Because Childhood Lasts a Lifetime.

The Centers for Disease Control Joins Thriving Families, Safer Children to promote the health and well-being of families

News

Prevent Child Abuse America is excited to announce that the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (Injury Center) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has joined the Thriving Families, Safer Children effort. Thriving Families, Safer Children is a first-of-its-kind national partnership that works across public, private and philanthropic sectors to promote the health, well-being and economic stability of families to help strengthen communities and end the harmful practice of family separation.

The CDC joins the four national partners, the U.S. Children’s Bureau, Casey Family Programs, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and Prevent Child Abuse America®  who are working in partnership with young people and families who have experienced the child welfare system, to find a way to rethink child welfare by creating the conditions for strong, thriving families where children are free from harm.

“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 (ACEs) to the great work being done across the country,” said Christopher M. Jones, PharmD, DrPH, MPH (CAPT US Public Health Service), acting director, 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 CDC’s involvement will provide Thriving Families, Safer Children with the expertise and resources to further our work. For 30 years, CDC’s Injury Center has worked to prevent injury, violence and their related impacts. To achieve the promotion of safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments where all families can thrive, the Injury Center prioritizes preventing adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) through evidence-based strategies, as well as prioritizing the prevention of suicide and overdose. As a result, they have many shareable resources and tools that can help Thriving Families, Safer Children sites implement strategies to prevent ACEs and support healthy childhoods for all children. They will also connect Thriving Families, Safer Children sites with other National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) partners and grantees in their localities who are doing ACEs prevention work.

“The work of Thriving Families, Safer Children has never been more critical than it is today,” said Dr. Melissa Merrick, CEO and President of Prevent Child Abuse America. “From economics to child care to racial and social justice, there are so many challenges facing children and families today – factors that can contribute to conditions for injury, neglect and abuse if not addressed. The CDC’s partnership, experience and evidence-based research serve to enhance this national effort of providing the right support at the right time – before a crisis happens to a child or their family.”
The work of Thriving Families, Safer Children, will focus on cre­at­ing and enhanc­ing net­works of com­mu­ni­ty-based sup­ports and align­ing gov­ern­ment resources to pro­vide a full pre­ven­tion con­tin­u­um that strength­ens com­mu­ni­ty pro­tec­tive fac­tors and parental pro­tec­tive capac­i­ties and mit­i­gates asso­ci­at­ed risk fac­tors. The mul­ti­year com­mit­ment will pro­vide resources and sup­port from the national part­ners and oth­er rel­e­vant child- and fam­i­ly-serv­ing fed­er­al agen­cies, juris­dic­tions, diverse com­mu­ni­ty stake­hold­ers and the pub­lic, pri­vate, faith-based and phil­an­thropic sec­tors to cre­ate more just, equi­table and humane child and fam­i­ly well-being systems.
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