Opinion: Partnering together to support NYC families

New York City is leading the way in making sure families have streamlined access to the resources, services and support they need to thrive. In particular, the Adams Administration has been implementing a citywide strategy to get to the source of ongoing problems, making changes upstream to create better results downstream. As part of that work, more and more, the Administration for Children’s Services has been working closely with its sister agencies across New York City that interact with children and families the most to train direct service staff members on the best ways to connect families to support before life’s challenges get to be too much. Supports range from child care assistance to family counseling, to domestic violence interventions, to concrete resources and more. Services are free and voluntary. In fact, in a survey of families who accessed ACS services last year, 94% reported being happy with the services they received. 

Through these collaborations with our partners, we are promoting a citywide culture shift to supporting families with successful engagement, relationship-building and service referrals while focusing CPS investigations where children may be in danger.  We believe that essential to keeping children safe and families strong is moving upstream to provide communities with access to the supports they need to thrive as early as possible.  Our hope is that, through interagency collaboration, we can reduce the number of unnecessary reports made to the state’s child abuse hotline – and thus, unnecessary interaction with the traditional child protection system – simply because a family is in need of a helping hand.

Most recently, ACS partnered with Health + Hospitals to launch The Pathways to Prevention initiative in parts of the Bronx and Queens. As part of this new pilot, social workers, physicians and other staff at Lincoln Hospital (Pediatric clinic, OBGYN,), Gotham Health Morrisania (Pediatric outpatient) and Elmhurst Hospital (Pediatric clinic, OBGYN, Adolescent clinic) are being trained on how to best connect patients who might benefit from family support services. Staff will be able to facilitate such connections through the findhelp.org social services directory or by contacting one of the participating ACS prevention providers directly. The pilot is being rolled out with the following ACS community-based prevention partners: JCCA, Children’s Aid, Cardinal McCloskey, Good Shepherd Services, SCO Family of Services and The New York Foundling. 

Pathways to Prevention builds on the city’s ongoing upstream work. For instance, last year, ACS announced it was collaborating with the public schools – the largest source of reports citywide – to provide revised training and materials so that mandated reporters, like teachers and guidance counselors, better understand when a report to the state’s child abuse hotline is and is not necessary and how they can support a family without reporting. ACS and the public schools have jointly trained over 8,600 school staff in more than 90 interactive sessions since early 2023. ACS has also been training staff from Department of Homeless Services shelters, private hospitals, and DYCD after-school providers. 

Our goal, to increase the number of families receiving services without the need for a child welfare investigation, is resulting in promising outcomes. We are proud of the fact that, in the first three months of this year, we received more than twice as many referrals to prevention and family support services from community sources than in the first three months of 2023. This means schools, shelters and families themselves are learning how to access supportive family services without any need for a child protective investigation. With this new partnership, we expect that number to grow. 

New York City’s children and families deserve to have access to the supports they need to lead happy, healthy, and fulfilling lives. I look forward to updating the public on our continued progress.