About this topic
Families should be kept together and supported with necessary prevention services whenever it's possible to safely do so. But it can be challenging for child welfare agencies to identify families that would most benefit from services, engage families in voluntary services without being coercive, and develop a service array that fundamentally meets the needs of families.
The plays in this section were developed by members of the Doris Duke Foundation's OPT-In Initiative Prevention Learning Collaborative, a coalition of child welfare agencies focused on developing effective prevention strategies.
Why this matters
Removal is traumatic for a child and family, even in a best case scenario where they can stay with kin they know and love until they can reunite. When prevention services can safely prevent removal altogether, everyone benefits.
What we can do
Identifying Target Populations
Engagement
- Example Co-Designed Engagement Scripts
- Keep Your Wait List Warm
- Quickly Offer Specific Concrete Goods in Initial Engagements
- Register your phone number so it does not display as unknown
- Support All New Parents
- Tribal Family Coaches
More
- Create a Plan of Safe Care to Support New Parents and Their Infants
- Hiring Prevention Navigators
- Hold Child Safety Meetings to Find the Least Restrictive Interventions
- Raise Funds by Charging Government Service Providers Rent in a Community-Based Location
- Set a Time Limit on Voluntary Safety Plans
The Prevention section is generously supported by the Doris Duke Foundation as part of the OPT-In for Families Initiative.