The Child and Family Data Archive and the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation hosted a webinar on January 19, 2022 on the Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation (MIHOPE) and Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation-Strong Start (MIHOPE-Strong Start). MIHOPE was launched in 2011 to assess the effectiveness of early childhood home visiting funded by the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program. MIHOPE-Strong Start was launched in 2012 to evaluate the effectiveness of evidence-based home visiting (MIECHV- and non-MIECHV-funded) in improving birth outcomes and health outcomes during pregnancy and the year after birth. The webinar provided an overview of MIHOPE and MIHOPE-Strong Start; MIHOPE and MIHOPE-Strong Start research design and key findings; information on the MIHOPE and MIHOPE-Strong Start restricted access files; protections for the restricted access files; and information on accessing the MIHOPE and MIHOPE-Strong Start datasets and MIHOPE video files.

This Child Welfare Information Gateway podcast offers insights from the National Native Children's Trauma Center for caseworkers and agencies that are working or will work with Indigenous communities to support children and families. It also covers why Indian Child Welfare Act provisions cannot be implemented the same way for every tribe or nation with which state and local child welfare professionals work, how historical trauma within Native and tribal communities is strongly connected to intergenerational trauma, and what guidance state and local child welfare caseworkers and agencies can use when engaging with Native families and communities. Additional resources are provided for reference.

This Children’s Bureau resource guide recognizes that there are actions that communities, organizations, and families can take to address the root causes of child abuse and neglect. It highlights innovative ways that communities conduct purposeful prevention work to help children and families thrive using a protective factors approach. This approach focuses on positive ways to engage families by emphasizing their strengths and by identifying areas where they have room to grow with support. The guide includes English and Spanish versions of conversation guides that help to engage parents and caregivers in personalized conversations with service providers about protective factors and how they want to care for their children and themselves.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation summary brief presents updates from 2021’s Home Visiting Evidence of Effectiveness (HomVEE) review of home visiting program models that serve families with pregnant women and children from birth to age five. The brief presents the review process, a summary of the results, the 21 models determined to meet U.S. Department of Health and Human Services criteria for an “evidence-based early childhood home visiting service delivery model,” and a link to the HomVEE website for more detailed information.

COVID-19 has brought additional attention to the impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and trauma across the lifespan, which may be exacerbated by disruption in the lives of families. This case study highlights California’s ACEs Aware and its key elements as a model for other states. Led by the Office of the California Surgeon General and the Department of Health Care Services, California’s ACEs Aware initiative trains and reimburses health care providers to screen children and adults for childhood trauma and respond to the effects of toxic stress, with the goal of reducing ACEs and toxic stress by 50 percent in one generation.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation brief describes perceived benefits of Youth At-Risk of Homelessness comprehensive service models for youth and young adults and child welfare systems. The brief provides recommendations for implementing models intended to reduce homelessness among youth and young adults with child welfare involvement.

Home visiting programs in agencies funded by the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program use various management practices to onboard, train, and evaluate their staff. This brief examines management practices used by home visiting programs receiving MIECHV Program funding based on national surveys of program managers and staff conducted in 2018. Analyses explore how frequently program managers report using management practices, the influence of employee input in different areas of program policy decision making, and associations between these factors and home visitors’ turnover intentions.

This fact sheet provides an overview of key findings from a Child Trends evaluation of two Team Decision Making (TDM) implementation sites and offers broader implications for the child welfare field. TDM is a model developed by agency staff to inform decision when deciding whether to remove a child from their home due to suspected abuse or neglect. TDM values serving families in a culturally sensitive, community-based, and minimally disruptive way by considering the needs and strengths of each child and family. The study relied on several data sources, including child welfare administrative data, a survey completed by workers after each case, a database of TDM meeting information entered by facilitators, and interviews and focus groups with workers, agency leaders, and community members.

Home visiting programs have been shown to support healthy child development, increase family economic independence and positive parenting practices, and decrease child maltreatment. This research-to-practice brief examines the evidence of impact of the SafeCare® model, a home visiting program implemented by the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (OKDHS) and the Arkansas Department of Human Services (ADHS). The OKDHS and ADHS experiences offer insights and lessons for other jurisdictions considering SafeCare as part of the Title IV-E Prevention Plan under the Family First Prevention Services Act.

This report is an evaluation of Warren County, Ohio’s Child Assessment and Response Evaluation (CARE) project, a 24/7 rapid-response intervention for children at the scene of an overdose of a parent or loved one. It describes how CARE improved perceptions of children services and strengthened the existing foundation of cross-agency collaboration. The evaluation draws upon surveys and interviews with first responders, emergency dispatch, children services officials, and families affected by substance use disorders.