Essentials for Childhood: Steps to Create Safe, Stable, Nurturing Relationships and Environments

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention website states: “Essentials for Childhood proposes strategies communities can consider to promote the types of relationships and environments that help children grow up to be healthy and productive citizens so that they, in turn, can build stronger and safer families and communities for their children.” The authors outline four goals:

Raise Awareness and Commitment to Promote Safe, Stable, Nurturing Relationships and Environments and Prevent Child Maltreatment;
Use Data to Inform Actions;
Create the Context for Healthy Children and Families through Norms Change and Programs; and
Create the Context for Healthy Children and Families through Policies.

Each goal is then broken down into multiple steps which community leaders and policy makers can follow to build relationships and environments that promote healthy social and emotional development and prevent child maltreatment. The guide is also filled with abundant resources to explore. Essentials for Childhood is well worth the read, but if you are short on time or need to access just the highlights, there’s also an abbreviated one-page version you can check out here.

The ICC-Recommended Early Start Personnel Manual (ESPM) describes core knowledge and role-specific competencies needed for early intervention service provision, incorporating current research and evidence in the field of early intervention. To access the ESPM, click here.

This resource is related to the following ESPM knowledge-level competencies:

Core Knowledge (CK):
- CK1: The dynamics of family systems including cultural, linguistic and socio-economic factors influencing family function and care for all children.
- CK2: The role of primary social and emotional relationships as the foundation for early learning.