Childrens Trust Fund Alliance

Programs: The national alliance of childrens trust and prevention funds (alliance) is a not-for-profit organization established in 1989 and it remains the only national organization that provides support to all aspects of the work of state childrens trust and prevention funds (ctfs). The mission of the alliance is to ensure that all states have a strong and effective childrens trust or prevention fund capable of leading and investing in strategies, policies and best practices that prevent child abuse and neglect before it occurs. The alliance initiates and engages in national efforts that help state childrens trust and prevention funds in strengthening families and communities to prevent child abuse and neglect. This includes promoting and supporting a system of services, laws, practices, and attitudes that support families by enabling them to provide their children with safe, healthy, and nurturing childhoods. In addition, the alliance joins with other federal, state and non-profit partners to promote national policies and practices that promote well-being of children, families and communities and reduce the likelihood of child abuse and neglect. State ctfs are entities created by legislation in almost all states in the us to lead and support efforts to strengthen families, promote the well being of children and prevent child abuse and neglect. They collectively distribute more than $200,000,000 in funding each year to support state-wide and community-based strategies to accomplish these goals. They serve as incubators of new initiatives, catalysts for needed changes and partners with multiple other systems that touch the lives of families. During fiscal year 2017, the alliance continued to strengthen families and prevent child abuse and neglect by implementing the following strategies:i. Bringing the protective factors framework to life in your work a resource for action: the alliance hosted an online training to support implementation of the strengthening families protective factors framework. This curriculum was available to users at no charge and included materials on partnering with parents and promising strategies to strengthen families for practitioners. The curriculum consists of seven courses, each designed to be about two hours in length. This resource is for anyone who works with children and families, including parents, practitioners and supervisors. In addition, the alliance offers a three-day in-person training for trainers that expands significantly on the online training. This adaptation includes a trainers manual, handouts and presentation materials (training videos, audio, handouts and powerpoint slides) for each course. Ii. Preventing child neglect - it's more than a family matter: all children benefit from strong families and safe communities where their needs are met. Most children are growing up with these supports. Unfortunately, many are not. Even loving, nurturing parents may have difficulties meeting their childrens needs. Some communities face challenges in providing an environment that promotes positive outcomes for their children. When childrens needs are neglected, their growth and development can be affected, with life-long costs to them and to all of us. Child neglect is the most pervasive area of child maltreatment and is responsible for the majority of foster care placements for children. The impact on a childs physical and emotional development is serious and significant and there are many challenges in preventing it from occurring. The issues related to child neglect are broader than those relating only to individual families. There are community and societal issues that also impact a parents ability to provide for their childrens needs. The alliance engaged in multiple strategies to prevent child neglect, including providing training and disseminating a wealth of materials available on its website (www. Ctfalliance. Org). Iii. Building the capacity of state children's trust and prevention funds: the alliance provided training and technical assistance to state ctfs and their numerous other systems partners, including national, teleconference and on-site trainings, technical assistance, opportunities for peer consulting and monthly webinars with state leaders focusing on strengthening families and promoting strategies that help families and communities build protective factors. These coordinated strategies have produced systemic changes that bring together the efforts of multiple systems with the child abuse prevention field so that families are strengthened and child abuse is prevented. Iv. Ensuring a strong parent voice: to ensure a strong voice representing the perspective of parents, the alliance works closely with its alliance national parent partnership council (anppc). Anppc members serve as partners with the alliance professional team in almost all aspects of the alliance's mission-driven work. Their partnership provides the alliance with important access to diverse perspectives of parents and enriches the work of the alliance and it's key organizational partners. The alliance also partners with casey family programs to support the birth parent national network and the birth parent advisory committee to promote the voices of birth parents in child welfare system reform, particularly the refinancing of child welfare to support more preventative services for families. Also in partnership with casey family programs and others, the alliance helped lead the birth and foster parent partnership to bring together birth parents and foster parents as co-advocates for policies that help improve outcomes for children and their families. V. Building the capacity of the prevention, early childhood, family strengthening and child welfare fields: in addition to the trainings identified above, to share its expertise and knowledge, the alliance hosts a web site (www. Ctfalliance. Org) with numerous resources that have been produced by the alliance and its members. With a diverse set of publications and original videos, the alliance web resources are available at no charge to help support quality practice, expand the thinking and perspectives of those engaged in this field of work and document important work taking place through its national network.