Support for families in poverty is crucial for child well-being, adult success
Why can’t we move the needle on child well-being? We know generally that successful and supportive families have successful children and that families that are struggling have children that struggle. Yet we continue to focus our efforts on supporting children but not their families, and we continue to get poor results for children.
Families in poverty are stressed by the impact of no or low wages: substandard housing, high transportation costs, the simple inability to give their children the basics while being bombarded by images of wealth and prosperity. Stressed by disconnected and overwhelmed social service and safety nets that seem to work against them rather than for them. And stressed by an educational system that can’t find answers to the educational needs of poor children, especially those of color.
In more severe cases that stress leads to abuse or emotional abandonment of children. In more cases, family stress leads to stressed out children who carry that stress into their classrooms, making learning more difficult.
Some (programs), like Head Start, provide support to both children and their families. Staff engage families at school, in their homes and communities, working with the family to build parenting skills and to solve life’s challenges, building capacity and skills. At YDI Head Start, 47 percent of the staff are prior Head Start family members.
A National Institute of Health study released in January found that students who participated in an intensive early childhood program were more likely to attain an academic degree beyond high school. This program supported children through third grade more intensely than most public school programs but closer to what is generally provided in most schools. The biggest difference is that the program also provided parents with training in job and parenting skills, educational classes and social services. It encouraged school involvement and parenting group participation. All this is similar to the Head Start model.
Head Start families transition to an educational system without the mission, resources, or capacity to support families. Let’s support teachers by strengthening and better funding those support systems. Families that are stronger provide more support to their children. But let’s do it in a connected, collaborative way.
When government agencies or philanthropic foundations provide resources to families and children, there is usually a competition to determine who gets the resources to provide services. While competition may be healthy, collaboration is a much more effective, successful, and costeffective approach. Incentivize nonprofit organizations to work together. This approach will require leadership at the governmental, the nonprofit, and foundation levels to support this type of collaboration.
Working together more effectively to support families may be what finally moves the needle on child well being.