Doris Duke Charitable Foundation

Twenty years ago, LONGSCAN, supported with grants from the Children’s Bureau, was launched at five sites across the country. LONGSCAN continued to interview children, their caretakers and their teachers for two decades, following the children from early childhood into young adulthood. The data from these interviews has been used in over one hundred presentations, and over 120 peer reviewed publications, and continues to be used in new analyses.

The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Children’s Bureau, and the LONGSCAN Investigators recognized the need for the many research findings from LONGSCAN to reach a broader audience than the scientific community - including professionals who work to help families and children, policy makers who make budget decisions or pass laws affecting families and children, advocates for children and families, and communities and parents throughout the United States. The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation met this need by funding From Science to Practice.

From Science to Practice provides each LONGSCAN site with support to convene a meeting to discuss its most important findings with a broad range of key stakeholders, who may include representatives from Public Health, Health and Human Services and DSS in particular, the legal system, mental health, child advocacy organizations such as Prevent Child Abuse, and adults who were either in theLONGSCAN study as children or were involved with child protective services as children. Each group will develop a set of policy and practice recommendations based on the LONGSCAN findings discussed. These findings will be disseminated regionally, and will be synthesized for use at a sixth meeting to be convened in Washington DC in 2013.

Put succinctly, the purpose of From Science to Practice is to assure that the results of LONGSCAN are widely disseminated, understandable, and of real use to the people and systems working to help families and children live safer, happier and healthier lives. For more information, contact Elizabeth Dawes Knight.

Latest DDCF Grant News:

LONGSCAN findings, practice and policy implications for child safety, permanency and well-being, developed with the input of key stakeholders at six meetings held throughout the US. Click here to view findings.

In Other News:

On May 3, 2013,  Investigators from the LONGSCAN project presented a congressional briefing co-sponsored by Senators Burr and Alexander to  HELP (Health, Education, Labor and Pensions) committee staffers.  The briefing included select LONGSCAN  findings and related general practice and policy recommendations generated at the six regional stakeholder meetings (see links to handouts below).

• Congressional Brief: Executive Summary
• Congressional Brief: Findings and Recommendations

NC Press Release - Researchers from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill reported recently on the most significant findings from a twenty-five year study on families and children. The Family Child Study was initiated in North Carolina with the primary goal of improving the quality of policy and practice in order to promote child and family well-being based on sound evidence from the study. Read more...

Additional materials generated for the NC site meeting can be accessed through the LONGSCAN internal website.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | UNC IPRC |