Child Well-Being

Through the Child Well-being Program, the foundation aims to promote children’s healthy development and protect them from abuse and neglect.

Doris Duke took a special interest in the well-being of children and families, supporting communities, early family planning efforts and nearly 85 child welfare organizations during her life. In her will, which guides our focus areas, she expressed her interest in "the prevention of cruelty to children."

At daycare, a group of African American young girls smile at the camera

Why It's Important

Children’s well-being and ability to thrive are strongly tied to the safety and stability of both their families and where they live. These factors provide the foundation for healthy physical and emotional development during childhood. Unfortunately, many children in the U.S. experience a long legacy of unjust historic and systemic inequities and disparities that rob them of access to the fundamental factors that allow others to flourish. All children should be able to grow up in secure, positive, healthy and inclusive environments that allow them to reach their full potential.

What We Support

The Child Well-being Program takes a funding approach that supports intergenerational work that bolsters culturally, geographically and locally relevant programs with and for communities to foster the long-term well-being of families. By funding efforts that strengthen the systems that serve families and support the needs of children and caregivers together, the Child Well-being Program aims to promote children’s healthy development, prevent maltreatment, and ally with communities to create improved and more equitable outcomes for their children. To accomplish this goal, we focus our grantmaking in the three below areas.

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Woman and young boy work together in a community garden

Place-Based Approaches to Improving Well-being

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Young woman pointing at board with flowchart while group of people take notes

Strengthening and Coordinating Service Systems

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Group of women in conversation at a conference

Building Capacity and Sharing Knowledge

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Grantmaking Process

The Child Well-being Program awards grants by directly inviting organizations to submit proposals that are then reviewed by Doris Duke Foundation (DDF) staff and approved by the DDF Board of Trustees. The program also supports independent research of individual practitioners in the field through fellowship opportunities administered by intermediary organizations.

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