WEBINAR: Implications and Useful Lessons around Child Support

As the hub for breakthrough ideas and collaborations that move children and their parents toward educational success and economic security, Ascend is intensifying its efforts in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic to highlight 2Gen solutions that Ascend Fellows and the Ascend Network have developed over the past decade to help families reach their potential. Ascend is examining how new solutions, anchored in a 2Gen approach, can build and improve long-term outcomes that stabilize the health, economic well-being, and education of families as they recover and move forward from the COVID-19 crisis. 

In a series of webinars, Ascend will tap the insights, expertise, and resources of the Ascend Network, Ascend Fellows, parents, and policy partners to offer solutions for how best to assist families now and ensure they have a stronger, more equitable future. Read on to learn about the Implications and Useful Lessons around Child Support webinar, and visit this page to learn more about the series.  

Implications and Useful Lessons around Child Support

The child support program touches more families for a longer period of time than almost any other social program in the United States, involving one in five children and both parents throughout childhood and beyond. When child support policies are not designed to prioritize child well-being, they can interact with family life in counterproductive ways. Decades of research suggests that there is a better way to approach child support policy to build strong families and communities. On this webinar, leaders unpacked holistic, family-centered approaches to child support policy that put children and families where they belong: at the center.

The webinar recording can be found here, and the presentation slides can be accessed here.

Explore the Baltimore Sun’s nine-month investigation into Maryland’s child support system here.

Explore findings from the Sun’s investigation here.

Speakers:

• Yvonne Wenger, Poverty & Social Services Reporter, The Baltimore Sun
• Demetrious Jones, Father, Center for Urban Families
• Vernon Wallace, Responsible Fatherhood Project Manager, Center for Urban Families

The webinar was moderated by James White, program associate for leadership and communications.