A Key Connection: Economic Stability and Family Well-being

Addressing economic hardship as a factor in child welfare involvement    

New: Access to Food Assistance Increases Child Safety Access to Medicaid and Healthcare Promotes Child Safety Access to Child Care and Early Childhood Education Promotes Child Safety

 

A growing body of evidence shows that families do better when they have access to concrete services and have economic stability. This makes providing economic and concrete supports an important component of preventing child abuse and neglect and reducing involvement with child welfare. Since families of color are disproportionately affected by poverty, these supports can serve as a strategy to reduce racial disproportionality in child welfare systems.  

Chapin Hall experts have brought together evidence about the connections between economic and concrete supports and involvement with child welfare. System Transformation to Support Child and Family Well-being summarizes some of this research. Chapin Hall also surveyed child welfare leaders about the use of economic and concrete supports to prevent child welfare system involvement, and the results of that survey are now available. 

This body of evidence is actionable. Chapin Hall’s work has included supporting several national learning communities focused on system alignment and increasing access to economic and concrete supports as a child welfare prevention strategy, including:

We have also applied our Evidence to Impact Policy Tool to help agencies analyze policies across their human service programs to identify opportunities to prevent family child welfare involvement through economic and concrete supports. To work with us on applying this evidence at your agency or in your jurisdiction, contact Clare Anderson.

Learn more about Chapin Hall’s approach to this work.

Policy Toolkit
1-pager about this research
Path to preventing child welfare involvement
TANF Policy Brief
Chapin Hall ECS Systematic Review
ECS and Family Reunification
ECS to Prevent Child Fatalities & Abusive Head Injuries

For a full list of references for the Economic and Concrete Supports Slide Deck above, please see this Research Reference List of more than 300 studies. To work with us on applying this evidence at your agency or in your jurisdiction, contact Clare Anderson.

Presentation on This Work

On Nov. 8, 2022, Chapin Hall presented a webinar on the role of economic and concrete supports in preventing child welfare system involvement. Click the button below to watch the video.

Watch webinar on economic and concrete supports in child maltreatment prevention

From a convening of 75 leaders: Innovations and recommendations for disrupting the link between poverty and child welfare