CDC Joins Thriving Families, Safer Children to Promote Family Health and Well-Being

The Thriv­ing Fam­i­lies, Safer Chil­dren effort has added anoth­er part­ner: the Nation­al Cen­ter for Injury Pre­ven­tion and Con­trol at the Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion (CDC).

The CDC joins exist­ing mem­bers — the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion, Casey Fam­i­ly Pro­grams, the Children’s Bureau, and Pre­vent Child Abuse Amer­i­ca^® — that are focused on nur­tur­ing the con­di­tions for strong, thriv­ing fam­i­lies where all chil­dren are free from harm.

“Col­lab­o­ra­tion with the CDC strength­ens our partnership’s work to pri­or­i­tize pre­ven­tion among the many strate­gies that ensure all chil­dren have what they need to thrive at home and in their com­mu­ni­ties,” says San­dra Gas­ca-Gon­za­lez, vice pres­i­dent of the Casey Foundation’s Cen­ter for Sys­tems Inno­va­tion. ​“The CDC will be an invalu­able resource and part­ner as we work togeth­er to re-envi­sion child wel­fare as an ecosys­tem com­mit­ted to fam­i­ly well-being.”

Adding a Crit­i­cal Expertise

With three decades of exper­tise in pre­vent­ing injuries, vio­lence, sui­cide and over­dos­es, the CDC’s Injury Cen­ter shares the partnership’s focus on pro­mot­ing fam­i­ly health and well-being.

“We are excit­ed about the part­ner­ship oppor­tu­ni­ty with Thriv­ing Fam­i­lies, Safer Chil­dren that will allow us to inten­tion­al­ly con­nect our work in pre­vent­ing adverse child­hood expe­ri­ences to the great work being done across the coun­try,” says Christo­pher M. Jones, act­ing direc­tor of CDC’s Injury Cen­ter. ​“We look for­ward to lever­ag­ing our exper­tise and learn­ing from the oth­er nation­al part­ners — as well as the 22 Thriv­ing Fam­i­lies, Safer Chil­dren sites — as we work togeth­er to strength­en our fam­i­lies and communities.”

The Injury Cen­ter pri­or­i­tizes using evi­dence-based strate­gies to pre­vent sui­cide, over­dos­es and adverse child­hood expe­ri­ences, which are trau­mat­ic events affect­ing chil­dren or wit­nessed by chil­dren from birth to age 17. Part­ner­ship sites across the coun­try will ben­e­fit from the center’s strate­gies, resources and tools and gain access to its net­work of pre­ven­tion-focused part­ners and grantees. 

About Thriv­ing Fam­i­lies, Safer Children

Thriv­ing Fam­i­lies, Safer Chil­dren is a first-of-its-kind nation­al, mul­ti­year effort that spans the pub­lic, pri­vate and phil­an­thropic sec­tors. It looks to cre­ate and enhance net­works of com­mu­ni­ty-based pro­gram­ming while also align­ing gov­ern­ment resources to offer a full con­tin­u­um of pre­ven­tion sup­ports and services.

Beyond build­ing stronger fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties, the ini­tia­tive seeks to end the harm­ful prac­tice of fam­i­ly sep­a­ra­tion in child wel­fare sys­tems. This work involves close­ly col­lab­o­rat­ing with young peo­ple and fam­i­lies who have expe­ri­enced the child wel­fare sys­tem first­hand and lever­ag­ing resources and sup­port to cre­ate more just, equi­table and humane child and fam­i­ly well-being systems. 

Read More on Thriv­ing Fam­i­lies, Safer Children

Nation­al Part­ner­ship to Rein­vent Child Wel­fare Expands

First-of-Its-Kind Part­ner­ship Aims to Redesign Child Wel­fare Into Child and Fam­i­ly Well-Being Systems