthening Economic Supports
The Massachusetts Essentials for Childhood team is working to:

• Increase access to and use of the earned income tax credit (EITC) and
• Increase access to and use of Massachusetts’s new paid family and medical leave (PFML) policy

The Massachusetts team is particularly interested in increasing the EITC filing rates for low-income workers and has partnered with multiple state agencies, the healthcare sector, and economic justice organizations to further this work. Massachusetts’s PMFL policy will take effect during the Essentials for Childhood project period, and the Massachusetts team is working to ensure the policy implementation is inclusive of Black, Hispanic/Latino, and low-wage workers. The Massachusetts team has been invited by the new Department of Family and Medical Leave to provide support in bringing a public health approach to the rollout of this policy, including work related to data collection and unintended consequences.

Changing Social Norms
The Massachusetts team is working to:

• Promote norms that support nurturing parenting and
• Reduce social isolation in pilot communities

In the first year of the project, the Massachusetts team focused on two municipalities as pilot communities. The project is now expanding to include more pilot communities with varying geographies and racial compositions. The Massachusetts team works with communities and other partners to develop, field test, and improve resources related to social norms change for community use. Examples of these resources include a social connectedness toolkit that municipal leaders used to assess their own communities’ capacity increasing social connections and a Plans of Safe Care Brief, a program targeting families that experience substance misuse in the home.

Contact Info
State website: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/massachusetts-essentials-for-childhood-initiativeexternal icon

North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services

State Essentials for Childhood Initiative: Implementation of Strategies and Approaches for Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention

Overview
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services works with the North Carolina Institute of Medicine (NCIOM) task force to implement child abuse and neglect prevention strategies across the state, develop and enhance a state action plan, and create implementation and evaluation plans for prevention strategies. The NCIOM task force is a multi-sector coalition, including representatives from education, healthcare, business, and housing sectors.

Strengthening Economic Supports
The North Carolina Essentials for Childhood team is working to strengthen family-friendly work policies with both municipalities and businesses.

In the first two years of the project, the North Carolina team has worked with four municipalities to expand family friendly work policies to municipal employees. The North Carolina team is also involved in Family Forward NC, a multi-sector project that provides evidence-based toolkits and guides for businesses interested in improving family friendly workplace policies. The North Carolina team specifically supports the “Guide to Family Forward Workplace Policies,” which has been presented to 4,700 employers across the state in the first two years of the project. They have also completed 19 case studies of businesses that have adopted family friendly workplace policies.

Changing Social Norms
The North Carolina team is working to implement Connections Matter, an evidence-informed education campaign to improve community connections and well-being.

Prevent Child Abuse North Carolina (PCANC) is a key partner in this approach, along with the faith community. The North Carolina team has engaged six faith-based organizations as pilot communities in the first two years of the project, with plans to expand to additional faith-based organizations within the project period. Faith leaders have been trained to support implementation of Connections Matter and over 700 people have been trained to support the program in the larger community. The North Carolina team and their partners have also developed materials specific to faith communities to support implementation.

Contact Info
State website: http://nciom.org/essentials-for-childhood-backbone-organization-2/external icon

Utah Department of Health

State Essentials for Childhood Initiative: Implementation of Strategies and Approaches for Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention

Overview
The Utah Department of Health works with the Utah Coalition for Protecting Childhood (UCPC) to implement child abuse and neglect prevention strategies across the state, develop and enhance a state action plan, and create implementation and evaluation plans for prevention strategies. UCPC is a multi-sector coalition, including representatives from government, justice, faith, and advocacy sectors.

Strengthening Economic Supports
The Utah Essentials for Childhood team is working to increase education and awareness of state earned income tax credit (EITC) options.

The Utah team has developed television advertisements, public service announcements, and brochures to increase awareness of EITC options, including materials in both English and Spanish. The team is particularly focusing on possible return on investment of EITC options. Additional efforts include improving the implementation of current child support payments and the Temporary Aid to Needy Families program.

Changing Social Norms
The Utah team is working to develop a public awareness campaign related to positive parenting and alternatives to corporal punishment.

The team is building a culturally appropriate campaign with key partners in the medical sector and plans to use social media to reach parents and communities across the state. The Utah team is particularly interested in reaching parents who have experienced trauma and have been involved in the child welfare system. In the first year of the project, the Utah team began a process of selecting community-level organizations to partner with and support implementation of campaigns with a focus on high-risk or disadvantaged communities.

Contact Info
State website: https://health.utah.gov/vipp/kids/child-maltreatment/prevention.htmlexternal icon

Washington Department of Health

State Essentials for Childhood Initiative: Implementation of Strategies and Approaches for Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention

Overview
Washington State Essentials for Childhood Steering Committee is a multi-sector coalition, including representatives from non-profit, business, and government sectors.

Strengthening Economic Supports
The Washington Essentials for Childhood team is supporting and expanding the Help Me Grow program, which helps families connect to community and government benefit programs.

Washington’s team is working with pilot communities and establishing a peer-learning cohort to improve implementation before expanding into communities across the state. An example of one government benefit program being promoted in this approach is Washington’s Paid Family and Medical Leave. Educational materials on Washington’s Paid Family and Medical Leave have been included in mailers distributed to all families in the state.

Changing Social Norms
The Washington team is working to change social norms to support positive parenting and parental help-seeking through the Vroom program, a global program of the Bezos Family Foundation that helps parents boost their child’s learning.

The Washington team, along with community-based partners, plans to focus on elevating and empowering communities furthest from opportunity. In the first and second years of the Vroom project, the Washington team partnered with community-based early childhood organizations and pediatric medical providers to support implementation of the Vroom program that translates brain science into principles and tips for parents and other caregivers. It uses accessible technology and print materials to reinforce brain building messages.

Contact Info
State website: https://www.doh.wa.gov/CommunityandEnvironment/EssentialsforChildhoodInitiativeexternal icon