When Systems Work Together, Families Win

On the road to economic mobility, families too often navigate systems that are siloed rather than in conversation with one another. The result: parents exhausted from retelling their stories, out of money from taking time off work or filling the gas tank one more time, and stuck trying to coordinate child care. It leaves them feeling “hopeless, unseen, and unheard.” Ascend Parent Advisor Tameka Henry discusses how she and her organization, the Obodo Collective, bridge supports across social service agencies — and what systems leaders can learn from the work.

As the executive director of the Obodo Collective in Las Vegas, Nevada, Tameka Henry works to provide long-term solutions and support that eliminate multi-generational poverty. When families are navigating hardship, she says, they rarely turn to a government application first — they turn to each other. They depend on one another for child care, transportation, food, and even housing. Grandparents, neighbors, and trusted local anchors — churches, Head Start advocates, school staff, social workers — help them problem-solve. This social capital is often invisible to policymakers and systems leaders, but these informal safety nets are essential. When resources are properly bridged, these organic networks don’t dissipate; they grow stronger, and families can tap into them more effectively — so long as the networks are recognized and given the support they need. Henry wonders where the programs are to repair a family’s car rather than hand them a bus pass. A bus pass for a family of six may be unrealistic when all they need is a new tire for the road.

Forward With Families centers on three things every family needs to thrive: affordability, mobility, and security. For Henry, though it’s hard to choose just one, affordability is the most urgent right now. “When housing, food, and transportation costs outpace wages, everything else becomes so much harder to achieve. You start missing payments and you’re back to relying on assistance and resources that are dwindling as well.”

Access, she adds, is only part of the challenge. In her community, new housing is on the rise — but so is the cost. Prices are so high that families who have lived there for generations are being bought out and forced to move.

In a system where housing, food, and family supports truly worked together, “families would spend less time surviving and more time thriving. Children would be healthier and have better educational outcomes. Parents would have greater stability, hope, and more time to engage with their families and loved ones. Communities would be stronger overall,” Henry shares.

Families are resilient.

In the face of siloed resources, families are creative and deeply committed to a brighter future for the next generation. They share rides, swap child care when they work opposite shifts, grow food in community gardens to ease food deserts, and connect one another to jobs and resources.

Organizations and government agencies can work harder to lighten the load families muscle through just to survive. At the Obodo Collective, Sunset Suppers are a game changer. Says Henry, “think health fair meets farm-to-table dinner for families.” 

Community partners like Intermountain Health and Roseman University of Health Sciences show up to provide education, resources, and even free testing for community members. The Obodo Collective keeps creating spaces where residents are grounded in community, resources are shared, culture and heritage are embraced, and everyone present can grow through food, education, and mutual support.

For others who want to dive into this work or strengthen what they are already doing, Henry offers a place to start: listen to families. They are the true experts on what they need and what they hope for. Invest, too, in trusted community organizations — often they are already doing the work but lack the funding to make it sustainable. Lean into the organizations that are building rapport with families. When systems are designed around people, solutions are sustainable, communities grow stronger, and families win.