Families often need a range of services during the prenatal and early childhood periods to set children on a path to success and avoid long-term health challenges. This includes developmental health promotion and services to prevent specific problems, ongoing monitoring and screening for various child and family strengths and needs, coordinated linkage to any needed follow-up services, and issue-focused consultation or brief intervention when a concern arises.
However, challenges associated with poverty and systemic barriers, such as racism, can limit families’ access to these important services. The health system—especially pediatric primary care—can play a key role in connecting families to a continuum of early childhood developmental services and advancing health equity because of its near universal reach at early ages.
HRSA launched the Transforming Pediatrics for Early Childhood (TPEC) program in 2022 to build and sustain systems of care that ensure all families have the full range of services and supports they need, especially during the prenatal-to-5 year period. The program focuses on serving young children and their families who are eligible for Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program or are uninsured.
It establishes resource hubs that:
- Help place and sustain early childhood development experts in pediatric practices, with a goal of statewide impact
- Provide training, expertise, and resources to help pediatric practices transform their care to serve the developmental needs of families with young children more effectively
- Engage family and community leaders in systems-building efforts
- Address key financing and policy barriers to equitable service delivery
Current TPEC award recipients
HRSA currently awards approximately $8 million annually to eight resource hubs (up to $1 million each).
| Awardee | City | State | Cohort |
|---|---|---|---|
| University of Arkansas System | Little Rock | AR | Cohort 1 (2022 – 2026) |
| Massachusetts Department of Public Health | Boston | MA | Cohort 1 (2022 – 2026) |
| New Jersey Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics | East Windsor | NJ | Cohort 1 (2022 – 2026) |
| Oregon Health & Science University | Portland | OR | Cohort 1 (2022 – 2026) |
| County of Los Angeles | Los Angeles | CA | Cohort 2 (2023 – 2027) |
| Johns Hopkins University | Baltimore | MD | Cohort 2 (2023 – 2027) |
| Chickasaw Nation | Ada | OK | Cohort 2 (2023 – 2027) |
| Vermont Agency of Human Services | Waterbury | VT | Cohort 2 (2023 – 2027) |
HRSA also invests approximately $1.4 million annually in technical assistance to TPEC recipients and other health and early childhood systems leaders across the country, which is provided by the Early Childhood Evidence to Impact Center.