Making Family Policy Matter: Moving from Analysis to Action Chapter 16 © Routledge/Taylor & Francis 2014 Making Family Policy Matter: Moving from Analysis to Action

Chapter 16 Outline What Does the Future Hold for Family Policy? © Routledge/Taylor & Francis 2014 Chapter 16 Outline What Does the Future Hold for Family Policy? Do We Have Enough Information to Proceed? How Important Are Families to Their Members and Society? Are Policies and Programs More Effective When Families Are Involved? Is Research Evidence Incorporated into Policy Decisions? Do We Know How to Proceed? Encouraging Policymakers to Build Family Policy Encouraging Policymakers to View Issues through the Family Impact Lens Do We Have the Wherewithal That It Takes to Proceed?

What Does the Future Hold for Family Policy? © Routledge/Taylor & Francis 2014 What Does the Future Hold for Family Policy? The main character in policymaking in this country is individualism; familism is assigned bit parts and sometimes not cast at all. Family policy first opened onstage in the 1970s. The star power of family policy is high among policymakers, practitioners, professionals, and the public. Whether family policy becomes a long-running opera that continues to be a box office hit depends on the passion that it generates from devotees such as you and me. In policy settings, where timing means everything, the time for action has come.

Do We Have Enough Information to Proceed? © Routledge/Taylor & Francis 2014 Do We Have Enough Information to Proceed? Information is needed on a number of fronts if we are going to advance evidence-based family policy including, but not limited to, the following: How important are families to their members and society? Are policies and programs more effective when families are involved? Is research evidence incorporated into policy decisions?

How Important Are Families To Their Members and Society? © Routledge/Taylor & Francis 2014 How Important Are Families To Their Members and Society? Our field has discovered much about family life. Families are a fundamental foundation for generating the productive, responsible workers a sound economy demands and the caring, committed citizens a strong democracy requires. Researchers have documented the valuable contribution families make to their members’ academic success, social competence, and economic productivity. We know that families remain the backbone of health care and long-term care systems that are high-quality and cost-effective.

Are Policies and Programs More Effective When Families Are Involved? © Routledge/Taylor & Francis 2014 Are Policies and Programs More Effective When Families Are Involved? Investments of public resources are more effective and efficient in achieving societal goals when families are intentionally involved in policy design and execution. We know that engaging families can elevate and extend the effectiveness of early childhood care and education programs; juvenile crime interventions; health care and long-term care delivery systems; and more. We know that policies designed to consider families holistically result in better parenting, stronger marriages, and self-sufficient families that work more and earn more.

Is Research Evidence Incorporated into Policy Decisions? © Routledge/Taylor & Francis 2014 Is Research Evidence Incorporated into Policy Decisions? Scientific evidence has influenced many policies including the quality of children’s educational television programming; improvements in child passenger safety; a law requiring federal reimbursement of foster care maintenance through age 21; and so forth. Scientific evidence provided to state policymakers by the Family Impact Seminars contributed to Medicaid policy, prescription drug laws, refundable child care tax credits, a State Children’s Health Insurance Program, a truancy law, and so forth.

© Routledge/Taylor & Francis 2014 We possess knowledge about how families contribute to social problems and in what ways they can be part of solutions. We have evidence of program impacts so we can invest in family policies that work and cut those that don’t. But…

Do We Know How to Proceed? © Routledge/Taylor & Francis 2014 Do We Know How to Proceed? Policymakers do not know, and cannot be expected to master, the vast, complex, and interdisciplinary body of family research. To build “policy development” capacity, we can encourage policymakers to enact broad-based family policies that would support families in fulfilling their five main functions. To build “policy watchdog” capacity, we can encourage policymakers to view any given issue, regardless of whether it is explicitly aimed at families, through the lens of its impact on family well-being.

Encouraging Policymakers to Build Family Policy © Routledge/Taylor & Francis 2014 Encouraging Policymakers to Build Family Policy Family policy focuses on five of the many functions that families perform: family formation, partner relationships, economic support, childrearing, and caregiving. A complex, multi-faceted endeavor such as building family policy will take dedicated attention from all manner of policy actor: researcher, policy intermediary, policy administrator, citizen, policymaker, and so forth. Effectively communicating research to policymakers begins by building relationships, providing timely and objective information using varied delivery systems, encouraging dialogue across party lines, and so forth.

Encouraging Policymakers to View Issues through the Family Impact Lens © Routledge/Taylor & Francis 2014 Encouraging Policymakers to View Issues through the Family Impact Lens Many issues that land on policymakers’ desks are not defined as family policies because they do not deal directly with family formation, partner relationships, economic support, childrearing, or caregiving. A broad range of issues at several stages and levels of the policy process would benefit if viewed through the lens of family impact. Professionals can encourage policymakers to routinely ask how families impact and are impacted by policy decisions. Protocols are provided for (1) conducting a family impact analysis of rules, legislation, laws, or programs; and (2) conducting a family impact analysis of an agency or organization using a quantitative checklist supplemented with stakeholder discussion.

Do We Have the Wherewithal That It Takes to Proceed? © Routledge/Taylor & Francis 2014 Do We Have the Wherewithal That It Takes to Proceed? The future of family policy appears grim if we dwell on the magnitude of the task, the societal significance of the mission, the pervasiveness of individualism in American thought and experience, and the marginalization of families in U.S. public policymaking. To move family policy from analysis to action, Ambassador and Governor Madeleine Kunin says it takes anger, imagination, and optimism, all qualities that the next generation of family policy activists possess in abundant supply.

The Wherewithal to Proceed . . . © Routledge/Taylor & Francis 2014 The Wherewithal to Proceed . . . Anger Policy activism often starts with a healthy “dose” of anger. Anger can be sparked by prejudice that makes obvious the connection between the political and the personal. Imagination To accomplish change, you must imagine it. We need to take responsibility for turning our “daydreams” into the “American dream.” Optimism If change is to occur, it takes optimism. Change requires that we avoid being conquered by despair.