CAC will launch the Preventing Family Crisis Pilot: Early, Flexible Support for Head Start Families. Across Oklahoma, families often maintain strong informal trust within their communities while experiencing deep mistrust of formal systems intended to support them, particularly child welfare, education and workforce systems. This mistrust delays engagement, allows challenges to escalate, and contributes to avoidable system involvement.
The pilot is designed to equip Family Advocates and school-based family specialists with flexible tools to respond to immediate needs before they escalate and also introduces a critical addition: targeted microgrants to address urgent gaps traditional systems cannot meet. Families frequently encounter small but high-impact barriers such as utility reconnection fees, minor car repairs, work-related expenses, or short-term childcare that falls outside traditional assistance programs. Left unresolved, these issues can quickly escalate into job loss, unsafe living conditions r involvement with child welfare.