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The Children and Family Support Pilots includes three programs designed to strategically prevent crisis by educating, supporting, and stabilizing Arkansas’ most vulnerable children.
Project Overview
Prevention, Stabilization, and Support Project for Young Children (PSSP-YC)
Targeted population: Children birth through 6th grade who are at risk of losing their placement at home or their educational setting due to behaviors.
Design: To proactively provide support for children and their families in their home, daycare, and schools and provide trained staff to immediately stabilize children in real time.
- Represents a shift in philosophy and action.
- Directs focus toward prevention by providing supports for families, including foster and adoptive, before there is an issue that creates risk for children.
- Coordinates multiple services to form a local team around the children and families, with everyone working toward the same goal.
Families in Transitions Team (FiTT)
Targeted population: Children experiencing a major life transition such as entering foster care, being adopted, being discharged from a residential facility, etc.
Design: To support children and families in crisis without requiring a diagnosis of mental illness and provide in-home, family to family peer support.
- State level FiTT Team will coordinate with local teams in pilot areas of the State.
- Mobilize quickly to provide in-home support and family-to-family mentoring/respite to assist with unplanned transition situations, promote stabilization, and determine if long-term supports are needed.
Comprehensive Screening and Assessment for Children (CSAC)
Targeted population: Children in Arkansas who are in need of assessment.
Design: To develop and administer comprehensive screenings and assessments to properly identify the correct support for children and their families.
Four focus areas:
- Community-Wide Training
- Strengths-Based Screening
- Interdisciplinary Assessment of Children & Youth
- Expansion of Community-Based Diagnostic Services
Key Details
Timeline: The pilots will run through March 31, 2026.
Location: The pilots will serve children who are Medicaid recipients in pilot sites across the state of Arkansas.
Pilot Goals
- Designs supports for children BEFORE the crisis occurs
- Provides supports that are child/family focused and structured around functional routines
- Creates systems of care that are efficient and effective
- Highlights interdisciplinary practice for children and families
- Provides training/coaching for caregivers, teachers, and practitioners
- Uses a strengths-based model to promote inclusion and acceptance of all children
Pilot Sites
Sites will be in the following cities (counties):
To learn more about PSSP-YC, FiTT, or CSAC, please contact 501-687-7361.