Current Early Childhood Systems
Several public systems have responsibility for the well-being of young children and families. Many families—especially those experiencing poverty, job insecurity, or health issues—interact with multiple service sectors, such as health care, mental health, child care, schools, job training, substance abuse programs, and housing agencies. Often, these systems do not work together to coordinate services for children and families. Each agency has its own eligibility requirements, service providers, and practices, creating a burden on families and inefficient or duplicative “silo” services that are uncoordinated in their efforts to support families and promote well-being in children.
Project LAUNCH Efforts for Comprehensive Early Childhood Systems
Project LAUNCH looks at the whole child—and the child as part of a family and community. A major goal of Project LAUNCH is to help providers across disciplines think holistically about children’s well-being and work together so that the care and support offered to families is coordinated and well integrated. Guided by their Young Child Wellness Councils (cross-sector advisory groups, including parents), Project LAUNCH grantees bring together organizations to promote collaboration and improve the integration and efficiency of the child-serving systems. Project LAUNCH system integration efforts include policy development, identification of funding mechanisms to ensure long-term support for young children’s wellness (e.g., changes in Medicaid reimbursement policies), cross-sector workforce development efforts, shared data systems, expanded referral systems, and other activities intended to improve communication and simplify services for children and families at the local level.
Turning Points that Led to Success for Project LAUNCH
Project LAUNCH grantees discuss critical moments in the implementation of the grant in their community, state, tribe or territory.
At the state level, Project LAUNCH grantees build on and coordinate with other state and federally funded efforts to develop and strengthen systems to promote wellness in young children. One example of close collaboration is with the Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems: Building Health Through Integration grant program, funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). These grants are awarded to states and communities to help them improve integration and services for young children. Project LAUNCH grantees work to ensure that behavioral health is integrated into efforts to improve access to high-quality early learning programs, such as the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge grants, funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Education. In addition, Project LAUNCH grantees collaborate closely with state and local leaders in implementing the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting grant, funded by HRSA, that helps states, territories, and tribal entities offer voluntary, evidence-based home visiting programs for pregnant mothers and families of young children.
At the local level, Project LAUNCH pilot communities work on similar system building and integration efforts. A local Young Child Wellness Council is convened to bring together partners and providers from across service delivery systems. This includes representatives from health care, mental health, early childhood education, child care, local education agencies, and child welfare and also may include other important members of the community invested in young children (e.g., faith organizations, law enforcement, libraries, parks and recreation, and local businesses). The local Young Child Wellness Council plays a pivotal role in planning, shaping, and overseeing the implementation of Project LAUNCH strategies, and it helps ensure that funded innovative practices are promoted and sustained beyond the end of the grant.
A critical aspect of the Project LAUNCH model is the partnership between the state (or tribe or territory) and the local pilot community. The Project LAUNCH team consists of a key leader at the state (or tribal/territorial) level and one at the local pilot community level. They collaborate regularly to ensure that the lessons learned by the local community through the implementation of Project LAUNCH are shared with the state/tribe/territory to foster more strategic thinking about statewide, territory-wide, or tribal adoption of relevant policies, practices, and programs intended to improve the child-serving system. Equally important, the state/tribe/territory listens to the challenges of the local community and leverages its Young Child Wellness Council and other resources to help remove barriers and facilitate successes by changing policy, realigning priorities, raising attention and awareness, and determining strategies for developing the workforce. The local Project LAUNCH coordinator and his or her counterparts at the state, territory, or tribal level are partners in their work to support sustainable change to better serve young children and their families.
Outlines how health, early learning and development, family leadership, and supportive service delivery systems contribute to the central outcome of thriving children and families.
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