Strong Communities for Children: A Community-Wide Approach to Prevention of Child Maltreatment

Based on increased knowledge regarding causes and correlates of child maltreatment and alarm at the rapid increase in child maltreatment reports and substantiations, the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect (Neighbors helping neighbors: A new national strategy for the protection of children. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1993) recommended a child protection strategy focused on creating universal systems of family support grounded in caring communities. This chapter describes the first known attempt to implement the Advisory Board’s recommendations—Strong Communities for Children. Strong Communities blends findings from child maltreatment research with public health concepts of community-wide prevention and intervention. After providing information on the initiative’s conceptual framework, logical model, engagement strategies, and evaluation findings, this chapter details an effort to replicate the initiative, first carried out in the southeastern United States, in Israel.