Retrospective reviews of child fatalities and serious injuries will be conducted in three counties to help identify family and systemic circumstances for those deaths.

Community stakeholders will explore potential service gaps that may place children at risk for maltreatment including:

• Healthcare providers
• Community members
• Maternal infant health providers
• Educators
• Social service providers
• Faith leaders
• Law enforcement
• Child welfare
• Child advocacy fields

In addition to facilitating information sharing, Cook County Health will:

• Convene simulation training and multi-disciplinary team training
• Utilize risk analysis mapping of neighborhood “hot spots” of interpersonal violence
• Facilitate access to telehealth services with a Child Abuse Pediatrician
• Implement sustainability plan

Newsroom

• Cook County Health Releases Child Safety Forward Implementation Plan to Reduce Child Abuse and Maltreatment in Cook, Peoria and Vermilion Counties – Cook County Health
• Using Data to Prevent Deaths from Child Abuse and Neglect – Daily Herald
• Keeping Infants Safe While Sleeping – Chicago Sun Times
• Cook County Health’s Project Child Releases Child Safety Forward Evaluation Report Highlighting Findings in Multi-Year Effort to Develop Strategies to Reduce Child Abuse and Neglect across Illinois – Press Release

Final Project Evaluation Documents

Cook County took a public health approach to better understand the high child abuse and neglect reports in three Illinois counties–Cook, Peoria, and Vermilion. They convened a multi-disciplinary group of community stakeholders who work with vulnerable families in a variety of different settings to form Project CHILD. Together, Project CHILD acquired data that helped them better understand the challenges these three counties were facing and the strategies they could implement to improve the conditions. See the final evaluation document here.

Final Evaluation Brief
As part of the final implementation study, each site identified a practice or policy change advanced through their work with CSF for a dialogue on how to impact systems change. These briefs delve into the design of the site’s policy or practice and suggests recommendations for similar initiatives based on the site’s experiences and lessons learned. See the final evaluation brief here.

3 frameworks will be used in the development and implementation of the strategic plan: 21st Century Child Welfare System, Public Health Model, and Collective Impact.

Community stakeholders will explore potential service gaps that may place children at risk for maltreatment including:

Department of Child, Family and Adult Services

• Public Health
• Hospital Systems
• Community-Based Service Programs and Organizers
• District Attorney
• Law Enforcement
• Mental Health
• School Systems

Protocols will include the following:

• Deploy communications strategy to engage community
• Conduct ongoing evaluation and lessons learned from retrospective review
• Develop tools and communicate findings to adjust strategies
• Implement sustainability plan

Newsroom

• Brokering a Better Relationship with Communities of Color – The Imprint
• Essay: We can prevent child abuse – SN&R
• Vulnerable children are at risk of abuse during coronavirus crisis. Let’s protect them. – The Sacramento Bee
• Advocates worry child abuse may go unreported during stay-at-home order – CAP Radio
• Coronavirus shelter-at-home rules upend U.S. child abuse prevention system – Reuters
• The Child Abuse Prevention Council of Sacramento Releases Child Safety Forward Evaluation Report Highlighting Findings in Multi-Year Effort to Develop Strategies to Reduce Child Abuse and Neglect across Sacramento County – Press Release

Final Project Evaluation Documents

This initiative has supported the Sacramento County Prevention Cabinet (Prevention Cabinet) to plan and implement a cross-systems strategic plan that incorporates the principles of the public health approach and the core components of the 21st-century child welfare system, as identified in Within Our Reach: A National Strategy to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities. See the final evaluation document here.

Final Evaluation Brief
As part of the final implementation study, each site identified a practice or policy change advanced through their work with CSF for a dialogue on how to impact systems change. These briefs delve into the design of the site’s policy or practice and suggests recommendations for similar initiatives based on the site’s experiences and lessons learned. See the final evaluation brief here.

Challenges in strategic coordination and disconnect between organizations will be remedied through a community-based, public health approach.

A multidisciplinary team of stakeholders comprised of state agencies and community-based organizations to:

• Share data
• Coordinate services
• Facilitate community participation
• Develop an implementation plan of best practices

In addition to facilitating information findings, Saint Francis will:

• Standardize and improve data collection
• Increase community awareness and participation in reducing child fatalities
• Identify and initiate best practices

Newsroom

• DOJ-funded report finds child maltreatment rates in Hartford twice the national average – NPR Connecticut
• Parent engagement is essential to reducing child abuse and neglect in CT – Connecticut Mirror
• Trinity Health of New England Releases Child Safety Forward Evaluation Report on Strategies to Reduce Child Abuse and Neglect in the Hartford Area – Social Current
• Child Welfare System in the United States – The Imprint
• Why the Social Sector is Essential to Achieving Health Justice Across the United States – Nonprofit Quarterly
• Regina S. Dyton: Child well-being systems better serve all families – Hartford Courant
• Trinity Health of New England Releases Child Safety Forward Evaluation Report Highlighting Findings in Multi-Year Effort to Develop Strategies to Reduce Child Abuse and Neglect in Greater Hartford Area – Press Release

Final Project Documents

Hartford’s Child Safety Forward project brought together a multidisciplinary team of stakeholders to share data, coordinate services, facilitate community participation, and seek best practice recommendations. As a core strategy, the site recruited a Parent Engagement Workgroup drawn from parents with lived experience with the foster care and child welfare systems and other local advocacy groups. Watch this video to meet the parents and grandparents of the Parent Engagement Work Group. They share what child safety and shifting power to parents means to them, why they joined the work group, and more.

Project Overviews
These files include a summary of data collection results that was presented by the independent evaluator and a written report outlining lessons learned through the entirety of the project and goals and plans for project continuation.

• Narrative Report
• Slide Deck
• Video

Educational Guide: From Pain to Parenting
This educational guide created by the Child Safety Forward Hartford team and its Parent Engagement Workgroup addresses multiple topics to help parents raise healthy, safe children. Following the conclusion of Child Safety Forward participation, parents will implement this curriculum throughout Hartford’s neighborhoods.

Final Evaluation Brief
As part of the final implementation study, each site identified a practice or policy change advanced through their work with CSF for a dialogue on how to impact systems change. These briefs delve into the design of the site’s policy or practice and suggests recommendations for similar initiatives based on the site’s experiences and lessons learned. See the final evaluation brief here.

With input from an advisory panel, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services will focus on the following:

• Employ a collective impact approach
• Enhance the level of services for families in need of support
• Improve safety planning across Michigan’s child protection system

To improve the level of services for families, they will examine outcomes of current policies and practices related to families with low or moderate risk for child maltreatment to identify change recommendations. They will also partner with statewide or regional outreach efforts that focus on protective factors and work to promote these services to families.

Finally, they will review current safety planning practices, assess the perceived needs, barriers, and facilitators to safety planning among child protective services workers and other professionals, and assess the perceptions of safety plans among persons with lived experience. Collectively, this information will be used to identify areas for practice change and inform the development of educational resources and supports to reinforce safety plan best practices.

Newsroom

• MDHHS one of only five agencies nationally to receive federal grant to prevent child abuse/neglect deaths, injuries – Upper Michigan Source.com
• MDHHS 1 Of 5 Agencies Nationally To Receive Federal Grant To Prevent Child Abuse Or Neglect Deaths, Injuries – CBS Detroit
• MDHHS, Children Trust Michigan provide $1.9 million to create six family resource centers around Michigan – Michigan Department of Health and Human Services

Final Project Evaluation Documents

During the first 15 months of the initiative, the Child Safety Forward Michigan team convened a collaborative body of diverse partners to advise and provide insight on the needs of the larger community and worked to build learning capacity and increase understanding on the issues surrounding child maltreatment. Through their findings, they began implementing strategies meant to: 1) employ a collective impact approach to improve the resiliency of Michigan families, 2) enhance services for families with low to moderate risk levels for child maltreatment, and 3) improve safety planning across the child welfare system. See the final evaluation document here.

Final Evaluation Brief
As part of the final implementation study, each site identified a practice or policy change advanced through their work with CSF for a dialogue on how to impact systems change. These briefs delve into the design of the site’s policy or practice and suggests recommendations for similar initiatives based on the site’s experiences and lessons learned. See the final evaluation brief here.