

DIVE DEEPER | POLICY MAKERS
EFC understands that developing best practices and policy recommendations for Maryland means collecting and evaluating Maryland data and learning about what's happening elsewhere across the country. You can dig deeper by subject matter here.
Childhood Adversity
Preventing adverse childhood experiences (ACEs): leveraging the best available evidence
National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (U.S.). Division of Violence Prevention, 2019
Lays out six key policy areas to prevent ACEs from occuring in the first place.
Roadmap for Resilience: The California Surgeon General’s Report on Adverse Childhood Experiences, Toxic Stress, and Health
California Surgeon General’s Office
This comprehensive report offers critical insights for policymakers, scientists, healthcare providers, educators and advocates, but also advances evidence-based solutions and approaches to better health and safety.
Child Development
Building Adult Capabilities to Improve Child Outcomes: A Theory of Change
Harvard Center on the Developing Child
5-minute video depicting a theory of change for achieving breakthrough outcomes for vulnerable children and families. It describes the need to focus on building the capabilities of caregivers and strengthening the communities that together form the environment of relationships essential to children's lifelong learning, health, and behavior.
How Children and Adults Can Build Core Capabilities for Life
Harvard Center on the Developing Child
5-minute video exploring the importance of the development and use of core capabilities — known as executive function and self-regulation skills — from early childhood into adolescence and adulthood, so that we build communities that thrive.
Early Childhood
Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center website
Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center, Vanderbilt University
The Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center empowers states with rigorous evidence to implement effective and equitable policies that ensure all children thrive from the start. Based in Vanderbilt University‘s Peabody College, our team of researchers and nonpartisan policy experts work directly with state leaders to achieve their goals for child and parent wellbeing–as well as the health, safety, and prosperity of communities.
See Prenatal-to-3 Maryland Policy Roadmap, Maryland’s current landscape of policies.
In Brief Series: Summaries of Child Development Research Topics
Harvard Center on the Developing Child
Includes 2-3-page policy briefs on core concepts of healthy child development, including policy recommendations.
Maryland PACEs and Other Health Data
MD-IBIS - Maryland’s Health Data Resource
Maryland Department of Health
MD-IBIS provides access to the data that can help provide answers to realize the health goals of Maryland. Many health risks and outcomes can be searched at state and local jurisdictional levels.
Check out the video to search data for your jurisdiction.
Maryland Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) ACE Data (2015, 2018, 2020)
Maryland Department of Health
View the data.
Maryland Youth Risk Factor Survey/Youth Tobacco Survey (YRBS/YTS) PACEs Data (2018-19, 2020-21)
Maryland Department of Health
See the data.
Strong Roots Grow a Strong Nation - Maryland Fact Sheet 2021
CAHMI, Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health
View Maryland PACEs data collected from the National Child Health Survey.
Maryland’s Health Rankings
America’s Health Rankings, United Health Foundation
The longest-running state-by-state analysis of the nation’s health, the platform provides actionable, data-driven insights that stakeholders can use to effect change in Maryland and other states. The platform is meant to help policymakers, community leaders and health officials better understand the specific health concerns in their own communities so we can all work together to address health challenges.
National PACEs Data
CDC Vital Signs
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The CDC Vital Signs reports cover important health threats, this one on ACEs, and what can be done to drive down disease.
Flourishing in Action: National, State, and Local Data
CAMHI, Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Individual state/national comparison fact sheets using 2018/2019 National Survey of Children’s Health data regarding the prevalence of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and key child outcomes such as bullying, school engagement, resilience and flourishing.
Addiction
Facing Addiction in America: The Surgeon General’s Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health
Office of the Surgeon General
413-page call to action to end the public health crisis of addiction, including key findings and recommendations for evidence-based policies and programs.
Child Sexual Abuse
Prevent Together: The National Plan to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation
National Coalition to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation
Provides a framework – Six Pillars for Preventing Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation – for effective, comprehensive, and holistic prevention interventions, including policies, to prevent child sexual abuse before it occurs.
Child USA’s Gold Standard: Policy Recommendations for Preventing Child Sexual Abuse
Child USA
23-page guide outlining steps child and youth-serving organizations can take to prevent child sexual abuse.
Child Poverty
The Brain Architects Podcast: A New Lens on Poverty – Working Towards Fairness of Place in the United States
Harvard Center on the Developing Child
Podcast features a discussion with co-authors Mona Hanna-Attisha, MD, MPH, FAAP and H. Luke Shaefer, PhD, and their book, The Injustice of Place: Uncovering the Legacy of Poverty in America. It explores the groundbreaking new program, RxKids, an innovative effort to address child poverty and improve health equity.
Early Intervention Services/Milestones
Early Intervention: A Critical Support for Infants, Toddlers, and Families
CLASP and Zero to Three
4-page policy brief on the importance of early intervention and the gaps in state and federal policy.
Epigenetics
What is Epigenetics? And how does it relate to child development?
Harvard Center on the Developing Child
Infographic explaining epigenetic science and policy implications to improve outcomes for children and society.
Epigenetics: Why Inheritance is Weirder Than We Thought
Minute Earth
3-minute video on epigenetics and its impact on human behavior.
Loneliness and Isolation
Our Epidemic of Loneliness & Isolation: The Surgeon General’s Advisory on the Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community, 2023
Office of the Surgeon General
82-page Surgeon General’s Advisory that calls the American people’s attention to an urgent public health of loneliness and isolation and provides recommendations for how it should be addressed.
Racism
Understanding Racism’s Impact on Child Development
Harvard Center on the Developing Child
Experts across various fields share their latest research and potential solutions to promote healthy child development and dismantle systemic racism; exploring how racism gets “under the skin” to impact children’s development as well as contributes to unequal access to opportunity. Watch the video.
How Developmental Science Can Help Us Address Inequities During Adolescence
UCLA Center for the Developing Adolescent
4-page policy brief that examines how principles of developmental science could play a part in creating more equity in outcomes for all adolescents.
How Developmental Science Can Help Address Structural Anti-Black Racism During Adolescence
UCLA Center for the Developing Adolescent
7-page brief on how developmental science can support solutions that address the race-based injustices and challenges faced by Black adolescents.
What Does It Mean to be Anti-Racist?
Above the Noise
10-minute video on what it means to be Anti-Racist and why it is important.
Youth Depression & Suicide
What do young people in crisis need from their communities?
Crisis Text Line
Read this report on solutions to the epidemic of depression and suicide among adolescents in the United States.