Igniting collective action across states and communities to meet the urgent needs of babies and toddlers
Safe Babies, a program of ZERO TO THREE™, supports states and communities in building coordinated and aligned child welfare and early childhood systems that advance early developmental health and well-being, from policy to practice, based on the Safe Babies approach. The approach works concurrently at the child and family, community and state levels to promote healthy early childhood development while impacting long-term capacity building. The goal is to keep families together by igniting collective action to meet the urgent needs of babies, toddlers, and their families. While the approach is anchored in the court system, it is also an entry point for cross-system collaboration to effectively serve families across multiple areas of need.
The Infant-Toddler Court Program (ITCP) National Resource Center, operated by Safe Babies, is the entity that leads wide-scale dissemination of the approach to support children birth to three years of age in foster care, or at risk of removal, and their families with the support and services they need to ensure healthy development and lasting permanency. The ITCP National Resource Center works in partnership with Help Me Grow; National Indian Child Welfare Association; Family Voices; Center for the Study of Social Policy; American Bar Association, Center on Children and the Law; the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges; and an independent evaluation team at James Bell Associates.
Is there a Safe Babies site in your community or state? Find out.
Areas of focus to keep families together
The Safe Babies approach is guided by the focus areas below, with the needs of babies and their parents at the center. The approach works concurrently to ensure healthy childhood development while impacting long-term capacity building.
- Interdisciplinary Collaborative and Proactive Teamwork
- Ensuring families’ individualized needs are addressed by promoting coordination across communities to find creative solutions and removing structural barriers perpetuating discriminatory processes and inequities.
- Enhanced Oversight and Collaborative Problem-Solving
- Enhancing judicial oversight with more frequent court hearings and engaging families as partners guided by respect, kindness, and compassion.
- Expedited, Appropriate, and Effective Services
- Ensuring services for babies and their families are timely and comprehensive while respecting their lived experiences and the intergenerational effects of social, racial, and health inequities.
- Trauma-Responsive Support
- Responding to trauma with a healing approach while recognizing the resilience of parents and understanding the lifelong, systemic social and health inequities facing some families with young children.
- Continuous Quality Improvement
- Driving and sustaining best practices to foster reflection instead of reactivity, allowing the space for families and professionals to grow, adapt, and change based on effective data and evaluation.
Key outcomes for children and families
The Safe Babies approach has worked to translate the science of early childhood development into child welfare so that infants and toddlers can reach their full potential. While the approach is anchored in courts, it is an entry point for cross-systems collaboration and building – at the child and family, community, and state levels – to serve young children and their families across the promotion, prevention, and treatment continuum.
- The young child’s development is on a healthy track
- At least 83% of children received needed developmental screenings, Early Intervention services, and evidence-based intervention to repair and strengthen the child-parent relationship within 60 or fewer days—with no differences by race or ethnicity.[1]
- Attachment relationships are nurtured and protected
- Reunification is the most common type of permanency outcome, with a median time of 9-10 months, 6-8 months sooner than children in a comparison group.[2] [3]
- Prevention of repeat child welfare involvement
- The repeat maltreatment rate for Safe Babies children was 0.7% within 12 months compared with the Children’s Bureau national performance indicator of 9.1%.[4] [5]
Learn more about the growing body of national evaluation studies has consistently shown positive outcomes for children and families supported by the Safe Babies approach.
Learn more and connect
The Infant-Toddler Court Program National Resource Center, operated by Safe Babies, was made possible through the support of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Resources from the Infant-Toddler Program National Resource Center
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