Transforming Together: Implementation Guide
The Whole Child: A Shared Definition to Inform Shared Action (Expanded) Both Research and practice underscore that child development depends on a mix of health, safety, engagement, and support. These factors are interconnected and interdependent: children’s brains and bodies develop in context, shaped by the people, places, and experiences around them. Agencies often address these factors separately, guided by their specific missions, mandates, and expertise. This specialization is a strength—schools, health providers, social services, and others each bring essential knowledge and focus to the children and families they serve. The challenge arises when these areas of expertise operate in isolation, leaving families to navigate disjointed or even conflicting supports. As part of the counties’ system change efforts, T2 encourages leaders to adopt a whole-child definition that elevates the comprehensive needs of individuals being served. Prioritizing the whole child—meaning the full range of social, emotional, physical and cognitive needs and assets of children and youth — emphasizes how coordinated systems, and not siloed services, contribute to an individual’s health, learning and wellbeing. This whole-child definition creates a common language for agencies with different missions. Many frameworks already reflect these principles; Transforming Together proposes a focus on whole child for clarity across agencies with complementary but different missions. Learn more about the research informing the Transforming Together whole-child definition HERE.
Neuroscience and Practice Inform a Whole- Child Definition Transforming Together’s whole-child definition draws on neuroscience and decades of research in education, health, and human services. Neuroscience shows that child development is dynamic: cognitive, emotional, physical, and social capacities grow through constant interaction with environments and relationships. These research findings reinforce what educators, health providers, and families have long understood: while a single influence can spark change, lasting success comes from many factors working together. The whole-child definition also reflects principles embedded in established frameworks such as California’s Integrated Support Systems (see, for example, page 13 of the Integrated Core Practice Model), Systems of Care, and Community Schools. By clarifying the common ground among these approaches, Transforming Together’s definition supports consistent communication between agencies, community partners, and families—and helps align collective goals for children and youth.
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