From Our President: An Update From Luz Vega-Marquis

Why We Put Families First

Having now completed one full year of grantmaking, and in the interest of sharing our learnings with the field, I wanted to spend some time reflecting on the central role that families play in the work of Marguerite Casey Foundation. While we have discussed these issues in the past, it is important to reiterate – and reaffirm – the strategic underpinnings of our family-based approach.

The Foundation works to support and strengthen families by helping low-income parents and caregivers become more effective advocates for their children. We have chosen to focus our work on prevention; and the most basic form of prevention for a child is a consistent relationship with a caring adult. For most children in the U.S., that adult is a parent or biological relative such as a grandparent or aunt. Together they form the nucleus of a family. But how can philanthropy best strengthen that family bond?

During the Foundation’s nationwide information gathering process, which was intended to provide the basis of our overall funding strategy, we asked low-income families to identify ways in which our grantmaking might be most helpful to them. They offered a number of thoughtful, realistic suggestions. In every listening circle and interview we conducted, participants described the pressures and challenges of meeting routine family obligations while trying to simultaneously understand and navigate the confusing maze of competing, contradictory and often overlapping public systems. They shared their frustration in dealing with bureaucracies that were incapable of treating the family as a unit, and that offered few opportunities for input from parents. They also spoke of the need for better access to information on effective parenting practices – things like financial planning, economic literacy, leadership opportunities, nutrition training, and time management.

In response to these concerns, the Foundation elected to pursue a non-categorical approach to funding. Rather than locking ourselves into a silo-based strategy (i.e. making grants exclusively for low-income housing or public health or childhood education or economic development, etc.) that would potentially replicate the dysfunctional, inefficient characteristics of public bureaucracies, we chose to begin with families “where they are.”

Given our national mission and modest resources in comparison with public systems, we decided we could not support enough in-depth family services to have a signifigant impact. Nor did we believe that we could transform giant public institutions simply through our grants alone. Rather, we elected to support organizations that are mobilizing parents and caregivers across a multitude of issues in the belief that they are the most effective lever to reform systems and influence public decision-making; thus our grants to support education, advocacy and activism at all levels.

This non-categorical, family-based approach is borne out by a growing body of social-science research which tells us that the two greatest determinants of a child’s success in life are the economic conditions in which that child’s family lives and the education level of his or her parent(s). The combined force these two limiting factors have on children cannot and should not be underestimated. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, nearly two-thirds of children in low-income families have parents without any college education. Worse yet, 72 percent of children whose parents do not hold a high-school degree live in low-income families.

We know of course that these children are not poor because of their own inability to find gainful employment. They are not malnourished or under-educated by their own choosing, and they do not decide where they live or what resources they will be able to access. Instead they are the products of their environments, shaped by the economic realities which keep their families, and their communities as a whole, under duress and disconnected from opportunities for success.

We believe that improving the lives of children must begin by helping parents and caregivers become informed and engaged advocates capable of effectively working through the system to improve the lives of their families. This distinction – viewing the child as part of a larger family system rather than as an independent entity – is central to all of our work. Consider the following:

“Family-centered policy, practice and advocacy necessitate identifiable requirements for thinking and talking differently. For example, the needs of children challenged at school can be framed as ‘a student problem,’ one specific to each child. Or it can be renamed and framed as a family support issue. At the same time, preconceived notions about a ‘problem parent’ who does not participate in parent-teacher conferences and fails to attend her child’s school functions can [also] be changed. Once a child’s problem becomes viewed as a family support need, the attributions and solutions change. The parent may need caregiver and employment-related supports and resources. Housing stresses and food insecurities may be at the root of the child’s problems at school. Counseling for the child is not the only answer. Improved services, resources and supports for the family are required.” (Lawson, Briar-Lawson, Hennon, and Jones, “Family-Centered Policies & Practices,” 2001)

When families are supported and given the opportunity to stay healthy and strong, many individual needs and social problems are prevented. So it is through this family-centric lens that the Marguerite Casey Foundation seeks to carry out its work. It is the basis for our efforts to develop a new cadre of young parents and youth as civic leaders. It is the driver behind our choices to invest in family-friendly models of community organizing. And it is the impetus for our seeking out cornerstone organizations who are growing their base of families, and not just individuals.

We continue to review, revise and improve our strategies for working with low-income communities, but we are increasingly convinced that our focus on families is the right approach. we welcome the thoughts and advice of our colleagues as we grow and improve.

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This is the second in an ongoing series of commentaries from President and CEO, Luz Vega-Marquis. Check back regularly for additional articles on the Foundation’s progress.