In 1994, the Carnegie Corporation released "Starting Points: Meeting the Needs of Our Youngest Children," which called for an action agenda to promote responsible parenthood, guarantee quality child care choices, ensure good health and protection, and mobilize communities to support young children and families. In 1996, the Carnegie…

In 1994, the Carnegie Corporation called for an action agenda to promote responsible parenthood, guarantee quality child care choice, ensure good health and protection, and mobilize communities to support young children and families. In 1996, the Corporation created the Starting Points grant program to encourage states and communities to address…

Highlights program strategies to support families as they adjust to changes in welfare policy. Core strategies noted include using early childhood programs as a resource, adapting early childhood programs to better meet family needs, promoting access to high-quality child care, linking early childhood programs and welfare agencies, and creating…

Claims that increasingly, decisions about whether or how resources will be allocated to young children and families will be made at the state level. Explores the questions answered by the policy document, "Map and Track: State Initiatives for Young Children and Families," and the significance of these questions. Highlights findings and…

This report examines the potential impact of federal welfare legislation, Public Law 104-193, The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, on vulnerable families already in or at risk of entering the child welfare/child protection systems. The report includes an overview of the challenges states face; questions for state…

Noting the relatively little attention focused on linking child welfare practice with health care, early intervention, and other strategies that could effectively address the risks faced by young children in foster care, this policy paper is intended to challenge communities across the country to attend to the needs of children in or at risk of…

This brief is one in a series on children and welfare reform that explores how states and communities can achieve the adult-focused goals of welfare reform and enhance the well-being of young children. Arguing that deliberate policy, program, fiscal, and collaborative strategies are needed to strengthen basic supports, promote young children's…

This report presents findings about emerging approaches to enhance the well-being of young children and families in the context of welfare reform. Information on programs and initiatives was obtained from nomination forms sent to over 300 key informants, including child care officials, Head Start collaboration directors, governors' early childhood…

This third biennial "Map and Track" examines state-level efforts to promote positive outcomes for young children, including efforts to enhance children's economic security, healthy growth and development, and school readiness. The report provides information about the following types of state-funded child development and family support…

Compelling evidence from neuroscience about how early relationships and experience influence the architecture of the brain, and in turn early school success, has led to increasing policy and practice attention to implementing child development and family support programs like Early Head Start for infants and toddlers. But, there is also a group of…

This book is the seventh Children's Defense Fund report on major problems facing American children at risk of placement or already placed out of their homes. The findings are based on a survey of child welfare and probation offices in a stratified random sample of 140 counties (27 with populations over 300,000, and 113 with populations under…

In the past decade, there has been a sharp increase in awareness of how interventions that address multiple risk factors and target both children and their families can help ensure that children grow up healthy and able to learn. In 1995, the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) undertook a project to "map" state initiatives…

As states respond to major welfare legislation in providing assistance and other interventions to help adults on welfare become ready to work, the challenge of helping these adults in their parenting skills and in promoting resilience in their children has often been ignored. This issue brief addresses the challenge of promoting resilience in…

This report focuses on fatherhood in its profile of state efforts to develop comprehensive programs and policies for young children and families, presents indicators of child and family well-being, and describes state investments in young children and families. The report provides national and state indicators of fathers and fatherhood, and…