Giving Compass' Take:

• Here are some helpful tips for organizations to understand how collaboration can help advance family well-being through a two-generation approach. 

• Is your philanthropy supporting families and helping them reach their goals?

• Learn more about ways to lift families out of poverty. 

Individuals are whole people made up of a rich mix of physical, intellectual, social, emotional, and spiritual parts. Individuals exist within families, and families are the heart of our communities. In many ways, working families earning low wages are the backbone of our country, working the jobs that keep America running.

But many American families are struggling. Despite an uptick in the economy, more than 8.5 million children currently live in poverty, and they are often concentrated in neighborhoods where at least a third of all families live in poverty. Others are just a paycheck away from falling into poverty. For these families, a simple change in circumstance for a family member — a reduction in working hours, an illness, even the need for a car repair — affects the entire family's long-term well-being.

At Ascend at the Aspen Institute and the Pascale Sykes Foundation, we collaborate with families, nonprofits, government agencies, advocacy groups, and others to advance family well-being through a whole family or two-generation (2Gen) approach.

In our work every day, we see the many meaningful ways in which a whole family approach benefits families and creates opportunities for service organizations to reach vulnerable populations, scale their work, and fulfill their missions. Here are five things your agency can do to shape its work in ways that will benefit families and support family members as they define, create, and realize the futures of which they dream.

  1.  Recognize the multi-faceted nature of human aspirations.
  2. Be intentional about working with every member of the family.
  3. Tailor services and support to families' goals.
  4.  Prioritize relationships between family members to create lasting results.
  5.  Emphasize collaboration.

Read the full article about advancing family well-being by Frances Sykes and Marjorie Sims at PhilanTopic.