The initiative takes a public health approach based on prevention, early identification and intervention of children and families with significant vulnerability, and intensive services for families with the greatest need. Within that framework, there are particular sub-populations at higher risk for poor long-term outcomes, and whom we believe are critical to breaking the generational cycles of systems involvement. One such population is children born to teenage parents, especially those recently emancipated from or still wards of the formal child welfare system. The other is children zero to five in kinship care (both formal and informal, such as grandparents, aunts, etc.), whose guardians are often not equipped to deal with their needs.

The Atlas Family Foundation grant supports the Initiative’s quality improvement strategy, which builds the individual, organizational and collective capacity of participants from the seven agencies representing all the domains relevant to positive outcomes for children, and aligns their work implementing a comprehensive early childhood system of care for young children in South Los Angeles.