As part of growing efforts to prevent the abuse and neglect of very young children before it occurs, the Children’s Bureau, within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has awarded $9.7 million to the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) for the development of the National Quality Improvement Center (QIC) on Preventing of the Abuse and Neglect of Infants and Young Children.
CSSP is partnering with two organizations, the National Alliance of Children’s Trust and Prevention Funds and ZERO TO THREE, and collaborating with the Children’s Bureau in the development and implementation of the QIC.
The QIC is launched as an overwhelming majority of child abuse and neglect cases involve children under the age of five. The children of parents with HIV/AIDS or substance abuse issues face an especially high risk of maltreatment. Recent research indicates that the effects of child abuse and neglect (CAN) on these very young children can be devastating, impacting their healthy development and dramatically reducing their chances for success in adulthood.
“Preventing child abuse and neglect for the youngest children begins with strengthening families,” says Judy Langford, Senior Fellow at CSSP. “So much of a child’s development takes place in the earliest years of life, and that development can be derailed if abuse and neglect are factors. We need to think creatively about what people can do to support parents in promoting optimal development for their children and addressing factors in their lives that might lead to abuse and neglect.”
Over the five-year grant period, the QIC will advance innovative approaches to CAN prevention research and will support several projects implementing and evaluating these approaches. Some focus will be on the children of parents with HIV/AIDS or substance abuse issues. CSSP and its partners have agreed that the work of the QIC must address child maltreatment at multiple levels: individual, family, community, and policy.
Fundamental to this work will be a focus on building conditions or qualities – known as Protective Factors – that can reduce the likelihood of abuse and neglect when families have them. CSSP and its two partner organizations in the QIC, the National Alliance of Children’s Trust and Prevention Funds and ZERO TO THREE, have been working closely with child welfare and early childhood practitioners across the country embedding a Protective Factors approach to work with children and families into practice
The work of the QIC is divided into two phases: planning and research; and awarding grants to support innovative abuse and neglect prevention programs and studies. A distinguished, multidisciplinary panel of scholars, state-level officials, advocates, parent representatives, and practitioners will serve as a National Advisory Committee to the QIC, directing the development of the new Center.
Dr. Charlyn Harper Browne has been named as Project Director of the QIC.
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