Chapin Hall

Too many American families find themselves in a system gap—an abyss between health and human services systems where critical supports are insufficient or unattainable. As unmet needs swell into a crisis, families are too often sent to the child welfare system for support that it, by design, does not provide.   

Within the child welfare system, there is increasing momentum in a new direction —one that prevents child welfare involvement by ensuring that family needs are addressed earlier, through an integrated and holistic child and family well-being system. That same momentum can be found in broader systems of health, human services, economic support, and caregiving.    

Chapin Hall, with the support of the Doris Duke Foundation, has developed a strategic framework to support this change. Meeting Family Needs: A multi-system framework for family and child well-being is a detailed tool to develop an integrated and holistic child and family well-being system—a system that buoys families facing adversity and helps them thrive. This framework provides both a vision of this system and the practical steps to get there.  

Key elements of this framework are illustrated on this page and include two foundational conditions for change and six components of system change. The Meeting Family Needs Framework also includes dozens of programmatic examples from across the country, descriptions of approaches to take in applying the framework, and a complete list of references. 

Chapin Hall experts have applied research and policy expertise with practical experience in human service systems to develop this framework. A range of Chapin Hall experts contributed to this diverse and multi-disciplinary framework. The effort was led by Policy Fellow Katie Rollins and Senior Policy Fellow Clare Anderson—key Chapin Hall experts on preventing child welfare involvement, multi-system collaboration, and economic and concrete supports.   

Chapin Hall will be releasing briefs to build on each of the six change components. For more on the strategic expansion component, see Flexible Funds for Concrete Support to Families as a Child Welfare Prevention Strategy.

For more information about the Meeting Family Needs Framework, contact Katie Rollins.  

Read the full framework

Read the “At a Glance” framework

Read the 1-pager