New Resources: Developing an Infrastructure for Two-Generation Work

Dur­ing a webi­nar on July 6, the Casey Foun­da­tion released a new brief that exam­ines how sev­en sites across the coun­try are evolv­ing, at an oper­a­tional lev­el, to address par­ent and child needs at the same time.

“Advanc­ing Two-Gen­er­a­tion Approach­es: Devel­op­ing an Infra­struc­ture to Address Par­ent and Child Needs Togeth­er,” cov­ers a range of ele­ments — such as struc­ture, staffing, ser­vice align­ment and fam­i­ly intake — that orga­ni­za­tions and part­ner­ships have con­sid­ered when engag­ing in efforts that enable the whole fam­i­ly to succeed.

Watch the webi­nar recording

Rep­re­sen­ta­tives from two orga­ni­za­tions pro­filed in the brief — Com­mu­ni­ty Action Project of Tul­sa Coun­ty and Edu­ca­tion­al Alliance — shared strate­gies their teams are using to coor­di­nate and align pro­grams for kids and adults. Both speak­ers dis­cussed the impor­tance of open and hon­est com­mu­ni­ca­tion among part­ners, ongo­ing pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties for staff and the ben­e­fits of shar­ing space with oth­er ser­vice providers.

“Shift­ing to a two-gen­er­a­tion approach is an evo­lu­tion,” said Rosa Maria Cas­tañe­da, a senior asso­ciate at the Foun­da­tion. ​“And there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solu­tion. You try some things, you real­ize new ways of work­ing with fam­i­lies and you adopt what works for your community.”

This pub­li­ca­tion is the sec­ond in a series that explores the com­mon chal­lenges orga­ni­za­tions face when work­ing to pro­vide par­ents and chil­dren the oppor­tu­ni­ty to thrive together.

Revis­it part one: ​“Fund­ing to Help Fam­i­lies Succeed”