Workforce and Family Program

Archives: Workforce and Family Program Events

Putting Quality First

Wednesday, May 16, 2012 - 12:30pm

To help families succeed and low-income families thrive, quality child care is critical. Yet too many of America's children are in early care settings that lack well-prepared teachers, lack the infrastructure to do background checks, and lack the ability to offer safe child-to-adult ratios that give children the attention they need to learn and explore.  Parents worry about the quality of care their children receive, yet often can't afford better programs and feel powerless to do anything about it.

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The Future of Family and Work

Thursday, May 3, 2012 - 12:15pm

At first glance, the cover of a recent New Yorker seems to depict a simple spring scene: parents celebrating the warm weather by taking their children to the park. Look closer though and you will notice that the park-going parents are not the soccer moms you might expect. Rather, they are all fathers. There is one mother present, dressed in a pink shirt, and she looks markedly out of place in the sea of khaki cargo pant-clad fathers.

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Local Innovations in Child Care and Early Learning

Thursday, February 23, 2012 - 12:00pm

Nearly 11 million American children under 5 spend part of their day in a child care setting, yet only a small fraction are in early learning programs that meet high standards. Families face a huge challenge in finding programs that fit the demands of work schedules while also providing good, affordable learning centers for their kids. Overcoming this challenge is a key lever for promoting social mobility and preparing children for the future.
 

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What's Missing in Child Care and Early Education in America

Thursday, October 20, 2011 - 12:15pm
More than 11 million American children spend time in non-parental care each day. Millions of families rely on some aspect of America's publicly funded programs for their children as they go to work. Most are looking for a high-quality setting in which their children can learn. Yet, current situations fail too many families. The cost of care is too high while salaries for staff are too low. There are gaps in the regulatory oversight and in the quality of care, and there is too little learning for too many children.
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Child Care in Race to the Top

Thursday, July 21, 2011 - 12:15pm

In May, President Obama announced a $500 million federal grant competition to improve early childhood education in America.  This competition, modeled on the Race to the Top program that spotlighted the need for public school reform, has the potential to increase the focus on the importance of children’s earliest years of life for healthy cognitive and social development.  This comes at a time when Congress and the states are thinking about ways to improve child care.  

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Understanding the Scheduling Challenges Facing Low-Wage Workers

Thursday, July 7, 2011 - 12:15pm

Meeting the demands of everyday life while holding down a job has been a kitchen table issue for decades. For low-wage workers the daily struggle is often even harder. These workers are the least likely to have flexibility at work, and the least likely to be able to pay someone to take care of their obligations outside of work. But what types of flexible work arrangements do low-wage workers need?

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Improving Work-Life Fit in Hourly Jobs

Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - 12:15pm

In the challenging American economy, hourly workers, who often face acute work-family conflicts as single mothers or tag-team families, need particular attention. These families typically face rigid schedules that can leave many having to choose between caring for a sick child and going to work. Some also face unstable schedules that vary from day to day and week to week with very little advance notice. Meanwhile, employers struggle to control labor costs in the face of high turnover and absenteeism rates.

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Leading by Example: Workplace Flexibility

Wednesday, December 1, 2010 - 12:15pm

On December 1, The New America Foundation and the Work-Life Policy Unit at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law hosted an event that highlighted state and local workplace flexibility practices. As a result of the Great Recession, there is a great deal of discussion around dinner tables and in Washington policy circles about policies to help families balance their work and family lives. Yet policy makers in Washington need not reinvent the wheel.  They can and should look to states and localities, America's laboratories of democracy, for ideas.

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Designing Work-Family Policies for Families, Employers and Gender Equity

Thursday, September 16, 2010 - 12:00pm

During the last 30 years, family life in the US- and other industrialized nations- has changed dramatically. A majority of mothers are in the workforce. What do experiences from the US and around the globe tell us about the optimal design of policies to support working families?

Join the New America Foundation and the Institute for Women's Policy Research as four experts examine the evidence from the US and across the world on work-family policies that support families, help employers succeed, and increase gender equity.

Box lunches will be provided.

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The Challenges Facing American Families and How to Help Them

Wednesday, July 7, 2010 - 12:00pm

On July 7th Naomi Cahn and June Carbone, co-authors of Red Families vs Blue Families: Legal Polarization and the Creation of Culture, Patrick F. Fagan, a Senior Director and Fellow of the Center for Research on Marriage and Religion, and Eyal Press, a Schwartz Fellow at the New America Foundation and author of Absolute Convictions met to discuss why family structures vary across the United States and how politics impacts upon family structure. David Gray, the director of the Workforce and Family Program at the New America Foundation, hosted the panel discussion.

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