News

    Providence Journal: Plans Presented to Protect Well-being of Children in Rhode Island

    August 20, 2018

    “Just referring a family to services isn’t always enough. There need to be more intentional efforts to ensure that the families ultimately get connected with those agencies,” said Trista Piccola, the Director of the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth, & Families (DCYF). The GPL worked with DCYF and the Rhode Island Department of Health to create a plan for reducing child fatalities and near-fatalities due to neglect or maltreatment. Read more about our recommendations ...

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    WMUR: New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services to Receive Support from Harvard to Improve Child Services

    June 14, 2018

    The GPL announced that New Hampshire's Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) will receive pro bono technical assistance. In particular, the GPL will assist the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) with providing consistent and effective services to children and families who need protection or are at risk of future harm and with increasing the number of children cared for by families by strengthening the recruitment and retention of foster family resources....

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    Rhode Island DCYF Outgoing Director on Overhauling an Agency in Crisis

    October 6, 2016

    Rhode Island's NPR station interviews Jamia McDonald, who led the turnaround at Rhode Island's Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF). The GPL has been supporting the agency's reprocurement of services focused on reducing congregate care and increasing family stability and worked with the agency to develop a more robust contract provider performance management practices....

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    Providence Journal: Rhode Island Holds Two-day Summit on Overhaul of Child Welfare Services

    November 17, 2015

    Nearly 200 people who work with Rhode Island's Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) came together to weigh in on how child welfare services should be purchased. The GPL had been assisting DCYF with implementing active contract management in its contracts with service providers. Read more about the summit here, and...

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    Providence Journal: Governor Raimondo Vows Major Overhaul of Department of Children, Youth, and Families

    July 30, 2015
    Saying she “inherited an agency in crisis...an extremely dysfunctional system,” Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo outlined a plan to radically reform the state’s troubled Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF). Her plan included receiving pro bono technical assistance from the Government Performance Lab. Read more about her plans here, and... Read more about Providence Journal: Governor Raimondo Vows Major Overhaul of Department of Children, Youth, and Families

    Providence Journal: Better Ways to Protect Children

    August 29, 2018

    "Sometimes the best cure for a difficult problem is a fresh set of eyes, and that appears to be what Rhode Island gained in a recent study of how the state can better protect children who are at risk of neglect, abuse, or even death." The GPL worked with the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth, and Families and the Department of Health to create a plan for reducing child fatalities and near-fatalities due to neglect or maltreatment. Read more about how the GPL is shaping agency processes to better protect children...

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    Washington Post: A strikingly new approach to social problems

    February 16, 2016

    The launch of two GPL-assisted Pay for Success projects in South Carolina and Connecticut was featured in the Washington Post. The South Carolina project aims to improve maternal and prenatal health for low-income, first-time mothers, and the Connecticut project expands substance abuse and parenting support services for families involved in the child welfare system....

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    Washington Department of Children, Youth, and Families: Strengthening Connections Between Child Welfare and Early Learning

    March 18, 2019

    Secretary Ross Hunter, the Director of Washington’s Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF), recently laid out the department’s plan for incorporating early childhood learning services into the child welfare system. DCYF is piloting projects at two sites to identify opportunities to strengthen connections to early learning resources for child welfare-involved families, which evidence suggests will help at-risk families develop protective factors and build resilience. Read his post...

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    New Hampshire Public Radio: N.H.'s Division for Children, Youth, and Families Wants Public Input on How to Improve

    October 4, 2019

    New Hampshire's Division for Children, Youth, and Families issued a formal Request for Information to ask the public how it could better do its job. The RFI "calls on everyone from behavioral health providers to foster parents to advocacy groups to academia to put forward ideas on how the agency can better achieve goals including reducing the number of families with repeated reports of maltreatment and decreasing the...

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    How can child protection agencies partner with early care and education to improve outcomes for children?

    July 17, 2020

    Casey Family Programs published a new strategy brief on creating collaborative relationships between early childhood education and child protection agencies to improve outcomes for children. The brief highlights the GPL’s work with Washington’s Department for Children and Families to “strengthen efforts to provide prevention and early supports by connecting families to community-based...

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    Social Finance: Reflections on the South Carolina Nurse-Family Partnership Pay for Success Pilot

    November 14, 2016
    Charting the Course: Reflections on the South Carolina Nurse-Family Partnership Pay for Success Pilot is a brief about GPL's Nurse Family Partnership Pay for Success project in South Carolina. It provides background on the purpose of including a pilot for this project, the “lessons learned” from the pilot, and why incorporating a pilot can improve the launch and operations of complex Pay for Success projects. Read the full brief... Read more about Social Finance: Reflections on the South Carolina Nurse-Family Partnership Pay for Success Pilot

    Conway Daily Sun: State Expands Residential Behavioral Health Treatment for Children

    July 28, 2021

    The Conway Daily Sun wrote a piece highlighting New Hampshire's expansion of residential behavioral health treatment for children. Governor Sununu remarked that the expansion "represents another step in our work to rebuild New Hampshire’s mental health system, and to ensure Granite Staters, especially children and youth, have access to appropriate behavioral health services within our State”. Read the ...

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