Project Summary:
Evaluating Program Connecting Shelter Families with Early Childhood Resources
CoLab Funds Long-Term Study of Philadelphia’s BELL Program to Stabilize Families and Improve Children’s School Outcomes
Nearly half of all children who stay in emergency shelters are under age 6 — a period when experiences, good and bad, have an outsized and lasting impact on development. Yet families experiencing homelessness are among the least likely to be enrolled in early childhood programs, perhaps because shelter and early childhood systems typically operate independently, with few structured connections between them. Building Early Links for Learning (BELL) was designed to close that gap. CoLab is funding Nemours Children’s Health to conduct the first long-term study of whether BELL’s approach — building connections between shelter and early childhood systems — actually stabilizes families and improves children’s outcomes over time.
Partners
Nemours Children’s Health
We funded Nemours Children’s Health (Nemours Foundation) to lead this study. Nemours is a nonprofit pediatric health system with a strong biomedical research infrastructure and deep experience conducting community-engaged research on child homelessness and development.
HopePHL
Key collaborators include HopePHL, which administers BELL, the School District of Philadelphia and the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Homeless Services.
What they will do
The BELL program model simultaneously bolsters shelter resources to support the developmental needs of families with young children, and also connects the shelter system with the early childhood system. This research project examines the longitudinal impacts of the program. The study focuses on young children (birth to age 5) whose families stayed in Philadelphia emergency or transitional shelters during the 18 months before the COVID-19 pandemic, when BELL was operating in all publicly funded family shelters. The research team will analyze integrated administrative data covering over 1,200 children who stayed in Philadelphia shelters between 2018 and 2020.
The study focuses on three key questions:
- Family stability: Does early childhood program enrollment during a shelter stay reduce the likelihood of families returning to a shelter or children entering foster care over the following five years?
- Education outcomes: Does early childhood program enrollment predict stronger academic performance — including early literacy, math, attendance, and school stability — in kindergarten and first grade?
- Head Start access: Does BELL increase preschool enrollment during shelter stays, and does Head Start help protect children’s lasting development from risks associated with homelessness?
A key innovation of this study is the integration of Head Start enrollment data into Philadelphia’s city-wide data system, enabling novel, evidence-based comparisons. The team will use statistical techniques designed to account for differences between families and approximate the rigor of a randomized experiment, allowing for causal inferences. The study also includes a community advisory board of shelter providers, early childhood program staff, and caregivers with lived experience, who will participate in shaping analysis questions, interpreting findings, and guiding dissemination of project findings.
Grant type:
- Long-term outcomes
Focus area:
- Two-generational solutions during early childhood
population:
- Families with children (birth to age 5)
When it will happen
The project began in February 2026 and will continue through December 2029.
Why it matters
Prior analyses of BELL suggest it may dramatically increase early childhood program enrollment for families in shelters, with reported participation rates roughly seven times the national rate for families experiencing homelessness. But no study has tracked whether those gains translated into lasting improvements in children’s lives. This study provides a crucial long-term test.
The findings will have direct implications for shelter services, early childhood programs, and education policy at the local, state, and federal levels.
The study also demonstrates the power of integrating data across city systems to answer important questions about children and families, a model that could inform future research and help build stronger programs and solutions for communities.
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