Giving Compass' Take:

• The author examines how both private and public funders can determine the effectiveness of two-generation approaches for battling the cycle of poverty. 

• According to the author, donors have many responsibilities in evaluating the programs and choosing which ones will be useful. Why would a systems change lens in assessing these types of programs be helpful during the evaluation?

• Read about what systems change looks like in action. 

The past several years have seen a significant resurgence of interest in two-generation approaches as viable interventions for interrupting the intergenerational cycle of poverty and promoting opportunities and successful outcomes for both parents and their children.

The field has grown and learned much from the early ventures into two-generation approaches, yet many key questions vital to the success of these approaches remain unanswered. Public and private funders can play an important role in strengthening the evidence base for these approaches by strategically investing in research and evaluation.

Two-generation approaches to reducing poverty are based on systems, policies and programs that are designed to simultaneously meet the needs of parents and their children via a well-aligned set of purposeful interventions.

Both public and private funders can play an important role in strengthening the evidence base by identifying promising and effective two-generation approaches, which in turn can inform future program enhancements and designs. Through their decisions about how to allocate resources, funders make critical decisions not only about which programs flourish and expand, but also about which programs get evaluated, how and how long they are evaluated and, more fundamentally, which questions get answered, or even posed, via those evaluations.

Read the full research article about foundation programs by The Annie E. Casey Foundation