History
In 2001, with funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, CSSP began studying the role that early care and education programs nationwide can play in strengthening families and preventing abuse and neglect. For the first time, they linked research about preventing child abuse and neglect with similar knowledge about quality early care and education. They developed a new conceptual framework and approach to preventing child abuse and neglect, called Strengthening Families, which involved building evidence-based Protective Factors around young children by working differently with their families. CSSP spent a year in the field learning in a structured way from exemplary programs and practitioners around the country about how to build protective factors on the ground. This knowledge base was used to develop tools to support early childhood programs, policymakers, and advocates in making small but significant changes that build the Protective Factors.
Next, Strengthening Families moved into a pilot phase in which seven states engaged in a learning partnership with CSSP to implement the Strengthening Families approach. For two years, from 2005-2007, these states worked to enhance their policies and practices through collaboration among the early childhood, child abuse prevention, and child protective services sectors. Their work was studied and documented to demonstrate how Strengthening Families can best be implemented through state policy making, new links between the early childhood education and child protection, and training and support for programs.
In February 2008, the Strengthening Families National Network launched, linking 23 states that have or are exploring statewide Strengthening Families initiatives. National organizations that are incorporating the Protective Factors approach into their work are also included in this network. As the number of states implementing Strengthening Families has grown so has the interest in utilizing the approach in other fields and other sectors. CSSP has supported this interest by:
- Working with three states to develop models and resources for child protective agencies to integrate Strengthening Families into their approach to children and families
- Working with practitioners around the country to create implementation tools that are applicable across program type
- Developing specific tools for home-based child care providers
