Program Background
Project LAUNCH (Linking Actions for Unmet Needs in Children’s Health) is an initiative of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Center for Mental Health Services. Since 2008, SAMHSA has supported state and tribal programs nationwide to advance the health and well-being of young children from birth to age 8. By strengthening coordination, building infrastructure, and widening access to high-quality programs for young children and their families, Project LAUNCH applies a public health approach to the physical, social, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral sides of early childhood development.
Project LAUNCH succeeds through five core prevention and promotion strategies: screening and assessment across a range of child-serving settings; integrating behavioral health into primary care; mental health consultation in early care and education; enhanced home visiting with a stronger focus on social and emotional well-being; and family strengthening and parenting skills training. Thanks to strong existing collaborative partnerships among community agencies, Manchester serves as the pilot community, where Project LAUNCH Family Services, Easter Seals Child Development and Family Resource Center, and Southern NH Services (Head Start/Early Head Start) work together to support young children and families in direct service settings. Applying Project LAUNCH’s five strategies, these organizations are working to improve the health and well-being of Manchester’s children.
Based at the Manchester Community Health Center, the Project LAUNCH Pilot Program improves the health and wellness of Manchester children from birth to age eight and their parents, helping children succeed in school and in life. For economically eligible families, the program integrates behavioral health into primary care, expands developmental screenings for children from birth to age 8, provides enhanced home visiting focused on parenting skills and children's social-emotional well-being, and offers the popular, research-based parenting class The Incredible Years.
Parenting Skills Education Strategy
Since it began, Project LAUNCH NH-Manchester has offered parenting skills education that strengthens parents’ ability to understand their children’s multi-dimensional needs and to manage their children’s behavior effectively. The intended outcome of this strategy is that parents of young children gain stronger parenting skills, leading to greater social competence for children at home and school and to fewer aggression and behavior problems.
Project LAUNCH NH-Manchester has delivered Positive Solutions for Families in the community since October 2015, following two years of piloting a different curriculum that yielded many lessons about families’ needs, interests, and availability to take part in such a program. Lessons were also learned about the costs of training facilitators and buying materials. PSF was selected because it is an evidence-based practice originally developed by the Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (now an independent nonprofit, the Pyramid Model Consortium) with funding support from the Office of Head Start and Child Care Bureau, Administration on Children, Youth, and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The program’s tenets and components include understanding children’s development and behavior and building relationships between parents and children. PSF classes run in 6-week sessions and, so far, meet the needs of Manchester’s families with young children, based on attendance and completion rates as well as participant and facilitator feedback. PSF materials are available free of charge in English and Spanish.
Project LAUNCH staff and additional staff from local partner agencies (home visitors, case managers, family workers, community health workers, behavior support specialists) were trained in Positive Solutions for Families on September 10, 2015. Since October 2015, 10 sessions have reached 56 parents and 102 children. In fall and winter 2015/2016, the PSF trainer provided regular technical assistance to the Parent Education Facilitators on implementation. In March 2016, the trainer returned to NH and trained the Parent Education Facilitators as trainers themselves, so they could train additional providers who want to offer PSF to families in their agencies and communities and bring this strategy to scale across the state.
Replication and Expansion
In line with SAMHSA’s expectation that innovative, effective local prevention and promotion practices serve as models to be sustained and replicated statewide, Project LAUNCH NH-Manchester offers professionals in other New Hampshire regions the chance to receive Positive Solutions for Families training from Pyramid Model Consortium-trained trainers.
The local project aims to build a pool of well-trained Positive Solutions for Families facilitators from interested applicants across New Hampshire. Applicants are selected based on the prerequisites and geographic location, and they also agree to deliver 2 trainings in their identified communities by June 30, 2017.
In September 2016, training will be offered to professionals from across NH, with the expectation that they will deliver at least two sessions in their own regions to replicate the success this strategy has seen in Manchester.
Facilitator Prerequisites (Preferred)
Ideally, facilitator applicants will bring experience working with children and families as a home visitor, family worker, or parent educator, and/or will have provided parenting skills education in the past.
• Interest or experience in early childhood mental health and parent education
• Employed within agency 1+ years and no indication of position change or relocation
• Committed to providing training and support to parents in the region
• Openness to new ideas and practices
• Comfort speaking in front of groups and facilitating discussion
• Respected and liked by agency peers and clients
Facilitators’ Responsibilities
• Attend a full-day Positive Solutions for Families training workshop on September 14, 2026 in Manchester.
• Deliver at least three (3) six-week Positive Solutions for Families sessions to groups of parents/guardians in a designated geographic area and/or sector (chosen below) by June 30, 2026
• Submit aggregate data to Project LAUNCH NH-Manchester on enrollment and completion rates, along with summary evaluation data (the project will not request individual or identifiable data), after each session ends.
Project LAUNCH NH-Manchester Responsibilities
• Schedule the September 14, 2026 training at no cost to participants, including lunch and refreshments
• Reimburse participants for mileage to attend the September 14 training
• Provide all paperwork needed to submit mileage expenses and collect data.
Spark NH, Project LAUNCH NH's Statewide Young Child Wellness Council:
Spark NH is the Governor-appointed Early Childhood Advisory Council working to improve early learning systems statewide, and it also serves as Project LAUNCH NH’s statewide Young Child Wellness Council. Spark NH’s mission is to promote a comprehensive, coordinated early childhood system focused on Communication and Public Awareness, Data Systems, Evaluation, Workforce Development, Policy, Program Quality, and Family Partnership/Engagement. Together, Spark NH and the Project LAUNCH Manchester Pilot Site share overarching goals to advance and sustain early childhood systems so that young children and families see positive outcomes.
To learn more about Spark NH, contact Laura Milliken or Carol Garhart at (603)-226-7900 or visit their website.
Project LAUNCH NH is a grant program funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and administered by the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Public Health Services, Maternal and Child Health Section. For more information about the Project LAUNCH NH grant contact Liz Lawrence, Young Child Wellness Advisor, NH Division of Public Health Services or at 603-279-4667
For details about the Project LAUNCH Pilot Program, contact Lara Quiroga, Pilot Coordinator, Manchester Community Health Center, at (603)-935-5335 or visit the website