Safe Babies
A FIRST3YEARS Initiative
Stay Connected.
Stay Inspired. Strengthen Families.
Introducing a specially curated newsletter for Tarrant County child welfare professionals, designed to keep you informed, encouraged, and equipped. Get the latest trainings, resources, local updates, and real-world insights delivered straight to your inbox.
Safe Babies seeks to lessen the long-term impact of abuse and neglect, increase the likelihood of family reunification, and ensure that developmentally appropriate and trauma-informed policies guide the care and transitions of infants and toddlers in the child welfare system. The program currently operates in Tarrant, Dallas, and Harris counties in Texas. Together we can build a better system for infants and toddlers by enhancing the quality of relationships between infants and toddlers and their caregivers.
Safe Babies works to:
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Support Coparenting: Safe Babies uses the Fostering Relationships model to help birth parents and caregivers learn how to work together during the first five visits. This support builds trust, improves communication, and helps infants and toddlers feel safe and connected to the adults caring for them.
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Case Coordination: Safe Babies stays involved from the beginning of a child welfare case until permanency. We help connect services, support families during visits, court, and placement changes, and make sure birth parents receive clear guidance and follow-up.
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Work as a Team Across Systems: We bring together child welfare, courts, early childhood providers, and community partners to find gaps, remove barriers, and create shared solutions that support parents and help families reach permanency sooner.
Eligibility
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Child 0-36 months at referral
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​No court order barring visitations
No cases pertaining or containing:-
Sex trafficking
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​Sexual assault of a minor (perpetrator- non-offending parent can be referred)
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Bodily assault within a 5-year period/active case (perpetrator- non-offending parent can be referred)
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Make a referral here
Parents and Caregivers:
Safe Babies provides a national coparenting training to parents and caregivers that centers around child wariness, following the lead techniques, coparenting with a placement, and what to expect at structured visitations.
Professionals:
Safe Babies provides a year-round training series for child welfare professionals in which experts speak on relevant child welfare topics from an infant mental health lens. We also convene an annual two-day conference designed to equip child welfare professionals and cross-system partners with practical tools, research, and strategies to better support infants, toddlers, and families.
Safe Babies has been made possible by:
Houston Endowment
The Herman H. Fleischman Foundation
The Morris Foundation
Rainwater Charitable Foundation
United Way of Metropolitan Dallas – Ground Floor Program
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We would also like to thank University of Delaware for its support!