Resources

While mental health services have historically been targeted towards adolescents and adults, there is growing recognition of the need for increasing the availability and capacity of services and programs to promote healthy social, emotional development for young children and their families.

Opportunities for Strategic Investments in Evidence-Based Early Childhood Programs in NH. Rand Corporation, Lynn A. Karoly

Communities across the state are working to ensure that young children have the strong foundation and support they need to thrive. Some of the most innovative work is being led by NH's eleven regional early childhood initiatives. The Guide shares challenges and successes in hopes of informing and inspiring other communities to replicate what works.

For decades New Hampshire has been home to an informal network of public and private organizations called Family Resource Centers that offer high quality services to strengthen children and their families. In 2015 the legislature created performance standards and a voluntary designation system for programs serving children and their families. Designated programs are called Family Resource Centers of Quality (FRCQ), with designation being based on the national Standards of Quality for Family Strengthening and Support and NH Operational Standards for Family Resource Centers of Quality. The purpose of this report is to design a statewide infrastructure system that will support the sustained success of a system of FRCQ in the state. The report recommends creation of a central facilitating organization operating collaboratively with others to offer services that will result in an expanded field of high quality services for families.

With the growing understanding of the importance of the first five years for child health and development and the consequences for children who face various early-life stressors, states have been expanding their investments in early childhood programs, particularly those targeted toward at-risk children. Such investments have been demonstrated to benefit children and their families in the short run (as children are better prepared to enter school) and in the longer term (as children perform better academically, increase their educational attainment, experience better labor market outcomes, and require fewer social services). Policymakers and the public view such programs as an important economic development strategy that boosts the human capital, and therefore the productivity, of the future workforce. Lynn A. Karoly, Rand Corporation

Discussion guide for Raising NH: The Early Years, a co-production of NH Public Television and the Endowment for Health.