This is the final evaluation report for Child Safety Forward, a four-year demonstration initiative that engaged five sites across the U.S. in research, planning, and implementation around strategies aimed at reducing child injury and fatality from abuse and neglect. The initiative, funded by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and with technical assistance led by Social Current, was launched in October 2019 by the DOJ’s Office for Victims of Crime.

Demonstration sites conducted retrospective reviews of child fatality data and/or collected additional community-level and system-level data to inform their implementation plans. This report summarizes the key strategies and learnings from each site:

• St. Francis Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut
• Cook County Health in Illinois
• Indiana Department of Health
• Michigan Department of Health and Human Services
• Sacramento County’s Child Abuse Prevention Council in California

In addition, the report delves into key lessons learned and takeaways from the initiative. Recommendations are provided for funders, system leaders, practitioners, and parents and community members for each of five recommended strategies:

• Communications and Framing
• Data Culture and Infrastructure
• Developmental Evaluation
• Equity, Power, and Parent Engagement
• Prioritizing Sustainability

In October 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office for Victims of Crime launched Child Safety Forward (CSF), a three-year demonstration initiative to develop multidisciplinary strategies and responses to address serious or near-death injuries resulting from child abuse or neglect and to reduce the number of child fatalities.1 The efforts were intended to produce models and practices that are responsive to a 21st-Century Child Welfare System as envisioned by the federal Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities.

Five demonstration sites participated in CSF, with technical assistance led by Social Current. The five participation sites in this initiative are:

• St. Francis Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut
• Cook County Health in Illinois
• Indiana Department of Health
• Michigan Department of Health and Human Services
• California’s Child Abuse Prevention Council of Sacramento County

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. The dialogue was facilitated by a team of two to three external evaluators with approximately five to seven local partners involved in the implementation of the policy or practice. 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.

Disclaimer: This product was supported by cooperative agreement number 2019-V3-GX-K005, awarded by the Office for Victims of Crime, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this product are those of the contributors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Social Current partnered with network organizations and NonprofitVOTE to provide examples from the field, along with resources containing guidance on voter and civic engagement in the Strategies for Mobilizing Voters: A Toolkit for Nonprofit Community-Based Organizations. This toolkit includes network stories, coupled with related tools and tips for executing such practices at your organizations.

For the updated toolkit, Social Current is searching for new stories from network organizations that have run successful voter engagement campaigns. If your organization has led or participated in any voter engagement activities, either in the workplace or the community, please reach out to Derry Kiernan, the field mobilization and policy manager.

We’d love to feature you in the new toolkit, which will be a valuable resource for the network and the broader nonprofit community as we head into elections this fall and next year.

In the 1990s, health care professionals began prescribing opioid pain medications with false reassurance from pharmaceutical companies that the opioids were not habit-forming. The resulting misuse, addiction, and overdoses have been devastating—841,000 deaths from drug overdoses since 1999—two-thirds from opioids. Prevention and treatment services are essential in addressing this public health crisis. This toolkit is designed to help community-based organizations understand how to access the funds available for prevention and remediation through recent settlements with pharmaceutical companies, manufacturers, and retailers.

States, localities, and tribes have reached numerous settlements with opioid manufacturers, pharmaceutical distributors, and pharmacies over the last few years. The 2021 settlement, frequently called the “global settlement,” 1 between 47 states and the distributors McKesson, Amerisource-Bergen, and Cardinal Health and drugmaker Johnson and Johnson totaled $26 billion, to be disbursed over 18 years and frontloaded at the beginning. In 2022, the “big three pharmacies,” 2 CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart, reached settlements of $5 billion over 10 years, $5.7 billion over 15 years, and $3 billion up front, respectively. After a federal judge held up an earlier deal, Purdue Pharma3 agreed to a higher settlement of $5.5 billion, with another $500,000 contingent on selling their pharmaceutical companies. Numerous other smaller settlements have been reached with other entities, including Mallinckrodt ($1.7 billion), Teva ($4.25 billion), AbbVie’s Allergan unit ($2.37 billion), and Endo ($450 million). In total, $50.07 billion4 has been awarded through settlements with opioid corporations.

The settlement funds will go to states and localities to address the opioid epidemic. The “global settlement,” in particular, requires that at least 85% of the funds go to opioid remediation activities. As funds flow to entities nationwide, community-based organizations must have a seat at the table when decisions are made about how these funds are spent locally. These will be significant investments in the kinds of services our sector provides. The profound impact of the opioid epidemic has made it clear that a considerable part of the solution will be strengthening communities with upstream resources and support.

This guide offers tools and resources to help community-based organizations navigate the complex legal and legislative process and to implement lessons learned from past settlements, like with tobacco companies. Organizations should reach out to relevant stakeholders immediately, as these decisions are being made now in many states.