The Prevention Research Center for Family and Child Health (PRC)
The Prevention Research Center for Family and Child Health (PRC)—founded by Dr. David Olds and housed within the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine—is a multidisciplinary team dedicated to research to improve the lives of children, families, and communities. As part of the Adult and Child Center for Outcomes Research and Delivery Science (ACCORDS), we bring together experts in pediatrics, nursing, child development, psychology, caregiver–child relationships, maternal and perinatal health, family planning, foster youth, anthropology, policy, and implementation science.
Our team leads rigorous, mixed‑methods research focused on early‑life interventions that strengthen families, inform policy, and support healthier communities. At every stage—from shaping research questions to sharing results—we center equity and work in authentic partnership with the communities we serve.
We believe in partnering authentically with the people our work impacts and researchers who share our vision. If you’re interested in meaningful collaboration or want to learn more about what we do, we’d love to connect.
Email us at: [email protected]
Contact our Program Manager at: [email protected]
The Prevention Research Center for Family and Child Health is devoted to fostering healthier and more equitable communities for children and families to flourish through evidence-based interventions, programs, and policies focused early in life.
At the PRC we value and strive to demonstrate the following in our interactions with each other and when conducting research:
- Strengths-based approaches
- Evidence-based foundation
- Equity • Inclusivity
- Transparency
- Respect for all
- Curiosity
- Care for one another
- Collaboration
- Self-awareness
- Integrity
The goals of the PRC are to:
- Conduct rigorous, mixed-methods research with a focus on programs that support families early in the life cycle to informpolicy and practice for promoting the health of children, families, and their communities.
- Apply systematic and structured frameworks to design and evaluate preventive interventions that aim to improve the health of children, families, and communities.
- Conduct research to understand who accesses, participates in, and benefits from early‑life preventive interventions, with the goal of advancing health equity for children, families, and communities.
- Create and maintain a collaborative network of researchers across the University of Colorado and globally with a focus on prevention science to improve parental and child health.
- Conduct research using an equity lens throughout all stages from conception to dissemination.
- Intentionally and authentically engage with the community affected by the research in all studies conducted by the PRC.
- Advance the field by studying effective collaboration among systems that support the health of children, families, and their communities.
- Collaborate with Changent, the implementing organization for NFP and Child First, to study impacts and innovations to both models.
- Build a supportive, inclusive community of researchers and practitioners that nurtures students and Early Career Investigators while strengthening workforce diversity.
- Serve as a hub for providing education on topics consistent with the mission and goals of the PRC including:
- Prevention science.
- Mixed-methods research.
- Systems collaboration.
- Community engagement and equity-oriented research .
- Parenting and early childhood development.
- Perinatal and child health.
- Evidence-based home visitation models.
- Serve as a hub for supporting development, adaptation, and testing of the NFP model globally.
- Provide consultation and direction to Changent in the areas of program implementation and program improvement.
- Provide consultation with individuals and agencies in local, national, and international contexts to support evidence-based
preventive interventions, programs, and policies implemented in pregnancy and early life to improve the health of children,
families, and communities. - Conduct our work in fiscally responsible, transparent, and sustainable manner.
Strengths-based approach “an approach that identifies, celebrates, and builds on strengths to support a sense of self-efficacy and where strengths serve as a foundation for new learning and growth”
Evidence-based “denotes an approach to medicine, education, and other disciplines that emphasizes the practical application of the findings of the best available current research.” [Definition from the Oxford English Dictionary]
Prevention science “focuses on the development of evidence-based strategies that reduce risk factors and enhance protective factors to improve the health and wellbeing of individuals, families, and communities. Prevention science draws from a diverse range of disciplines—including the epidemiological, social, psychological, behavioral, medical, and neurobiological sciences—to understand the determinants of societal, community and individual level problems (e.g., trauma, poverty, maltreatment). A central tenet of prevention science is the promotion of health equity and reduction of disparities by studying how social, economic and racial inequalities and discrimination influence healthy development and wellbeing.” [Definition from the National Prevention Science Coalition to Save Lives:https://www.npscoalition.org/prevention-science]