Our Partners

USC Dworak-Peck School of Social Work

Whole Child International has requested USC to conduct a mapping of the El Salvador child protection system with the ultimate goal to provide viable, effective policy suggestions for improvement. As part of this process, The USC Dworak-Peck School of Social Work will lead a comprehensive study of the deinstitutionalization experience in El Salvador, which has been ongoing since roughly 2011, focusing on the process that has been taken by the government and other key stakeholders.

Duke University Global Health Institute
Center for Health Policy and Inequalities Research (CHPIR)

The Duke University Global Health Institute’s Center for Health Policy and Inequalities Research (CHPIR) conducts a broad range of health policy and health disparities research projects that address policy-relevant issues. Activities focus on population-based health research, health systems research, and intervention and evaluation research. CHPIR leads the evaluation of Whole Child’s program and has been instrumental in developing our WCI-QCUALS childcare-setting quality measurement tool.

Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins School of Nursing

The Johns Hopkins School of Nursing is a recognized leader in collaboration, research, and the development and teaching of best practices to advance the science and art of nursing. Our Johns Hopkins partners assisted us in developing health-related components of training and technical support of caregivers, specifically clinical training in care aligned with Whole Child’s principles. This partnership helped create a holistic training program for a pipeline of well-trained, in-country practitioners who can provide high-level training in childcare centers of acute need.

Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles
Loyola Marymount University School of Education

Through its renowned credential and degree programs, Loyola Marymount University’s School of Education trains educators to be successful teachers, special educators, school counselors and psychologists, reading and literacy specialists, and administrators across the spectrum of educational settings. Our partners at the School of Education have been instrumental in helping build and refine Whole Child’s university and hands-on training and technical support programs, collaborating extensively on program development and hands-on implementation.

University of Central America, San Salvador, El Salvador
Department of Psychology and Public Health

Whole Child partners with the University of Central America (UCA) to ensure that the practices we promote are implemented both widely and sustainably — by integrating early childhood principles as deeply into the educational system as possible. This partnership has two key components: firstly, to conduct certificate programs based on our curricula to train key practitioners in childcare theory and practices; and secondly, to implement the evaluation led by our partners at Duke University.

The Pikler Institute

Established in 1946 by Dr. Emmi Pikler, the Pikler Institute is a world-renowned home for children without guardianship. The Institute has pioneered models of care that nurture children to become emotionally and socially mature individuals. Pikler conducts important research, delivers training, and provides care for resident children. Director Anna Tardos leads a team of researchers disseminating the Pikler methodology to organizations serving children around the globe. The Pikler Institute has inspired Whole Child’s vision and many of its methodologies, and the organization has provided direct training to many members of our program design team since 2005.