Child Trends

Please join Child Trends and APHSA -- American Public Human Services Association on September 24 at 1:00 pm ET to hear Mavis Sanders, Dominique Martinez, Quiana Lewis Wallace, PhD, MPH, and Shana E. Rochester describe Child Trends' priorities for advancing Black child and family well-being, the importance of community-engaged research, and more. Register today! https://lnkd.in/evGsstkJ

A new Child Trends brief from Zipi Diamond, Rowan Hilty, Kathryn Tout, and Jennifer Cleveland reflects on the methods and measures they used to understand early care and education (ECE) quality and children’s experiences in Minnesota’s Parent Aware Rated programs. The author’s findings can inform approaches ECE researchers and state leaders use to measure and understand how ECE program quality and other factors come together to shape children’s healthy learning and development. https://lnkd.in/dD6Ma9mN

Identity formation is an important part of adolescence and young adulthood. However, for young people in foster care, this may be challenging. A new Child Trends blog suggests that to help young people develop healthy racial identities, child welfare agencies can train adults who work in the child welfare system in cultural competency and help young people make positive connections with kin. https://lnkd.in/etWQ8cWq

A new Child Trends brief from Vanessa Sacks and Michael Bradley explores practices for incorporating positive youth development approaches into soliciting young adult workers’ opinions and implementing their suggestions in the workplace. Employers can attract and retain young adult talent by using positive youth development approaches, which focus on young adults’ strengths, growth, and relationships. This brief was was developed as part of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Generation Work initiative. https://lnkd.in/euEDHBp8

Breakthrough Accelerator just announced their 2024 (and first ever) cohort! Follow Breakthrough to learn more about each team and their impressive work.

Congratulations to Elizabeth L. Cook (she/her) (Child Trends), Katherine McLaughlin (Elevatus Training), Morrigan Hunter, and Corissa Pittman! They were recently awarded $150,000 to further their mission of ensuring adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities receive comprehensive sexual and reproductive health education.

The percentage of Black children in foster care in the United States is 2.2 times higher than in the general population, and the percentage of Indigenous children in foster care is 2.5 times higher than in the general population. This disproportionality is often underestimated due to single-race-only categories. Learn more in a new Child Trends analysis from Alyssa Liehr. https://lnkd.in/ewG-TbAh  

A recent report from Child Trends and Bright From The Start: Georgia Dept of Early Care and Learning—authored by Mallory Warner, Jack Fojut, Jing Tang, Audrey Franchett, Meghan McDoniel, Holly Keaton, James Fuller, PhD, and Diane Early—shares findings from Child Trends’ evaluation the DECAL Scholars program which aims to improve educator retention and increase education for Georgia’s early childhood workforce through financial and other supports. https://lnkd.in/ghvKzNYU  

For young people in foster care, identity formation may occur differently as they may not have access to information about their family of origin, ancestry, culture, or background. Child Trends’ new brief explores the ways in which 29 young people’s experiences with foster care impacted their racial identity formation. https://lnkd.in/eiRB9p8p

The National Research Center on Hispanic Children & Families has released a new brief examining the well-being of the Hispanic early care and education (ECE) workforce and how supports within ECE programs may play a role in their well-being. The brief highlights steps that ECE programs can take to address issues within programs to create a more positive work climate for the Latino ECE workforce. https://lnkd.in/e7mSiPPY