The Office of Family Assistance, through its Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood (HMRF) efforts, hosted a live Expert Panel webcast that explored the effects of toxic stress in childhood. This moderated discussion brought together preeminent, nationally recognized experts and practitioners to describe toxic stress, how exposure to childhood toxic stress can have life-long consequences as adults, and how practitioners and community-based organizations are working to prevent toxic stress exposure in children and ameliorate its effects on adults, strengthening families and communities.

Child abuse and domestic violence often co-occur in families, and such data has led child welfare programs to re-evaluate service delivery protocols for families. This article reviews Family to Family Grantee experiences and offers guidance on how to better serve families in the child welfare system facing domestic violence issues as well.