The Pittsburgh Study Early Childhood

The Early Childhood Collaborative of The Pittsburgh Study is a community-partnered, county-wide implementation of programs for children and families from birth through formal school entry to address real-world challenges that exist in providing effective preventive interventions for families with young children, particularly low-income families. Specifically, The Early Childhood Collaborative seeks to increase engagement (uptake and retention) in evidence-based interventions by (1) initially assessing families' resources and challenges, (2) offering families a menu of intervention options tailored to their resources/needs, and (3) providing these services at multiple locations to optimize accessibility. The Early Childhood Collaborative involves population-level utilization of multiple platforms that families, particularly families at greater risk for health disparities, typically use, including health care (birthing hospitals, pediatric care, federally qualified health centers), Women, Infants, and Children nutritional clinics, and family centers. The Early Childhood Collaborative will locate services in these platforms and at family's homes. The Early Childhood Collaborative focuses on child thriving and flourishing as key outcomes of interest, and community strengths as key drivers of change. To promote sustainability, investigators include representatives from the Departments of Human Services and Health who are responsible for funding and implementing home visiting programs in the greater Pittsburgh community, with the goal of generating infrastructures and capacity in existing community agencies for providing evidence-based behavioral health care.