Colorado Partnership for Thriving Families

Project Abstract

The Colorado Partnership for Thriving Families (Partnership) is a cross-sector collaborative of human services and public health partners who believe that intentionally working together at the state and county levels to align funding, priorities, regulations, outcome measures, and implementation makes it possible to create a strong family well-being system. The overarching goal of the Partnership is to significantly reduce child fatalities and child maltreatment for all children ages 0 to 5 by positively and proactively supporting strong and healthy family formation. The Partnership has adopted an initial goal of strengthening families during pregnancy and through the first year of a child’s life (prenatal to one) and will ultimately expand into ages 1 to 5 based on resources and capacity.

The Partnership has identified three priority action areas to advance its initial goal:

1. Align state and county human services, public health, and health care systems to place family well-being at the center.
2. Strengthen the family well-being system service array to improve outcomes for parents and infants throughout pregnancy and up to age one.
3. Change community norms related to social connectedness to increase access to information on child development and support.

The Colorado Lab is working with the Partnership to develop and implement an evaluation plan that will examine short-, intermediate, and long-term outcomes aligned with these three priority areas.