How We Work
Family Leadership
Clinical Innovation
Translational Research
Systems Transformation
What We Do
Parent Cafés
The Parent Café is a family-based and parent led program designed by Be Strong Families to facilitate peer-to-peer learning around five evidence-based protective factors that improve resilience and strengthen supports within families.
Family Wellbeing Program
The Family Wellbeing Program (FWP) offers multi-generational, culturally responsive services designed to support mental health concerns of both caregivers and children. This work takes place within early childhood education centers in Washington, DC.
HealthySteps DC
HealthySteps DC is the Washington, D.C., based HealthySteps program. Led by the Early Childhood Innovation Network (ECIN) team, it is built on the National Zero to Three HealthySteps model of embedding an early childhood mental health specialist within pediatric primary care clinics. The goal of this specialist is to make mental health supports accessible for families at routine pediatric visits from a child’s birth through age 3.
Early Childhood Mental Health Awareness Training (EC-MHAT) Program
The Early Childhood Mental Health Awareness Training (EC-MHAT) Program is a training program that aims to prepare and train community members and first responders (e.g., educators) on how to appropriately and safely respond to individuals with mental disorders or behavioral health concerns. Seed funding for the program was awarded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) as part of the Mental Health Awareness Training (MHAT) grant program.
Learn more about the Early Childhood Mental Health Awareness Training Program
Prenatal to 5 Capacity Building Collaborative (P5CBC)
The Prenatal to 5 Capacity Building Collaborative (P5CBC) works to increase investments and improve equity in prenatal-to-3+ programs and services that support the health and development of D.C. infants, toddlers, and their families.
Learn More About the Prenatal to 5 Capacity Building Collaborative
Mindful Early Learning Initiative
The ECIN Mindful Early Learning Initiative (EMELI) promotes mindfulness training opportunities, helps share relevant information, and advocates for policies that bring mindfulness supports to educators, community leaders, mindfulness teachers, and caregivers of young children in areas of Washington, DC, and beyond. The initiative focuses on people who have traditionally had less access to mindfulness and other self-care and wellness resources.
Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (ECMHC)
Early childhood mental health consultation is a capacity-building intervention that tries to improve how schools and other learning environments support and promote social, emotional, and behavioral health. ECIN developed and validated an innovative way to bring early childhood mental health consultation to early learning, specifically for PreK classrooms working with 3- and 4-year-old children.
Workforce PROMISE
The workforce components of PROMISE offer culturally responsive well-being supports to teachers, staff, and leaders of early childhood education centers in Washington, D.C. The program is supported with federal and foundation funding.* It is being developed in partnership with three Early Head Start programs in DC, University of Maryland at College Park, and the American Institutes for Research.
Using Four Guiding Principles,
ECIN is dedicated to work that is:
Multi-generational and grounded in science
Guided by community and families' knowledge and experience
Collaborative across sectors
Integrated with existing resources
