In 2022, CSSP partnered with the California Community Colleges CalWORKs Association’s Project SPARC (Student Parents Are Reimagining CalWORKs) to co-design research to better understand the barriers experienced by parenting students participating in CalWORKs, California’s cash assistance program for families with children. Together, SPARC leaders and CSSP conducted in-depth interviews with parenting students and community college
In 2022, CSSP partnered with the California Community Colleges CalWORKs Association’s Project SPARC (Student Parents Are Reimagining CalWORKs) to co-design research to better understand the barriers experienced by parenting students participating in CalWORKs, California’s cash assistance program for families with children. Together, SPARC leaders and CSSP conducted in-depth interviews with parenting students and community college
In 2022, the Center for the Study of Social Policy and Project SPARC conducted research to better understand the barriers experienced by parenting students participating in CalWORKs, California’s cash assistance program for families with children. This brief highlights findings from the research on parenting students’ experiences with child care. For parenting students, the lack of accessible
In 2022, the Center for the Study of Social Policy and Project SPARC conducted research to better understand the barriers experienced by parenting students participating in CalWORKs, California’s cash assistance program for families with children. This brief highlights findings from the research on parenting students’ experiences meeting their basic needs, including securing housing, child care,
In 2022, the Center for the Study of Social Policy and Project SPARC conducted research to better understand the barriers experienced by parenting students participating in CalWORKs, California’s cash assistance program for families with children. This brief highlights findings from the research about parenting students’ experiences navigating complicated program rules and requirements, including paperwork. This
In 2022, the Center for the Study of Social Policy and Project SPARC conducted research to better understand the barriers experienced by parenting students participating in CalWORKs, California’s cash assistance program for families with children. This brief highlights findings from the research on how public systems too often cause and exacerbate stress, anxiety, depression, and
In 2022, the Center for the Study of Social Policy and Project SPARC conducted research to better understand the barriers experienced by parenting students participating in CalWORKs, California’s cash assistance program for families with children. This brief highlights findings from the research on parenting students’ experiences with housing. (8 pp)
In 2022, the Center for the Study of Social Policy and Project SPARC conducted research to better understand the barriers experienced by parenting students in CalWORKs, California’s cash assistance program for families with children. This brief highlights findings from the research on parenting students’ experiences transferring to four-year institutions. (5 pp)
In 2022, the Center for the Study of Social Policy and Project SPARC conducted research to better understand the barriers experienced by parenting students participating in CalWORKs, California’s cash assistance program for families with children. This brief highlights findings from the research on who parenting students are and their experiences navigating public systems. (10
This report shares findings from research conducted by the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) and parents participating in Project SPARC (Student Parents Are Reimagining CalWORKs), a project of the CalWORKs Association. (26 pp)
View Arthur’s condensed bio here. At CSSP I currently serve as the Project Manager for the Parent Leader Network, support CSSP’s South Carolina child welfare monitoring team, support communities to build early childhood systems that support early learning and development through our EC-LINC network and our Early Learning Nation project, and other projects to increase parent,
Sondra Samuels is the President and CEO of the Northside Achievement Zone (NAZ). Along with parents, students, partners, and staff, Sondra is leading a revolutionary culture shift in North Minneapolis that is focused on ending multi-generational poverty through education and family stability. The NAZ Collaborative, made up of 43 partner non-profits and schools, is working
At CSSP I am a part of the Youth Power, Parent Power and Youth Thrive initiatives. I do this work because I am passionate about creating systems-level change for communities and amplifying community voices. I am most proud of My teaching experience at Children’s Aid Society and collaborating with parents to support their children in developing socioemotional and
At CSSP I serve as an advisor to DULCE, a pediatric care innovation that transforms the delivery of health services for families with infants through a collaboration between early childhood, health, and legal systems. I do this work because I am inspired by the strength and resilience of my parents, immigrants from Eritrea. Their
Larkin Tackett is Founder and Executive Advisor at MAYA Consulting. A social sector leader and advocate with more than 25 years of experience in education, policy, and community development, he is focused on expanding opportunity by supporting equity and excellence in community. In 2017, Larkin launched MAYA to support organizations working on behalf of students
At CSSP, we translate ideas into action through a myriad of projects, all grounded in equity. Advancing an Anti-Racist Child Allowance Advancing Early Relational Health Automatic Benefit for Children (ABC) Coalition CARES: Creating Actionable & Real Solutions Child Welfare Reform Through Class Action Litigation Data for Equity and Action DULCE EC-LINC Early Learning Nation getREAL
Senior Program Analyst Arthur is a proud Chicano raised in Los Angeles (Tongva Territory). His parents grew up as neighbors in historic Lincoln Heights in Northeast Los Angeles and his grandparents’ roots lay in Zacatecas, Sinaloa, Southern Colorado and Austria Hungary. Arthur is married to his high school sweetheart with whom he has three beautiful
Washington, DC and Houston, TX (June 19, 2020)—As a nation we separate children from their families on a routine basis; racism has shaped policies, including our immigration and child welfare policies, that separate children from their parents and it has been institutionalized in the systems that carry out these policies. The child welfare system
A Statement from Judith Meltzer, President of the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) WASHINGTON, DC (April 10, 2020)—For centuries, policies in the United States have perpetuated segregated cities, housing with unsafe and overcrowded conditions, inadequate public transportation, food deserts, and unhealthy air quality. Through policy and practice, we have excluded many from
Washington, DC and Houston, TX (September 17, 2020)—The US child welfare system has a long history of structural racism which has led to devastating consequences for Black, Native, and increasingly Latinx children and families. Despite decades of efforts aimed at reform, racism within the system persists. The upEND Movement works to create a society in
(April 24, 2018)–Leading national organizations announced today that they will work with 29 communities across the country to focus on child development from birth to age 3. Research shows investments in the first three years of life, when a child’s brain develops faster than at any other time period, are most critical in helping more
Parenting students’ struggles to navigate a wide range of public systems, including public assistance, higher education, child care, immigration, and housing, shed light on these systemic failings, and how policies and systems can be transformed to work better for all families with low incomes. We work to advance supports for parenting students and to promote broad public system reform to work better for families with low incomes.
CSSP is proud to present a series of essays proposing actionable new insights and ideas about how to dramatically improve the well-being of children, young people, families, and communities, with racial justice as both an underlying value and a “North Star” goal. In keeping with CSSP’s bias for action, these essays revolve around two key
The Youth Power Parent Power initiative aims to improve outcomes for expectant and parenting youth in and transitioning out of foster care, end the intergenerational involvement of families entering foster care, and promote reproductive health justice for all young people.
Children need access to affirming, supportive, and inclusive health care; to caring adults who fully support and honor their development; to schools that promote their growth and learning; and to communities and friends that respect and support them. Unfortunately, despite knowing what children need, policymakers in many states have done the exact opposite, and are doing so at a staggering rate.
Today, getREAL observes and celebrates National Coming Out Day, an annual observance which celebrates LGBTQ+ individuals ‘coming out’ about their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. The date aligns with the historic Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in 1987, where visibility obtained through coming out was considered one of the most
getREAL brought child welfare leaders, administrators, researchers, and advocates together to address challenges and opportunities facing child welfare systems and to consider how child welfare systems can continue to improve their responsiveness to the specific needs of LBGTQ+ children, youth, and families.
A Statement from the Center for the Study of Social Policy Children and youth need to be affirmed in their identities in order to be healthy and to thrive. This is a statement of fact and not contested opinion; it is backed by research, and it is supported by the American Medical Association (AMA) and
During the pandemic, the expanded Child Tax Credit was a lifeline for millions of families. However, I was one of the many who couldn’t benefit from it. Why? At 15, I gave my baby to family members. But because the adoption was never finalized, I actually ended up owing child support—and only found out after it had
To kick off the fourth-annual Youth Thrive National Convening held on November 11th to November 13th, Senior Vice President of Systems Change Susan Notkin delivered the first keynote of the 2019 conference to a room of youth activists, experts, and advocates working in child welfare, juvenile justice, youth homelessness, public and behavioral health, education, and after