What happens when we apply a strengths-based, brain and behavioral science lens to build programs and policies that support families? Join us to explore the core tenants and benefits of 2-Generation (2Gen) principles in programs, institutions, and policies, as well as learn how to incorporate these tenants in practice.

You will hear from Ascend at the Aspen Institute about how 2Gen approaches build family well-being by intentionally and simultaneously working with children and the adults in their lives. By centering the goals of the whole family, 2Gen strategies work with families as experts and meaningfully engage parents and caregivers in designing policies and programs that affect them to develop holistic, integrated, and equity-focused solutions.

Then, you will learn about the application of 2Gen practices at New Moms, a Chicago-based organization engaging young families, through their executive skills coaching approach. Understanding how executive skills and other strengths-based brain and behavioral science strategies support decision making, resilience, goal setting, and habit formation can ultimately improve whole family well-being. In this session participants, too, will identify their own executive skills strengths on a digital self-assessment, and through an interactive guided discussion prompt, reflect on how those strengths help them achieve their goals – and the implication for 2Gen program design and delivery. Then, participants will complete a short design activity related to 2Gen coaching strategies, walking away with a new idea and an executive skills coaching practitioner toolkit to support next steps for taking action in your workplace.

Learning Objectives

Presenters

Laura Zumdahl
President & CEO
New Moms

Sama Sabihi
Program Manager
Ascend at the Aspen Institute

This working session will open a space for exploring how narrative and mindset change efforts, which are underway across the sector, could be strengthened with evidence related to economic and concrete supports. In addition, there is a need to infuse the delivery of the economic and concrete support information in alignment with new messages that propel mindset change.

Learning Objectives

Presenters

Gretchen Cusick
Senior Research Fellow
Chapin Hall

Hope is a cognitive process that can be enhanced, modeled, and, more importantly, restored during a crisis. It also may be one of the most critical factors to psychological well-being. This session will share insight from a project funded by the Department of Justice Office for Victims of Crime that extends hope science into law enforcement organizations.

Participants will learn how hope science can be applied to support staff at community-based organizations because, like law enforcement, they respond in crisis situations, work with people experiencing adversity, and endure secondhand trauma. This presentation will provide specific methods that can immediately be implemented to increase hopeful thinking and improve essential employee outcomes, as well as share strategies that can be used across the organizations as a framework for action for employee well-being. Recognizing the importance of community connection, presenters will highlight trust building and well-being work with systems, along with Social Current’s approach to equity, diversity, and inclusion, which emphasizes psychological safety in the workforce.

This workshop will encourage participant engagement and interaction. Participants will be able to assess their own hope and examine how the loss of hope may impact workforce, client, and community outcomes. Additionally, participants will have an opportunity to build strategies for nurturing hope that foster positive and strengths-based practices that value community connection.

Learning Objectives

Presenters

Katie Carlson
Director of Wellness Initiatives
Marion County Sheriff’s Office

Romero Davis
Director of Practice Excellence
Social Current

Josh Friedman
CEO
Ten Eight Innovations

Laura Pinsoneault
CEO
Evaluation Plus

Do family support strategies make a difference? This workshop will begin with an update on Family Resource Centers (FRC) located across the U.S. and then highlight a wide range of FRC outcome and cost-benefit findings. Presenters will share the results of a new meta-analysis study that examined the impact of FRCs across key child welfare outcomes, including the rates of accepted child protective services referrals, substantiated child protective services referrals, and child placements in out-of-home care. After reviewing what we know about the cost-benefit of FRCs, presenters will close with information about the most promising funding streams to consider to pay for FRCs.

Learning Objectives

Presenters

Peter Pecora
Managing Director of Research Services
Casey Family Programs

Brenda McChesney
Co-Founder & Associate Director
National Family Support Network

Janica Lockhart
Chief Impact Officer
AKIN Family Services

Congreso de Latinos Unidos, a multi-service organization in Philadelphia, is using human-centered design (HCD) to engage funders and policymakers in the service design process—reimagining human services for its largely Latino population. Specializing in “last mile innovation,” Congreso uses its homegrown design toolkit to empower staff at the end-user client level to redesign their programs to generate data-rich insights leading to:

Congreso’s incorporation of design has created a powerful “feedback loop” between policymakers, funders and Congreso’s clients, ensuring the design of services is equitable and human centered. In taking ownership of the full feedback circuit, Congreso has positioned itself as a key link between policymakers and the end-user experience, ensuring future policies, funding, and service contracts account for the nuanced needs of its target population and greatly enhancing the impact and value that government funding seeks to provide.

As a recipient of multiple government funding streams, Congreso recognizes the disconnect between how services are conceived at the policy level and the actual experience of staff and clients in those programs. Often, services conceived of at the policy level don’t fully account for the nuanced experiences of the end-users, causing attrition, low utilization, and inefficient outcomes. Congreso uses HCD tools to shift this paradigm by bringing the two together, leading to improved client experience and outcomes, increased staff empowerment to influence change and the ability to perform data-driven funder advocacy to influence how policies and RFPs are crafted and implemented. 

This session will cover how Congreso utilizes HCD techniques to understand and improve upon the client experience in its programs, including investigating pain points, inefficiencies, and inequities, and how staff leverage those insights to influence change at the funding/policy level.

This session will cover: 

Learning Objectives

Presenters

Brendan Conlin
Chief Program Officer
Congreso de Latinos Unidos

Jamie Hughes
Vice President of Programmatic Development
Congreso de Latinos Unidos