Research and Resources

Research
The Future of Children
Formerly published by the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, and now published bi-annually by the Brookings Institution and Princeton University, the Future of Children Journal provides research and analysis to promote effective policies and programs for children. Journals are available entirely on-line, or can be ordered in print by individual copy or subscription.

Center for Research on Child Well-Being
The Center for Research on Child Well-Being conducted the Fragile Families Study. This site contains materials from that study, as well as policy briefs and other reports focusing on a variety of family functions.

Social Policy Report (from the Society for Research in Child Development)
A quarterly publication of the Society for Research in Child Development, the Social Policy Report applies research to a variety of social policy issues.

Connecting Research and Policymaking: Implications for Theory and Practice from the Family Impact Seminars
By Karen Bogenschneider, Jonathan R. Olson, Kirsten D. Linney & Jessica Mills. Published in the Journal of Family Relations, 2000, Vol. 49, No. 3, pp. 327-339.
(web version available to NCFR members only).

Resources

Advocacy/policy impact sites
Family Impact Seminars
Policy Institute for Family Impact Seminars, located at the University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension, provides objective, nonpartisan, solution-based research on current family issues. The Institute facilitates a network of collaborators who are conducting Family Impact Seminars in 12 sites: California, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Oregon, and Wisconsin. The Institute has assumed the mission of the Family Impact Seminar founded in 1976 to build capacity for family-centered policymaking. Their website has a variety of publications, skill building tools, sample syllabi for family policy courses, policy links, and more.

The Family Impact Checklist for Assessing the Impact of Policies on Families (.pdf)

Family Impact Analysis critically examines the past, present, or probable future effects of a policy, program, or service on family well-being. Whereas evaluation research focuses on whether the goals of a program are being met, family impact analysis examines how program goals may benefit families or produce unintended negative consequences. This checklist, provided in hard copy to Summit attendees, can be used by professionals for formal assessments, or by policymakers or stakeholders for informal self-assessments of how family-centered policies, programs, services, and communities are. Other checklists are available on the family impact analysis section of the Family Impact Seminars website: http://www.uwex.edu/ces/familyimpact/impact.htm

"Guide for Conducting Family Impact Analysis" (.pdf)
This PDF document is a detailed guidebook for conducting and using a family impact analysis.

Conducting Advocacy Research
Conducting Advocacy Research is a section of a web based Welcome Community Tool Box, created and maintained by the Work Group on Health Promotion and Community Development at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas (U.S.A). Developed in collaboration with AHEC/Community Partners in Amherst, Massachusetts, the site has been on line since 1995, and it continues to grow on a weekly basis. The core of the Tool Box is the "topic sections" that include practical guidance for the different tasks necessary to promote community health and development. For instance, there are sections on leadership, strategic planning, community assessment, grant writing, and evaluation to give just a few examples. Each section includes a description of the task, advantages of doing it, step-by-step guidelines, examples, checklists of points to review, and training materials.

Frameworks Institute
The mission of the FrameWorks Institute is to advance the nonprofit sector's communications capacity by identifying, translating and modeling relevant scholarly research for framing the public discourse about social problems. Of particular interest for Children’s Summit 2005 are the following two items, also included in the Summit toolkit:

"E-zine" Issue No. 6, "Telling New Stories About Children's Issues"
"E-zine" Issue No. 25, "The Storytelling Power of Numbers"

How To Impact Public Policy for Families
Although this publication is quite old (1992), it contains very good timeless information on steps for the policy education process, critical thinking, and evaluating public policy from a family perspective. Includes a “What’s Your Family Citizenship Style” assessment.

Public Issues Forums
National Issues Forums are designed to bring people together to talk about important issues, using formats ranging from small study circles held in peoples’ homes to large community gatherings. Forums focus on an issue such as public schools, health care, immigration, Social Security, or ethnic and racial tensions. The forums provide a way for people of diverse views and experiences to seek a shared understanding of the problem and to search for common ground for action. Forums are led by trained, neutral moderators, and use an issue discussion guide that frames the issue by presenting the overall problem and then three or four broad approaches to the problem. Forum participants work through the issue by considering each approach; examining what appeals to them or concerns them, and also what the costs, consequences, and trade offs may be that would be incurred in following that approach.

Public Policy For Families
Iowa State University Extension's Family Policy That Works program helps decision makers, family professionals, and citizens increase their knowledge of family policy and its development. Community decision makers learn how to develop action plans that address the possible outcomes of family policy, including federal welfare changes. Members of community coalitions acquire the skills to collaboratively design community service delivery systems and policies that improve outcomes for families.

Center for Family Policy and Research
The Center for Family Policy and Research was established in 1997 to become a national resource for the development of effective social policy relating to families and communities. The Center's mission is to create and disseminate research-based analyses designed to promote the well-being of diverse families in their communities through informed public policy and program development. It is housed in the Department of Human Development & Family Studies (HDFS) at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)
CLASP is a nonprofit public policy and advocacy organization. Its functions include: conducting research, policy analysis, technical assistance, and advocacy on issues related to economic security and family stability for low-income parents, children, and youth; analyzing proposed federal and state legislation, laws, and regulations; and testifying before Congress and state legislatures. Their analyses, in-depth reports, policy briefs, fact sheets, and testimony are posted on this web site, organized by topic area.

The Ecology of the Family
Although this paper was prepared for specific training events at the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory Child and Family Program in Portland, Oregon, it is an excellent overview of the theory and application of the ecological perspective, or ecological model used to frame family and human development.

Data sites
Minnesota State Demographic Center
The State Demographic Center at Minnesota Planning analyzes and distributes data from state, U.S. Census Bureau and other sources.

Minnesota Datanet
2000 census data can be sorted into a variety of categories by geographic areas.

Books
Anderson, Elaine A., Skinner, Denise A., Letiecq, Bethany L. Teaching Family Policy: A Handbook of Course Syllabi, Teaching Strategies and Resources, 2nd Edition, 2004. Minneapolis: National Council on Family Relations.
Originally published more than 10 years ago, Teaching Family Policy includes a wealth of resources for teaching family policy. In addition to syllabi, the volume includes worksheets, class exercises, and an annotated bibliography.

Bogenschneider, Karen. Family Policy Matters: How Policymaking Affects Families And What Professionals Can Do, 2002. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Drawing on hundreds of studies in the last 20 years, Family Policy Matters provides a fresh perspective on what family policy is, why it is needed, and whether policymaking would be more effective if approached from a family rather than an individual perspective. A theoretical framework for conceptualizing policy issues is proposed in a way that holds the potential for overcoming controversy and identifying common ground. Includes case studies and tools such as a family impact checklist to help professionals assess the potential effects of policies and programs on family well-being. Bogenschneider is a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and executive director of Family Impact Seminars.

Bronfenbrenner, Urie. 1979. The Ecology of Human Development. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Urie Bronfenbrenner was the developer of the ecological model for studying human development. To understand the way children develop, he believes it is necessary to observe their behavior in natural settings, while they are interacting with familiar adults over prolonged periods of time. His book offers an important blueprint for constructing a new and ecologically valid psychology of development.