Center for Children and Families (CCF)

A center affiliated with the Institute for Educational Initiatives, the CCF brings together faculty and students from a number of disciplines at the University of Notre Dame whose research focuses on children and families. The CCF's three major research themes focus on the challenges that children and families confront in today's society: income and health disparities; developmental disabilities and psychopathology; and the optimization of development, education, and learning.

Faculty affiliated with the Center come from a number of disciplines and University departments, reflecting the highly interdisciplinary nature of CCF research projects.

The director of the Center for Children and Families is the distinguished psychology professor Julia Braungart-Rieker.

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Mission

The Center for Children and Families (CCF) brings scholars together to conduct innovative, interdisciplinary research in support of healthy development across the human lifespan.
CCF plans to expand its research and community outreach, foster interdisciplinary research pertaining to healthy development, use multiple mechanisms to disseminate our findings, and serve as a model for translating research into prevention and intervention efforts nationally and internationally.
All three of CCF's major research themes--income and health disparities; developmental disabilities and psychopathology; and the optimization of development, education, and learning--reflect Notre Dame’s distinctive mission as a Catholic research university.

Activities

All three CCF themes are ripe for conducting translational research, which represents a scientific approach to integrating findings from theory and basic research and effectively implementing these elements into programs that are applicable in the “real world.”
Many of the projects are supported by federal grants and foundations.
The CCF is committed to good stewardship and a mutually beneficial relationship with our surrounding community, in which we both learn and support each other.
Acknowledging that community involvement is critical to excellent research, the Center's researchers learn from experts in the local community and from our participants’ rich knowledge.
In turn, the CCF creates research and interactions that are beneficial to the community, as well as respectful of its diversity and strengths.

Location

The Center for Children and Families is located in the community of South Bend, Ind., near the campus of the University of Notre Dame. Our building is used to facilitate community-based research and has space for project staff offices, rooms for interviews and assessments, and a conference room for research group meetings.
Our address is 1602 North Ironwood Drive, South Bend, Ind. 46635
Offices and research facilities used by CCF faculty affiliates may also be found in other University of Notre Dame locations. Use the directory at nd.edu.