Strengthening Families

Alaska Strengthening Families Goals

To highlight and expand the valuable role that early care and education programs play in their efforts to prevent child abuse and neglect
To actively engage the early care and education community in becoming key stakeholders in carrying out child abuse and neglect prevention strategies
To enhance collaboration between the Office of Children’s Services, Child Protection Program staff and the early care and education community statewide
To link early care and education and child protection programs systems change efforts into a cohesive statewide plan

ECE programs will recognize their role in preventing child abuse and neglect and implement effective strategies for supporting parents and building protective factors around children.
Parents will access the support and services they need to care for their children and report feeling supported in increasing their capacity to parent.
Child Protection Service workers will see themselves as members of the prevention team, refer screened out families to community ECE resources, include protective factors in the early assessment of families, and routinely include placement in quality early childhood education programs in service plans for children 0-5.
Professional training and education programs will use consistent vocabulary and goals regarding protective factors in their curriculum.
Key policy and practice changes will be initiated for statewide implementation of the Strengthen Families principles.
A plan will be developed to promote the Strengthening Families principles statewide.