Child Policy Connect

The grant to the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) will help establish a program to improve evidence-based policymaking around issues that impact children and families. SRCD will use funds to engage leadership from the Research-to-Policy Collaboration, an evidence-informed and tested intervention that brokers relationships between legislators and researchers and has led to increased uptake of research by staffers in the U.S. Congress. To learn the Research-to-Policy Collaboration model, SRCD will focus on youth mental health and leverage literature and policy activity focused on broad issues that threaten and promote youth and family well-being. Congress has the power to address this area through a number of means, including federal funding (e.g., for prevention, treatment, and prescription drug use; school-based prevention models; community-based models of care; research, etc.); regulatory actions (e.g., governing televisits; social media and online safety; gun safety; school requirements, etc.); and workforce shortage issues (e.g., through training programs, loan repayment, etc.). This is a promising development for SRCD, which has longstanding relationships with the federal government and strong relationships with researchers producing knowledge about child development.