Implementing the Essentials for Childhood Initiative: Establishing Safe, Stable, Nurturing Relationships and Environments in North Carolina:

Achieving population level reductions in children maltreatment may require a statewide, systems level approach to create safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments for all children. To assess this approach, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funded five states from 2013 to 2018 to implement a collective impact approach centered around four goals 1) Raise awareness and commitment to promote safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments and prevent child maltreatment; 2) Use data to inform action; 3) Create the context for healthy children and families through norms change and evidence-based, trauma-informed programs; 4) Create the context for healthy children and families through policies. This paper describes North Carolina’s approach to achieving these goals, including the functions of the backbone organization(s), how the initiative identified stakeholders and developed a shared agenda, how the workgroups operated and what they achieved, communication strategies implemented, and other accomplishments achieved by the initiative. We also discuss successes and challenges faced by the NC Essentials for Childhood initiative. © 2019, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.