Hello Baby Program - Proactive Child Welfare Predictive Risk Model

Allegheny County’s Hello Baby Program is intended to provide every family of a new-born universal access to information and resources and differentiated and intensive support for families with complex challenges and needs. The CSDA research team was engaged by Allegheny County Department of Human Services to develop a screening tool that would allow for identification of families with highest needs.  The agency will contract externally for programmatic intervention and independent evaluation.

Publications

• Vaithianathan, Rhema; Diana Benavides-Prado and Emily Putnam-Hornstein. Implementing the Hello Baby Prevention Program in Allegheny County. Centre for Social Data Analytics. Auckland, New Zealand. September 2020.
• Vaithianathan, R., Rouland, B., & Putnam-Hornstein, E. (2018). Injury and mortality among children identified as at high risk of maltreatment. Pediatrics, 141(2), e20172882.
• Vaithianathan, R., Maloney, T., Putnam-Hornstein, E., & Jiang, N. (2013). Children in the public benefit system at risk of maltreatment: Identification via predictive modeling. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 45(3), 354-359.

Related news

• With 'Hello Baby' officials aim to reach all babies born in Allegheny County -- with an algorithm targeting those most at risk, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 21 August 2019
• Hello Baby: Expanding Primary Prevention in Allegheny County, Children’s Bureau Express, February 2020