Chapin Hall

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:

• American Public Human Services Association (APHSA) Advancing Family Economic Mobility Prevention Learning Community
• FRIENDS National Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention (CBCAP) Learning Community
•  Families Are Stronger Together: TANF & Child Welfare Partnering for Prevention Learning Community (FAST-LC), and
• APHSA Economic and Concrete Supports Cross-Sector Community of Practice.

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