New Index Highlights Leading Resources for Family Prosperity

How can we reimagine the supports that families need to thrive in rapidly changing times? Animated by this foundational question, Ascend launched the Aspen Family Prosperity Innovation Community (Family Prosperity) in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Family Prosperity is a groundbreaking initiative that brings together leading thinkers from policy, research, private sector, nonprofit, and community organizations to identify new and different ways to ensure families in America have the opportunities they need to prosper. From employment to economic security to health and well-being, Family Prosperity is developing bold strategies that support and strengthen working families.  

The Family Prosperity Innovation Community Index is a collection of resources created by Family Prosperity partners. Since 2017, Family Prosperity has produced a wide range of research and resources to advance learning and action around what it takes to move families, especially those with low incomes, toward economic mobility. The community’s work addresses policy and practice on a wide range of issues, including paid family and medical leave, child care, health insurance and health care, employment benefits, and social safety net programs. This body of work represents the evidence necessary to envision a future of family-supportive policies and practices in America, and the path required to meet it.  

The Index is divided into three sections: Research, Tools, and Dialogue. These three areas of innovation are wide-ranging. Policymakers will find leading-edge information about the impact of policy on family prosperity at the local, state, and national levels. Advocates will be equipped with tools and stories that bring to life the urgency of progress on family-supportive policies and practices. And institutional players like employers can reflect on the role of workplace benefits in the success of both business and family.  

• Innovation through Research: Eleven original reports use data analysis and qualitative research methods to explore the role of public policy and workplace benefits in the health and well-being of individuals and families as well as business and the economy. 

• Innovation through Tools: In this section, trackers, maps, and toolkits provide essential information about existing family-supportive policies and resources across the country, and personal stories paint a picture of those who stand to benefit the most from them.  
   
• Innovation through Dialogue: From webinars to podcasts, debates to “policy labs,” Family Prosperity partners advanced the dialogue around family-supportive policies through a wide range of channels that take information off the shelf and into the world.  

Read on to find a summary of each of these valuable assets as well as links to the full resource. The impact of the resources in this library is already being seen, which may be found in the Impact Snapshot call-out boxes throughout the document. And don’t miss the highlights of Family Prosperity’s Innovation through Collaboration, highlighting compelling moments that this community came together to break down silos and advance opportunity for families. After all, it is through connection, collaboration, and community that the necessary innovations for America’s working families can surface and scale.