Across the United States, state leaders have made admirable commitments to improving the lives of children, addressing a wide range of needs— including education and mentorship, healthcare and nutrition recreation and technology access, and more. However, the increasing specialization of government services has led to silos and disconnected services that can be inefficient or ineffective.

Children’s cabinets are formal structures for convening public officials with shared responsibility for supporting children’s well-being; they can highlight inequities across different communities and create awareness of, and accountability for, solving problems that might otherwise go unaddressed. By improving coordination, collaboration, and coherence across agencies, children’s cabinets can deliver more effective services and supports to children and families.

Strong and Sustainable Children’s Cabinets: A Discussion Guide, co-published with the Aspen Institute, is for state leaders who embrace the responsibility of improving the responsiveness and effectiveness of services to children and families. The guide includes:

• How to address the unique issues related to designing children’s cabinets
• Help for existing cabinets to function more coherently and strategically, in service of the needs of the state and its residents.