Official Site of The State of New Jersey

The Office of Strategic Development (OSD) was created in 2015 and given the charge of modernizing the overall service array within the Department of Children and Families. OSD serves as a hub within the Department for the development, adaptation, and implementation of evidence supported, innovative and impactful programming that will result in better outcomes for children and families.

OSD initiatives include:

• Keeping Families Together – statewide implementation of a evidence informed supportive housing model for child welfare involved families confronted with a range of co-occurring challenges and homelessness.
  
  
• Supportive Visitation Services - development and implementation of a continuum of visitation services for children in out-of-home placement to support safe reunification and reduce repeat maltreatment and reentry into care.
  
  
• Trauma Treatment and Supportive Services – select county implementation of evidence based Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) to support child victims of domestic violence who have been exposed to trauma and require treatment.

• Family Preservation Services - strengthening implementation of the statewide network of Family Preservation Services (FPS) programs which provide intensive, in-home crisis intervention and family education program for families whose children are at imminent risk of out-of-home placement and for a sub-set of families preparing to be reunified with their children.

• NJ Family Success Centers (FSC) – providing leadership for the development of the NJ FSC Practice Profile, an evidence-informed primary prevention strategy, and aligning infrastructure to support quality implementation across the statewide network of 56 FSCs.

• Blueprint for Integrating Evidence-Based / Evidence-Informed Practices - consists of recommendations for state child welfare agencies, systems partners and/or service providers/practitioners to support the effective integration of evidence based/evidence informed practices into a service array.
  
  
• DCF Research Committee – coordinates activities and communications with prospective researchers and builds positive working relationships with scholars interested in building research practice partnerships.