Promoting Positive Community Norms A Supplement to CDC’s Essentials for Childhood: Steps to Create Safe, Stable, Nurturing

3This guide provides information about creating a context for increasing safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments for children and families by promoting positive community norms. The key aim is to provide prevention leaders one way of learning about the power of positive community norms, the importance of understanding the difference between actual and perceived norms, and the ways they can grow positive norms in their communities. The Power of Promoting Positive Community Norms Recognizing safe, stable, nurturing relationships (SSNRs) and environments as essentials for childhood provides a new and exciting shift in the prevention of child maltreatment. This focus on healthy relationships moves beyond focusing on reducing risk. To be successful in increasing safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments in our communities, we will need broad engagement with not just parents and primary caregivers, but with all those who provide such relationships with children (teachers, day care providers, and coaches), as well as those in decision-making positions (healthcare providers, school principals, and elected officials). To foster broad engagement and adoption, it is critical to establish a context in our communities that supports safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments. One way to think about community context is by examining norms. Norms are defined as those values