While aspects of the Strengthening Families Approach are already being implemented by good early childhood programs across the country, many programs and communities are not aware of the approach and do not have access to training and technical assistance that would help them implement it. One way to provide the necessary resources is through a state level approach, using existing agencies and resources to provide information, training and other incentives to help many more local early childhood programs implement Strengthening Families. The Strengthening Families Pilot is a learning partnership between CSSP and seven states that are implementing the Strengthening Families Approach using a variety of policies and practice supports available through a collaborative effort of early childhood, child abuse prevention and child protective services sectors in their state. The goal is to look at how changes in state policy making, new linkages between the early childhood and child protection settings, and enhanced training and support for programs can create many more early childhood programs implementing strengthening families practices.

The participating states are Alaska, Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Wisconsin. These seven states were chosen out of a field of 27 state teams who applied to be part of the pilot.

See fact sheets on the work:

• Alaska
• Arkansas
• Illinois
• Missouri
• New Hampshire
• Rhode Island
• Wisconsin

The Center for the Study of Social Policy is providing planning, technical assistance and training to each State through a national technical assistance network. The TA network includes CSSP staff, staff members from exemplary early childhood programs, and other national experts in early care and education and in child welfare as needed. In the course of the pilot program, each State will implement its own unique plan, supported by TA. States are providing their own funding for the implementation.

State plans include the following elements:

• Piloting the Strengthening Families approach in selected early care and education programs in the state, then using the pilot programs as trainers and mentors for other programs.
• Integrating Strengthening Families ideas into the State early care and education system, such as changes in licensing, credentialing, or other aspects of state support for quality early childhood programs;
• Making early care and education programs available to families at risk of having their children taken into foster care by using placement prevention resources in the child welfare department and providing new training and supervision for case workers to carry this out;
• Developing a research agenda to document the impact of the pilot.
• Integrating key elements of the approach into existing training opportunities for early childhood and/or child welfare workers within the state.
• Enhancing collaboration between child abuse and neglect prevention advocates and programs and early childhood professionals and programs; and
• Developing a network of funders in the State, prepared to support necessary training and technical assistance to bring many programs in line with the Strengthening Families Initiative.

While each state's Strengthening Families Pilot will be designed to meet the State's specific needs and to build on its strengths and infrastructure, these results can be expected:

• More early care and education programs will implement strategies that help to support and strengthen families.
• Better coordination will exist between child abuse and neglect prevention efforts and early childhood programs at both the policy and practice levels.
• More funding will be available to early care and education programs to implement Strengthening Families.