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The New Neighborhood is a limited series podcast that explores some of the dramatic changes taking place across the U.S. as people work to reinforce a sense of community, support young children and families, and work to build equity within communities. Each episode features emerging innovations that will create a society where all children and their families can thrive.
Pregnancy through age three is the most critical period for children’s development. Yet the COVID-19 pandemic has battered working parents of young children, with what are likely to be significant and long-lasting negative consequences. In this brief, the authors propose a set of enhanced Infant-Toddler policies—in the areas of income support, child care, and paid family leave—to better support these families and improve their children’s long-term health and wellbeing.
Supporting the health and well-being of children and families of color requires implementing comprehensive strategies that address systemic and institutional racism. This report offers a blueprint for creating equity-centered, anti-racist policies that support the health and well-being of children and families of color.
This case study examines the partnership that the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) and Family Voices undertook to create and implement a process for engaging families in the Pediatrics Supporting Parents (PSP) national initiative to promote the social and emotional development (SED) of young children. While many individuals and organizations, including funders, see the value of family engagement, they often struggle with the logistics of how to engage families. This case study provides valuable insights about best practices for engaging families, describes a framework for…
This issue of the Future of Children focuses on the first years of life starting with in utero experiences. Though a few previous issues have examined programs and services directed to the youngest children and their parents (home visiting programs, universal postnatal programs), none have taken a broader or more comprehensive look at the prenatal to age three period or, “Three Trimesters to Three Years.” These phrases signal the premise that prenatal experiences are part and parcel of the postnatal experience of mothers and their babies; in fact, the postnatal period is…
This two-page document from the Thrive Coalition - a community of over 30 organizations and individuals dedicated to addressing U.S. Government support for global early childhood development - makes a case for U.S. investment in global early childhood development. The document outlines the importance of the early years and the greater "return on investment" for early intervention. The document also underscores the cost of inaction.
This brief describes some of the "compelling evidence that the foundations of lifelong health" are built in the early years of life, "with increasing evidence of the importance of the prenatal period and first few years after birth." The brief reviews some of the detrimental impacts of toxic stress on the brain and, in turn, the body's biological systems, and points to the need for responsive relationships between young children and the adults who care for them.
Created by Youth in Focus, Building Cognitive and Social-Emotional (CSE) Competencies is a one-day training that takes a deeper dive into one of the five Youth Thrive Protective and Promotive Factors and builds on content in other Youth Thrive training. This Module explores how cognitive and social-emotional abilities operate in youth’s daily experience and personal lives and what we can do to help young people develop and strengthen these skills in order to thrive.
What is toxic stress? What effects can it have on a child’s body and development, and how can those effects be prevented? What does it mean to build resilience? This episode of The Brain Architects explores what “toxic stress” means, and what we can do about it.
Host Sally Pfitzer is once again joined by Center Director Dr. Jack Shonkoff as they dive into the different types of stress, including what makes certain stress “toxic,” while…
This Resource Guide is a joint product of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Children’s Bureau, its Child Welfare Information Gateway, and the FRIENDS National Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention. The annual guide is one of the Children’s Bureau’s most anticipated publications, offering trusted information, strategies, and resources to help communities support and strengthen families and promote the well-being of children and youth. Its contents are informed by input from some of our National Child Abuse Prevention Partners as well as our colleagues on the Federal…