Infant-toddler court program - justice innovation, INC

Doing business as center for court innovation (center) seeks $3,125,000 over five years under health resources & services administration award opportunity 22-073 to build on its successful history developing and expanding specialized infant-toddler courts (itcs) to increase the presence of itcs in new york state (NYS). This application is in partnership with the NYS unified court system; the NYS council on children and families (CCF), which coordinates 12 NYS child- and family-serving systems; and rise, an organization of parents with lived experience in the child welfare system that advocates for needed reforms in the child welfare system. The proposed project's overarching goal is to engage families, systems, and communities to promote the developmental health of court-involved infants and toddlers. The proposed project will serve children birth to three years of age under court jurisdiction, including children who are in foster care and those who are at risk of removal, and their families. There are more than 16,000 infants and toddlers with active cases in the family courts in NYS. This very large number of children, who essentially start life in the child welfare system, presents a need for specialized expertise in infant mental health and early child development within the family courts and a need to make court involvement a pathway to evidence-backed and highly supportive child and family services. The center's strong starts court initiative's ITC model meets these needs. The center proposes to expand capacity in one of its existing strong starts court initiative ITC sites, in brooklyn, new york, which has more than 2,500 infants and toddlers on its child protection docket, and to develop new itcs in geographically diverse parts of NYS, including erie county in the westernmost part of NYS and broome county in the south-central part of the state. The center's existing strong starts court initiative is HI ghly aligned with the zero to three ITC model and currently operates in every borough of new york city and in westchester county, new york. The center will leverage its strong relationship with the NYS unified court system and its experience developing problem solving courts within and with the participation of local communities to coordinate the efforts and operations of itcs throughout NYS. A state coordinator will ensure that there are consistent policies and practices across sites, training for the itcs' dedicated judges and infant mental health-expert clinical coordinators as well as other needed technical assistance, and uniform data collection. The center will also work closely with the ITC program national resource center to ensure that there is shared learning across sites and state teams, provide a data manager to this project, and will involve its tribal justice exchange to include the expertise of tribal systems and facilitate coordination between tribal and state court systems. The center's partnership with rise will ensure that there is input from parents with lived experience in the child welfare system at all stages of project development, and CCF will assist in the recruitment of members for a statewide advisory team, building on their extensive experience convening state agency leadership for several existing early childhood initiatives in NYS, and will assist in developing strategies for sustainability of itcs in NYS. The project will benefit from, contribute to, and build on statewide efforts to improve and expand its range of preventive services that support the developmental and relational health of vulnerable children and families and that promote families' protective factors prior to any need for court involvement. The center (courtinnovation.ORG) is headquartered at 520 8TH avenue, 18TH floor, new york, NY 10018. The director of the proposed project is director of family court programs katherine wurmfeld (