About This Initiative

Context

Connecting Families to Economic Supports (CFES) is a multi-year collaboration between the Administration for Children's Services (ACS) and its public and nonprofit partners. Together, we are building a citywide structure to support economic stability and upward mobility for families and youth in or at-risk of entering the child welfare and youth justice systems.

Our Approach

This program will integrate economic and concrete resources directly into child welfare and youth justice practice, providing families and young people across New York City with ongoing support to secure and maintain access to them.

Our Goals

  • Stabilize families and support long-term economic mobility

  • Improve family and child well-being

  • Prevent involvement with child protection and youth justice services

  • Reduce the likelihood of re-involvement (for families already involved)

How This Playbook Was Created

Through generative co-design workshops and a ten-week pilot period followed by another series of redesign workshops, almost 200 collaborators co-designed this digital playbook. They included ACS-involved families, staff and leaders at ACS and the Department of Social Services, and representatives from 14 ACS-contracted community-based organizations across New York City. Their input shaped the content, format, and scope of every section.

Initiative Timeline

ACS contracted with two nonprofit organizations, Public Policy Lab (PPL) and Chapin Hall, to support the project's design and evaluation.

  • Research Phase: PPL conducted research with families and young people receiving ACS services, as well as staff and leaders from ACS providers, DCP's Family Services Units (FSU) and Family Preservation Program (FPP), the Department of Social Services (DSS), and the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP). This included shadowing, interviews, process mapping sessions, and surveys. PPL used these insights to identify shared needs, develop design guidelines, and create a draft integrated service.

  • Co-Design Phase: The project team then brought together ACS and DSS program leaders, provider organizations, and families for three months of weekly workshops, led by PPL, to refine and test the draft through collaborative design.

  • Testing and Redesign Phase: 14 ACS teams and providers tested a working prototype of this program model for ten weeks in Spring 2026. Staff from across these teams then participated in redesigning the program based on their experiences.  

  • Rollout: PPL and Chapin Hall are helping ACS and its providers build the long-term infrastructure needed to implement the program. The full rollout across ACS contracts will happen over 1-2 years.