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Let’s get REAL

We owe all people safe and affirming spaces that allow them to express their whole selves. In the following clips, which are highlights from a longer conversation, CSSP President and CEO Leonard Burton and Senior Fellow Bill Bettencourt underscore how and why we need to show up for LGBTQ+ youth. 

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A Welcome Shift

Promoting work is one of the four purposes of the TANF program, but the program’s work requirements have proven a colossal failure. The Biden Administration’s new data collection requirements mark a welcome shift toward determining whether states are helping parents find family-sustaining work through meaningful outcome measures.

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Supporting Caregivers

This report  focuses on initiatives that provide direct financial assistance to caregivers who provide informal care and would otherwise be unpaid for their caregiving labor—noting when policies to compensate caregivers are combined with other services or supports.

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Supporting Youth

This policy agenda reimagines how policy supports young people. A product of a collaboration between CARES Ambassadors and the CSSP, the agenda seeks to advance policy that supports young people in their families and communities, respects and affirms their whole identity, and sets us all up for success.

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Who We Are

The Center for the Study of Social Policy works to achieve a racially, economically, and socially just society in which all children, youth, and families thrive. We translate ideas into action, promote public policies grounded in equity, and support strong and inclusive communities. We advocate with and for all children, youth, and families marginalized by public policies and institutional practices.

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Our Approach

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Systems Change

We draw on the latest research and work to make systems more responsive, accountable, and rooted in policies that ensure equity and inclusion for all children, youth, families, and communities.

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Community Outreach

We believe in the power of communities to shape their futures. We work with communities across the country and with local systems to impact policy and systems change.

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Policy

We work to influence public policy to create opportunity, advance equity, achieve impact, and scale results. We fight against inequitable policy proposals and promote policies that ensure equity and inclusion.