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Legislative Analysis of Family Engagement in California Organizations

Organization: Children Now

Primary Contact: Kelly Hardy

Grant Amount: $40,000 for 12 months

Date Awarded:

Purpose

State policy decisions about children’s health and well-being are made far too often without drawing on the experience and expertise of parents, caregivers, and youth themselves. This project is a continuation of a past Foundation grant to Children Now under which the California Research Bureau collected data on family engagement policies within state agencies serving children. The goal of this grant is to produce an official, government-sanctioned baseline report on all opportunities for families to engage in state policymaking conversations. Advocacy organizations will be encouraged to use the report to urge policymakers to create additional family engagement roles, and to recruit partners to press for these opportunities.

Related Resources

Fact Sheet: Findings on Family Engagement from California Research Bureau

The California Research Bureau (CRB) investigated the extent to which the state's child-serving departments and agencies incorporate meaningful input from caregivers and youth in policymaking. The CRB research shows that California state government includes some bright spots of meaningful family engagement, but they are sporadic and not common practice throughout all child-serving agencies.

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