2015 Ascend Fellowship Impact Fund Awardees

Through the Ascend Fellowship Impact Fund, we offer catalytic capital to accelerate Fellows’ work to build political will, change systems, and drive policy agendas needed to support the prosperity and well-being for all children and families. 

Each class of Fellows has the opportunity to apply for flexible resources that could have far-reaching results and meet critical needs, including opportunities to scale new partnerships, invest in critical research, and pilot new approaches. 

• Kathie Winograd
  Central New Mexico Community College
  CNM will undertake a comprehensive study of students and their families to understand student needs and ensure CNM’s two-generation programs are being implemented effectively. The information gathered through the study will serve as the foundation of CNM’s Homework Diner, Early Childhood Connect Center, and other efforts to support student parents.
  
• Betsy Delgado & Roxane White
  Goodwill Industries of Central Indiana – Nurse-Family Partnership 
  Goodwill Industries of Central Indiana, Inc. (GICI) and the Nurse Family Partnership (NFP) National Service Office are working to prove the powerful impact of combining NFP with The Excel Center (adult education) model to serve families in poverty. This includes allocating dedicated staff and resources for national expansion, research and published findings. In addition, funding requested in this proposal will be used for professional development to improve outcomes both NFP and The Excel Center.
  
• Kirsten Lodal
  LIFT
  LIFT will explore: (1) how to integrate one-on-one financial coaching and financial capabilities peer groups with current interventions to meet Members’ short-term needs, and (2) how to most effectively help Members build assets for greater, long-term stability. Over the course of the grant period, LIFT will leverage our partnerships to develop more family-focused financial capabilities services. LIFT will engage CFED (Center for Enterprise Development), as a short-term design and technical assistance partner.
  
• Roxane White & Raquel Hatter
  Nurse-Family Partnership – TN Department of Human Services 
  A collaborative pilot partnership between NFP and Johnson City, Tennessee will seek to fill a service gap in rural surrounding communities of high-need.  In collaboration with Ascend Fellow, Dr. Raquel Hatter, Commissioner, the Department of Human Services of Tennessee, Governor Haslam, and the East Tennessee State University College of Nursing (Johnson City Community Health Center), the Nurse-Family Partnership will launch implementation of the NFP/2Gen Pilot in the Johnson City, TN area. 
  
• Dr. Darius Tandon
  Northwestern University
  The program’s goal is to increase the number of home visiting and early childhood programs who are trained and supervised to deliver the Mothers and Babies (MB) depression/stress intervention, which has been demonstrated to be effective in reducing depressive symptoms and perceived stress.  
  
• Laurie Brotman & Ann Kalass
  ParentCorps, NYU – Starfish Family Services
  A new initiative will bring ParentCorps from the Center for Early Childhood Health and Development at NYU School of Medicine to Thrive by Five Detroit Head Start sites led by Starfish Family Services in partnership with three long-standing Detroit social service agencies. The grant is a catalytic investment for this collaborative and innovative two-generation effort that has the potential to contribute to the turnaround efforts in Detroit.  
  
• Dr. Sarah Watamura
  University of Denver
  The goal is to understand how interventions can support positive parenting neurobiology in parents with environmental and biologic risk, with the ultimate result of improved outcomes for both parents and their children. The first step in this broader understanding is to test whether a pilot preventative intervention for families with current poverty, a history of adverse experiences and/or maternal depression can improve parenting neurobiology as measured by functional neuroimaging. They will also assess whether the intervention improves observed parenting, and both child and parent outcomes.