Grants & Awards
The Idaho Legislature established the Idaho Children’s Trust Fund in 1985 to support efforts designed to prevent child abuse and neglect within the state. The Children’s Trust Fund (ICTF) holds the vision that all Idaho children are valued and develop in a safe and nurturing environment. A unique public-private organization, the ICTF is dedicated to the prevention of child abuse and neglect through funding, educating, supporting and building awareness among community-based organizations that share our mission. The ICTF believes that:
Idaho’s children are the state’s greatest assets. Keeping them safe from abuse and neglect is our mission. Too often children suffer abuse and neglect with wide and far-reaching consequences that afflict for a lifetime.
Preventing abuse and neglect is critical to protecting Idaho’s children. Prevention efforts begin with shifting the focus from targeting family risks and deficits to building family strengths by imbedding protective factors within the family unit.
Implementing a protective-factors approach to child abuse and neglect prevention means engaging the programs, services, and systems already supporting children and families as partners in preventing maltreatment and promoting optimal development.
Nationally, 81% of abused children are abused by a parent. Research shows that the best way to prevent child abuse is to educate, inform, support and partner with parents to help them build strong, healthy families. Therefore the majority of the funding dollars distributed by the ICTF are allocated to providers who embed effective prevention strategies into their parenting and early care and education programs to strengthen and support parents and families.
Child Neglect is a failure to meet children’s basic needs – whether the failure is the responsibility of parents, communities or society – and this void places children in harm’s way. Neglect represents 78% of all reported child abuse and neglect cases in 2010. Yet understanding it and its complexities pales compared to our other understanding of other maltreatment. The ICTF is interested in projects that intentionally address neglect or look at one of the factors most frequently identified with it: history of trauma, poverty, maternal depression, substance abuse, devaluing challenges of child rearing.
Three levers for change have been identified* to enhance the environment in which programs do their work -creating the incentives, capacity, and impetus for many more programs to take on a protective-factors approach. The three levers for change are:
- Parent Partnerships
- Professional Development
- Policy and Systems
*Strengthening Families Framework, Center for the Study of Social Policy
The Idaho Children’s Trust Fund awards grants to programs that provide services to prevent child abuse and neglect in Idaho. The ICTF sponsors two grant programs, Multi-Year and Annual Grants. Organizations interested in applying for ICTF grants must be located in Idaho or provide services to residents of Idaho.ICTF grants are available to public or private non-profit or faith-based organizations, government agencies, (e.g. schools or health departments) or qualified individuals that provide community based educational or service programs designed to reduce or prevent the occurrence of child abuse and neglect. Proposed projects must be designed specifically to prevent or reduce the occurrence of child abuse or neglect by using strategies that strengthen families.
* The Trust Fund has a small fund to provide for partnership opportunities up to $1000.00 for more information contact Roger Sherman **