Arriving right on time, Tameka circles the smiling star on her Perfectly Punctual Scorecard and dons the Perfectly Punctual vest to greet other children as they arrive at Morgan State University Head Start in Baltimore. Across the city at Heritage Early Learning Center, a Baltimore City public pre-K, Durrell circles his star before putting on his Perfectly Punctual Campaign button. These are two of the more than 1000 preschool, kindergarten, and first grade children and families participating in the Perfectly Punctual Campaign, a program of Learning and Leadership in Families to prevent or reduce chronic absence from the outset of schooling.

Parents decide when and whether preschool and kindergarten children arrive at school.  It is a decision with far greater implications for children’s school readiness and success in the early grades than is generally appreciated. Chronic absence, missing 10 percent or more of kindergarten per year, affects all children’s academic performance in first grade.  Chronic absence affects poor children at three times the rate of middle-income peers and undercuts the likelihood of reading on grade level by grade three, a critical milestone toward academic achievement. Research suggests there is a two-year window to reverse the impact of chronic absence before the amount of instructional time missed overwhelms the likelihood of grade level achievement.

The Perfectly Punctual Campaign (PPC) addresses school climate, parent and teacher attitudes and knowledge, and engages children directly in monitoring and modifying their own behaviors. Three core principals guide the program:

1)     Honor parents for consistently getting children to school on time and for progress toward that goal. Getting children to school on time only sounds easy. Empathize, sympathize, and celebrate parent achievement.

2)     Engage the children daily in monitoring their own attendance to generate ownership, excitement, and pride in accomplishment.  Children motivate parents far more effectively than a bureaucracy ever can.  And the parent, in turn, motivates the child.

3)     Focus on intrinsic rewards. Gestures of respect and recognition to celebrate achievement – with age appropriate frequency – are powerful for both generations.

As the country turns its attention to the impact of preschool on children’s long-term academic success, it is important to understand the development of positive two-generation attendance attitudes as a school readiness skill. Focusing on attendance habits in preschool, kindergarten, and first grade is one of the strongest truancy and dropout prevention programs educators and parents can undertake together.

Louise W. Wiener is president and founder of Learning and Leadership in Families (LearnLead), a non-profit organization that translates early childhood research into practical, playful strategies for parents and teachers of young children. Attendance and Early Education was the topic of a recent Roundtable co-hosed by Learning and Leadership in Families and the Graduate School of Education and Human Development, George Washington University. 

The theme of the annual Women’s Funding Network Conference, which took place April 10 – 13 in Detroit, Michigan, was Investing in Women: New Models for Impact, Giving and Collaboration.  Indeed, everywhere I turned, it seemed representatives from women’s funds were exchanging ideas on new ways of working.  This was especially true in the workshop on two-generation approaches that I co-led alongside Carol Penick of the Women’s Fund of Mississippi and Ruby Bright of the Women’s Fund for a Greater Memphis. What could a two-generation approach look like in your community in five years?  That was the question we asked the 50 or so participants from a number of states, including New Mexico, Alabama, Massachusetts, and Michigan during our session, Two Generations, One Future: A Framework for Moving Women and their Children Beyond Poverty.   “I’m envisioning a way to connect our donors – who traditionally give to women’s-focused programs – to [programs that provide] early childhood education,” shared one participant.  Another added, “I’d like to figure out a way to add a child component to our scholarships for single mothers.” 

While participants bounced two-generation ideas off one another in break-out groups, Carol, Ruby, and I offered advice and ideas.  Carol discussed how her organization is partnering with five community colleges in Mississippi to enhance services for enrolled students’ children; Ruby discussed opportunities to engage mothers in job training through public housing partnerships in Memphis.  I suggested that perhaps there is an opportunity for women’s funds to collaborate with each other on these approaches – particularly for women’s funds in regions where the need is so great, such as the Southeast.  To learn more about the ways a two-generation approach can be applied, click here.

Do you work for a women’s fund or are you interested in partnering with one on these issues?  We want to hear from you!

Ascend Fellow and Colorado Department of Human Services Executive Director Reggie Bicha, center, speaking at the Aspen ThinkXChange in October, 2012. 

Two-generation strategies are being implemented across the state of Colorado, and a new project is in the works which illustrates the impact that can be made statewide and in local communities. 

My fellow Ascend colleague Andrea Levere, President of the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED), and I have partnered to conduct a joint feasibility study, and design a project to launch a Children’s Savings Account and financial education pilot in Colorado.

This two-generation project will extend the opportunity for savings, investments and financial education to low-income families across the state.  The pilot will be the first example in the nation of a state government integrating Children’s Savings Accounts into a Human Services Department.  Funding for the design and feasibility study of this project was made possible by a grant from Ascend at the Aspen Institute. 

Providing Colorado children and families with the education and supports needed to be more fiscally savvy and better prepared to save money will lead to improved financial stability in the future – not only for these families, but also for Colorado’s economy. 

This is just one of the many examples of two-generation strategies that are being implemented at CDHS, as the state works to engage families in tangible, innovative ways.  Through collaboration with Ascend, county government and business partners, we are working to ensure that children and families in Colorado are safe, healthy and have the services they need to succeed and thrive. 

Leslie Campbell is second from right, above, at the Aspen ThinkXChange

In 1998, Leslie Campbell went to prison for two years after an abusive relationship with a person who was addicted to drugs. Prison separated her from her two-year-old daughter, but after release she decided to reclaim her lost hopes and dreams.  Leslie is a graduate of College and Community Fellowship (CCF), led by Ascend Fellow Rev. Vivian Nixon.  This blog is adapted from remarks Leslie gave at the Aspen ThinkXChange in October, 2012.

My intention was not to go to college, but a counselor saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself. Going back to school after 17 years wasn’t easy. It was a rough reunification with my daughter. One of the worst obstacles was when we became homeless. I was working full-time, I was going to school full time, all the while living in a homeless shelter. I wanted to quit but I didn’t. I stuck it out. A coworker introduced me to College and Community Fellowship (CCF). I just wanted a lifeline to cope with what to do with my daughter, but I found a community of women like myself who were doing some amazing things.  When I walked in the door, they had a theater group. They had a writer’s group. It just felt like I was home. Had it not been for the love, concern and support from my friends at CCF, I don’t know that I would have made it.

The day I received my Associate’s degree was one of the greatest in my life. The looks on the faces of my mother and daughter were priceless. I was no longer a failure. I had finished something I’d set out to do. It made me feel anything was possible. Besides working at CCF now, I belong to a leadership group. I am the mother of a very bright and talented 17 year old daughter who attends a magnet charter school in New York and a very busy 2 year old son. My story is proof of what CCF has known all along: that education works not just for individuals, but for families and communities as well.

As a result of attaining my degree, I have grown from a young woman without a plan for the future to a confident, mature, wise person with increasingly clear career goals. I’m no longer satisfied with a job. I have a career. I have a purpose. I’m no longer seen by society as a victim or a problem. I’m part of the solution.

If not for people helping me, I wouldn’t be where I am. It was a natural fit to give back. It resonates for me with my family, my community. My sister is going back to school now. I used to be the black sheep in the family and now I’m the go-to person.

For me, all this evidence-based teaching and rearing children, it’s hard in the moment when you’re living with them. If you remove the obstacles and you are not judgmental when you’re proposing these changes and assistance to people, that’s important. The women I’m working with who have children, it seems to be helpful when you don’t seem like the authorities or that you’ll turn them in. You have to build trust, be an ally, and you can’t come at families from a punitive point of view. 

Caption: Young alumni from GLEAMNS Human Resources Commission, Inc.’s Head Start program in South Carolina stand up for kids! Click here for more photos.

One of Head Start’s foundational beliefs is that parents are their children’s first teachers, and last week Head Start and Early Head Start parents across the country taught their children an important lesson about democracy and advocacy. In the coming months, as programs implement cuts caused by sequestration, an estimated 70,000 children will lose their access to Head Start’s comprehensive services. Those children may be too young to understand exactly what a “sequester” is, but they know what it means to not get to go to school – and in many communities, they’re learning what it means to take action.

On Friday, March 15th, all over the country, Head Start parents, staff, alumni, and students held “stroll-ins” at district offices of Members of Congress, armed with facts and data and personal stories of how important it is to protect services for at-risk children. Programs from Arkansas to Oregon to South Carolina to New Jersey got local media involved in telling the story of what cuts will mean, and even as communities and Congress heard an important message, so did the children. Their parents know what nearly five decades of research and experience have shown: Head Start and Early Head Start can make a significant impact on children’s readiness for school and for life, and these programs are worth fighting for. As babies clapped in their strollers and a newly-minted Head Start alum held up her sign, they were learning from their very first teachers that they are valuable and that their voices matter.

In the coming months, it will take the united action of Head Start parents, staff, and supporters around the country to keep attention on the needs of our most vulnerable children. I invite you to visit our site to learn more about what you can do to join this conversation. Our budget cannot be balanced by limiting the opportunities of poor children.

Photo courtesy of sarasotagov.com

I’m writing this as I fly back to Washington, DC, from Sarasota, Florida – where the Community Foundation of Sarasota County (CFSC) is exploring how to apply the two-generation approach that Ascend at the Aspen Institute has put forward.  Sarasota is a beautiful place – gorgeous beaches, the crystal blue water of the Gulf, a thriving arts community – “paradise,” some might say.  But unfortunately, it isn’t paradise for everyone.  With a child poverty rate of 22 percent and 31 percent of single-mother families living in poverty, many families have the odds of achieving economic security stacked against them. 

Anne Mosle and I had a chance to spend two and half days in “roll-up-your-sleeves” strategy sessions with the CFSC team – analyzing the foundation’s current grantmaking portfolios to look at how applying a two-generation approach could streamline, link, and connect resources to produce more effective and efficient outcomes for children and parents in Sarasota.  What we learned is that Sarasota possesses the necessary criteria to fuel community leaders as they move forward on their two-generation journey over the next several years: community readiness and need to take on an innovative approach to tackle a challenging issue, a strong community anchor partner in CFSC, philanthropic interest and support, nonprofit capacity, and multi-sector engagement. 

Ascend Advisory Board member and supporter Charlotte Perret, who was instrumental to connecting Ascend to community leaders in Sarasota, participated in our strategy sessions.  As we closed out our time together, Charlotte noted, “I could not have imagined a more extraordinary, mutually supportive, creative and strategic relationship that is creating a huge potential for transforming our Sarasota into a paradise for all its citizens, not just for those at the top.”

National data have consistently shown a relationship between maternal education level and how well children are prepared for success as they enter kindergarten (see figure above).  As the country continues to struggle with what seems like an intractable achievement gap, it is time to put more attention on expanding the two ends of the education continuum: access to quality early childhood education and renewed postsecondary opportunities for parents of young children.

Robust data demonstrate the importance of maternal education to early childhood development.  Studies have found that when mothers increase their education level it can have a powerful influence on their children. At the same time, the participation of their young children in early childhood programs can renew a parent’s interest in their own education. The process can become mutually reinforcing - and education can become a family affair.

Nearly one in four students in two- and four-year institutes of higher education are parents. Yet we know that young parents face serious challenges as they attempt to balance education, work, and family. Young parents must navigate financial assistance and child care, as well as fitting the culture of college into the realities of family life.

Policies and programs at all levels can help to bring these goals of parental education and early childhood development together. Child care assistance should be increased and made more accessible so young parents are not shut out of higher education,  opportunities for better wages, and new career pathways.  Quality campus child care and other early education programs, particularly for low-income students, should be expanded.  Leaders in early education and postsecondary education at the federal, state, and community levels can work together to find creative solutions to support education throughout a parent’s life as well as their child’s.  Bringing both ends of education together across the generations can help us become a nation of learners. 

Sowmya Ramanathan is a 2011 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and served as an intern at Ascend in the fall of 2012.

As Ascend looks at how two-generation programs – which provide opportunities for and meet the needs of vulnerable parents and their children together – can help ensure economic security, we ask: what are the components that really make a two-generation program successful in moving parents and children beyond poverty?

I recently had the privilege of speaking with Eveline Rivers, Founder and Executive Director of Sunshine Cottage in Amarillo, Texas, a program that targets and supports single mothers in obtaining a college degree.  Sunshine Cottage comprises a block of purchased homes that come fully furnished to mothers with children who are interested in, and committed to, the pursuit of postsecondary education. The program is currently home to 11 families and 37 children living in houses that suit the family size and needs. The program encourages women to set educational goals and serve as role models for their children and provides other supports including valuable life skills training for mothers; and simultaneously facilitates child enrollment in high-quality early childhood education and engages in longer-term goal setting with older children.

The passion with which Eveline discusses her program is truly contagious. She repeatedly refers to the “sisterhood” the program creates: Sunshine Cottage helps facilitate the building of a community of women in similar life positions, allowing mothers to benefit from shared experience and lean on one another for support. Eveline’s intentional selection of board members willing to personally engage with the mothers the program serves takes this social capital development a step further: certain board members help give mothers tools and connections to individuals who can offer particular skills or ways of thinking as they tackle their education or enter the professional world. Eveline describes her selection of board member Bob Lang based on his willingness to hold trainings in auto mechanics for women whose cars break down. Connections matter, a fact which the Sunshine Cottage actively embraces and works to promote both by fostering a community environment among the mothers and their families and by connecting them with community members actively willing and able to support specific needs.

While the two-generation approach includes social capital as critical in constructing a pathway out of poverty, environment also matters. Eveline’s careful furnishing of each house, “from the throw pillows on the bed to the linens in the closet,” reflects her belief that housing and physical space are important in ensuring family stability.  She would even like to be able to provide families with more than one computer so that both children and parents can be online doing homework or accessing resources at the same time.  While this model clearly provides parents with a comfortable and nurturing home environment, it leads me to wonder about the feasibility and sustainability of such a model on a larger scale. What would it take to replicate Sunshine Cottage and how could it be done so as to provide the same kind of nurturing environment to a larger population in a cost-effective manner? And how can lessons learned from larger residential initiatives like the Jeremiah Program be useful in teaching us about expansion and scaling?

Through supervision from Eveline herself, the Sunshine Cottage tracks educational outcomes and reaches out to participants after their degree completion to ensure that they have been able to find job opportunities. As the field considers opportunities to scale and replicate programs, Sunshine Cottage is a unique example of how the attentiveness and care of a leader can influence the lives of the families she serves.

The following blog is excerpted and condensed from remarks given by Tameka Henry, a parent of children enrolled in Acelero Learning, at the 2012 Aspen ThinkXChange in Aspen, Colorado.  Tameka was nominated to speak at the Aspen ThinkXChange by Ascend Fellow Henry Wilde.

Tameka Henry, left, at the Aspen ThinkXChange

I am an Acelero Learning parent. 

My story started like the story of many Acelero Learning parents. My mother was a single parent.  She worked for about 30 years in Parks and Recreation and then in the Human Resources department with the County off and on. I remember how hard she worked to provide for me.  And I remember that she never spoke about going to college.

So, at the age of 21, I went to work at the District Attorney's office and soon after, I had my first child. Everything was going well until at the age of 8 months, he passed away of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).  It was extremely difficult to go back to work after that.  I battled with depression and I really beat myself over the head about his death. I felt like I should have spent more time with him – but at the time everything was focused on work, work, work, so you can provide and work, work, work, so you can have medical insurance and all the things that a parent wants for their child. But then this child that I am working so hard for is no longer with me.  So it was very difficult for me to pick myself up and start over again.

I was blessed a year and a half after that with my son, Zion.  I had difficulties throughout that pregnancy and despite doctor’s advice I waited it out and my son was born healthy, thank God. But I was afraid to leave him. I was afraid to go to work and I was afraid to go to school.  So Zion was always with me and I just babied him. And when it came time for him to go to kindergarten… he was babied.

When I had my daughters, I just knew it was important to get them in an early childhood education program. At the time, I was just looking for a pre-kindergarten program for my daughter.  I didn't know anything about Head Start.  I didn't know what Acelero Learning had to offer me and my family, and I'm just so thankful that they brought me in.  They helped me set goals.  The staff asked, “What about you?”  It wasn't just about my child. What do you want to do?  And who knows why, but I never thought about that.  I never thought – after everything I had been through, I didn't think about me, but they brought me back into the picture. They taught me that you have to do well in order for your family to do well.

What I was expecting was preschool services for my daughter.  I was expecting her to learn her name and numbers and learn how to behave in a classroom setting. That's what I was expecting. I wasn't expecting them to say, "Well, we have a Policy Council for parents to participate in making decisions about the program," or "We have shared governance where parents are involved with the local governing board, and you'll help set policies for this program."  I wasn't expecting to learn about reading budgets or having to approve funding applications.

I also wasn't expecting to learn about the achievement gap.  And Acelero Learning did a fine job of breaking down the achievement gap to parents and explaining to us, "This is what it is, and this is what you can do to help close it."  They really broke it down: "Okay.  This is the achievement gap, and you can do these four things to help close it" – positive discipline, consistent family routines, reading to your child for 20 minutes, and providing a language-rich environment.  These were all the things that we thought we were doing, but the Acelero Learning staff was very intentional about letting parents know about it. 

My daughter is now currently in the fourth grade and she's reading at a sixth grade reading level. She's been a straight-A student since she left the program.  Acelero Learning made sure that my children were completely prepared for kindergarten.  And they were ready.  After leaving Acelero Learning, they were ready to succeed in kindergarten. 

At Acelero Learning, I've learned to advocate for my children.  I've learned to advocate for other children – and I know I owe that to Acelero Learning for not giving up on me, and not giving up on my family. So now I advocate.  I'm in school now for early childhood education because I know how important it truly is, and I know what it did for my kids.  And I hope to one day do that for other children.

Experts gathered at the Aspen ThinkXChange Design Lab "Counting Change" to discuss metrics for two-generation approaches.

The following blog was originally posted at the Urban Institute’s MetroTrends Blog on October 23, 2012.

Last week, I attended the Aspen ThinkXChange conference, which brought together a diverse group from the Ascend network. Ascend brings together leaders from the worlds of research, philanthropy, media, social services, and government to focus on developing two-generation strategies to promote family economic security. The theme for this year’s conference was using two-generation approaches in innovative ways to help improve the life chances of low-income families. The goal of these approaches is addressing the needs of whole families at the same time, helping adults move toward economic independence while helping their children succeed in school. I was invited because of our work on the HOST Demonstration, which is developing intensive two-generation case management models in public housing to mitigate the consequences of living with trauma and disadvantage and to help bring about better outcomes for both adults and children.

At the ThinkXChange, I participated in a session discussing how we should evaluate two-generation programs like HOST to learn what strategies work—not an easy question, given the complexity and multi-faceted nature of these interventions. Policymakers and scholars often describe the random controlled trial as the “gold standard” for evaluation and insist on seeing results from this type of study before they consider a program or intervention model to be “evidence-based.” But I would argue that this standard makes no sense for evaluating place-based two-generation strategies.

First, these approaches do not lend themselves to “cookie-cutter” models that can be neatly replicated in different settings. Specific programs need to be tailored to meet the needs of very different types of populations—what works for single mothers coming out of prison may not be the right set of services and supports for teen parents working toward secondary education at a community college. Second, many of these interventions, such as HOST or Promise Neighborhoods, are place-based; a study design that calls for randomly assigning whole neighborhoods to different conditions requires both enormous resources and a leap of faith that the communities do not differ in important ways that could undermine the experimental design. Finally, the field of two-generation approaches is still young; most models are not refined enough to justify the kind of investment that a random controlled trial would require.

Acknowledging these challenges does not imply that we cannot conduct rigorous research on two-generation strategies that will yield important evidence about what works. It just means we need to be creative and consciously choose evaluation designs that take the complexity and messiness of the interventions and their community settings into account. For example, the HOST evaluation combines administrative interviews, focus groups, and rigorous collection of program data from participating sites. We use this information to not only monitor progress, but also to provide regular feedback and lessons to the sites so they can continue to refine their efforts. Each site’s program is slightly different, but all start with building a logic model (which identifies and links program goals, activities, and outcomes) that uses a common framework and set of indicators for both adults and children. We track outcomes over time through surveys and program data and are collecting as much administrative data as possible so we can triangulate the information from the survey and field work and help create benchmarks for participating families. Finally, our survey uses items from national surveys or studies of comparable populations as another means of creating benchmarks.

We are not rejecting the “gold standard.” As HOST progresses, we hope to, at minimum, add a matched comparison group at one site. But in the meantime, we are learning an enormous amount of valuable information about what it takes to effectively use public housing as a platform for implementing two-generation strategies—information that is timely, policy-relevant, and helpful to inform this growing and important field.

The scene at the Colorado 2019 Summit in Denver, Colorado.

Colorado is an important state for Ascend.  Indeed, in 1950 the Aspen Institute was founded in the Rocky Mountain town of Aspen, which has been home to eight Aspen Ideas Festivals, and was most recently the launching pad for Ascend’s inaugural Aspen ThinkXChange.  I recently had the opportunity to learn more about the struggles of vulnerable families in Colorado when I attended the Colorado 2019 Summit in Denver, which explored opportunities for and challenges facing over 5 million Americans who call Colorado home, including 1.2 million children under the age of 18, of which nearly 18% are living in poverty.

Hosted by the Colorado Center on Law and Policy (CCLP) and supported by two of Ascend’s philanthropic partners, the Chambers Family Fund and the Kresge Foundation, on October 19^th, the Colorado 2019 Summit: Promising Practices to Reduce Poverty convened nonprofit leaders, local human service providers, and state legislators for a day-long exploration of county-based collaborations and other promising models towards moving Colorado families out of poverty.  The Arapahoe/Douglas Works! Center was one of several site visits offered at the Summit, which offered an opportunity to learn about effective, partnership-based models that focus on increasing employment among vulnerable Coloradans, including employment assistance programs for parents.

Charged with a goal to reduce poverty in Colorado by 50% by 2019, the Summit’s host, CCLP – which is a leading stakeholder in the Economic Opportunity Poverty Reduction Task Force of the Colorado General Assembly – offered an important reminder for Colorado: the value of relationships between state agencies and local communities.  As a county-administered state, practitioners, administrators, and law-makers maintain unique relationships with their communities, reflective of their distinct ability to administer services and programs based on local needs.  While there is no “silver bullet” solution to address complex problems like poverty, strong relationships within and among communities are often seen as good practice and critical components in alleviating the complex problems facing families in poverty.  As Ascend continues to elevate effective policies and two-generation solutions, Colorado will continue to be an important place of momentum and leadership.

Jeremiah Program participant Tiffany Meeks and her family.

“You’re pregnant.”

“These two words changed my life forever,” says Rebecca, a Jeremiah Program graduate who recently shared her story at the Aspen ThinkXChange. Like all the young women served by Jeremiah, Rebecca was single, working in a low-paying job, struggling to stay in college—and about to be a mother. Many of the women in our program come from families that have been dependent upon public assistance for generations. Most have few life skills to help them build healthy relationships or raise healthy children.

In the words of another graduate, Tiffany Meeks, “Before I came to Jeremiah, I was unstable, irresponsible, homeless and full of heartache and disappointment. Jeremiah Program planted a seed of hope in me that I would be able to pursue my education and have a safe living environment for me and my daughter.”

I am happy to report that Rebecca and Tiffany both graduated from Jeremiah Program armed with college degrees, life skills to move confidently through this world, and, most of all, hope. And that hope is inherited: Years later, the children of these young women are top students, exceling in school and planning for college.

Their stories are the story of Jeremiah Program, a nationally recognized nonprofit using a proven, holistic approach to transform families from poverty to prosperity two generations at a time. Through safe and affordable housing, quality early childhood education, life skills training and support for career-track education, Jeremiah Program prepares determined single mothers to excel in the workforce, readies their children to succeed in school, and reduces generational dependence on public assistance.

Jeremiah Program currently has two sites—in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota—that serve 300 women and children. As the first step in a national expansion, an Austin, Texas, site will open in 2013. Work to establish a campus is also underway in Fargo-Moorhead, North Dakota, and many more discussions are happening nationally.

Visit the Jeremiah Program website to read and hear the stories of our families and the successes of this two-generation approach. In the words of Rebecca, “It is inspiring to be around so many women who are striving to achieve the same goals.”

At College and Community Fellowship, formerly incarcerated mothers and their children are served together.

It’s probably safe to say that all of us, even those who live in the most marginalized communities, expect social advancement from one generation to the next.  We want our children to be more educated, earn more money, increase net worth, contribute more to our society, and have a greater sense of happiness and well-being.  Progress toward that end is too often interrupted by criminal conviction and incarceration.  At College and Community Fellowship (CCF) our work with criminal justice-involved women reveals that pathways to crime often involve misdirected attempts to build better futures.  Whether to escape domestic abuse, put food on the table, or ease the pain of marginalization through self-medication, the increased number of women in our criminal justice systems puts families’ futures at risk.

Since 2004 there has been a national movement to increase opportunity for people convicted of crimes who have returned to the community with renewed hope and a desire to do better.  Housing, substance abuse treatment, domestic violence prevention, employment, and education efforts have included services and advocacy for adults and juveniles with criminal convictions as well as efforts directed at the needs of children whose parents are incarcerated.  For the past twelve years, CCF has focused on college education for formerly incarcerated women.  Now, thanks to the Ascend Fellowship, CCF has the opportunity to view this work through a “2-Gen lens.”  We are engaging partners in New York City to envision a model that supports women in reentry to reach for the goal of a college degree and supports the quality education of their children. 

That’s the long haul.  In the interim, we’ve taken the smaller step of partnering with New York Cares, a volunteer organization that will be on site at CCF program activities to offer children of our clients help with homework and structured play-time while their moms focus on higher education goals.  Better futures are created one step at time. CCF is helping women and their children take the first steps.

Welcome to the new Ascend website, a virtual hub for leaders working on solutions and innovations to move families toward economic mobility.  Ascend at the Aspen Institute is based on a simple but powerful idea: two-generation approaches, which focus on creating opportunities for and addressing needs of parents and children together, hold great promise and potential. Over the past 18 months, Ascend has engaged with and learned with the field, including:

•focus groups with low-income parents from diverse backgrounds;

•analysis of Census data using a two-generation lens;

•national roundtables on applying two-generation approaches to programs, policies, systems, and research at the local, state, and federal levels; and

• learning trips and interviews to identify, understand, and document promising programs around the country.

For Ascend, this research has illuminated both emerging and established leaders who are working across sectors – in very different roles and capacities – with a clear common purpose: they are each committed to advancing the educational success and economic security of parents and children together. On one hand, the economic context for many American families is challenging:

•Unemployment has remained high, exacerbating conditions for families who were already poor or low-income before the 2008 recession.

•Nearly three-fourths of children living in single-mother families are low-income, compared to just under one-third of children living in married-couple families.

•Low levels of educational attainment and poverty are strongly correlated. Only 10 percent of those with a bachelor’s degree are poor. More than 30 percent of those with a high school diploma or less are poor.

Yet, I am a firm believer in the notion that out of challenges great invention and opportunity can emerge. The time is ripe for bold approaches that foster new collaboration across sectors to address poverty.  I hope you will explore the  website, including background on the 2012-2013 Ascend Fellows – dynamic leaders who are moving ideas into action;  and the Aspen ThinkXChange – a national convening to explore the power and potential of two-generation approaches, expand the network of leaders working on solutions, and move good ideas into action.  Please share the site with others in your network, and come back often to stay informed about the latest developments in cutting-edge two-generation approaches.

Grounded in core values like boldness, creativity and determination, Ascend is founded on the belief that a country in which millions of families are living in poverty is neither equitable nor sustainable.

Recognizing the power of collaboration as a vehicle for putting promising ideas into meaningful action, the Ascend Fellowship convenes a network of thought leaders from across the country to share, develop and test strategies that combat America’s burgeoning poverty level and wealth disparities.

CFED, a national nonprofit with the mission of building assets to move people out of poverty, also views collaboration as an essential part of its business model. As CFED’s President, I am proud to be an Ascend Fellow and to invite my colleagues to visit our website to learn more about our recent Assets Learning Conference, which was held September 19-21.  Over 1,000 asset-building professionals joined us in Washington to translate ideas into action and demonstrate the next generation of strategies that create pathways to financial security and opportunity. The Conference embodied collaborative methods in every part of the program.

On Wednesday, September 19, the Conference kicked off with a series of Institutes which gave participants hands-on experience with new innovations or strategies with the capacity to scale their work, ranging from Children’s Savings Accounts programs to advocacy for state and federal policy change. On Thursday, we started with our Opening Plenary, where I delivered my biennial State of the Field address, followed by a special Plenary on Friday that featured Anne Mosle, the Executive Director of Ascend. Other highlights included Plenary addresses by Richard Cordray, Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and Cory Booker, Mayor of Newark. In addition, the Conference featured 65 Concurrent Sessions which addressed the cutting-edge policy, practices and research aimed at rebuilding the opportunity structure of the country. The Conference ended midday on Friday when participants boarded buses to Capitol Hill to talk with their lawmakers about adding assets to America’s policy agenda.

Visit our website learn more about the Conference.

I hope to see you in 2014!

The Hilaire family secured a $5,000 loan through FII to open A Sweet Place candy store in Boston. This supplemented the social and financial investment of their family and friends.

This country has a rich history of people—connected by history, culture, or common values—working together to improve their lives and the prospects for their children. This mutuality is the scaffolding on which American Dreams have been built. Personal initiative is key, but no one—despite persistent myths about bootstrapping and self-made men—does it alone. People built pathways to the middle class by pooling money, watching each others’ kids, supporting each others’ businesses, and recommending each other for jobs. This is social capital in action.

That same sense of mutuality exists today. The Family Independence Initiative (FII) is building a movement to strengthen and resource social capital as a way to increase economic and social mobility for low-income families and communities. As others join this movement, we will see a revitalization of the mutualism and resources that support economic and social mobility.

One example of how we’re doing that is through an innovative loan. We heard from the families with whom we partner that they were having a hard time accessing loans. They don't have credit or collateral, but they do have relationships.  We developed a loan that puts value on those relationships by creating a character underwriting criteria. That means people can leverage their social capital by getting letters of recommendation from members of their community. This loan model could be replicated by community organizations—like a health clinic or PTA—in partnership with a financial institution like a credit union or community development financial institution (CDFI).