Year One of Maine's Child Safety and Family Well-Being Plan (2025-2030)
When families have the support they need, children are more likely to grow up in safe, stable, and nurturing environments.
That belief guides Maine's Child Safety and Family Well-Being Plan (2025-2030) (PDF), a five year roadmap focused on strengthening families, expanding access to support, and improving coordination across state and community systems. One year into implementation, partners across the state have joined the Maine Department of Health and Human Services and Maine Child Welfare Action Network to put the Plan into action.
A Statewide Movement, A Collective Commitment
The Plan represents a movement in Maine toward what we want to promote for families -- not simply what we want to prevent. It asks everyone to consider and act on how they contribute to a supportive community where families feel valued and can get help before challenges escalate. This approach supports children and caregivers early and often, helping limit the need for more intensive interventions.
The Framework: Two Goals, Five Strategies
The Plan is built around two goals:
- Goal A: Parents and caregivers provide safety, health, and nurturing care for their children.
- Goal B: Families experience a supportive and coordinated child safety and family well-being system.
To advance these goals, the Plan, emphasizing the public-private and community partnerships central to this work, focuses on:
- Providing economic and concrete supports
- Providing equitable and timely access to low barrier supports and services
- Building partnerships with families
- Promoting supportive communities
- Improving coordination among state and community partners
Together, these strategies create a continuum of support that meets families where they are.
Year One in Action
Across Maine, state agencies, schools, community organizations, and families translated the Plan's goals into concrete action as reported in the Year One Update (PDF). From rural communities to urban centers, partners worked within their unique roles to expand support for and build stronger connections around and with families.
While no single initiative defines this work, together these efforts reflect steady progress toward a more coordinated, family centered, and proactive child safety and family well-being system.
Highlights from Year One included:
Supporting Economic Stability
- Community-led efforts to provide flexible support for families
- Collaboration to promote housing stability
- Workforce and education supports for parents
- Increased outreach for SNAP and SUN Bucks
- Continued investment in child care systems and the early childhood workforce
Meeting basic needs reduces family stress and supports child safety.
Expanding Health and Behavioral Health Access
- Launch of Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics
- Continued behavioral health system reforms
- Ongoing implementation of Help Me Grow Maine
- Increased use of School-Based Health Centers
- Strengthened maternal and perinatal health supports
These efforts improve timely, coordinated, and family-centered care.
Elevating Family Voice
- Launch of MaineCare Beneficiary Advisory Council
- Expanded reach of the Be There for ME campaign
- Growth of parent and youth leadership efforts
- A Family Partnership Framework to advance statewide collaboration with family leaders
Families are better served when they are partners in shaping systems.
Strengthening Communities and Collaboration
- Implementation of school-based prevention models
- Community-founded spaces where families can gather and get support
- A focus on connecting families with the most appropriate support
- Statutory changes to clarify poverty from neglect
- Connections between state and community partners focused on shared problem solving
Creating the community conditions for well-being requires cross-sector collaboration.
Measuring Progress
The Plan tracks indicators to assess how our collective efforts are strengthening families and improving child safety.
Recent data show:
- More youth reporting family support
- More youth reporting that they matter in their communities
- A decline in recurrence of child abuse and neglect
Housing affordability, child care access, and health coverage remain ongoing priorities.
Looking Ahead
The first year demonstrates what is possible when state agencies, community partners, and families align around a shared vision.
Family well-being is a shared responsibility. As implementation continues, the Child Safety and Family Well-Being Plan remains a framework for prevention, partnership, and accountability, advancing communities where children are safe and families are supported.