Centering Families' Voices in Systems Design, to Allow Them to Flourish - Part 2

This work is not intended to be like we're not intending to kind of frame this as like the most groundbreaking or new thing.

This is framed around really building upon years of progress that other folks in philanthropy, that nonprofit folks, that people in government, that people in a for profit sector, that they've been working to try to center community voices to advance.

You know, equity to strengthen systems through learning and relationships like these things have been have been being worked towards for a long time, talked about for a long time.

Sometimes they get lifted up more than others in different industries or different points in time.

But that evolution happens.

It is important for us to remember that this is a point in time reflection on what we're learning together, what's working, what's challenging, and how we're adapting.

And that those key findings really do have implications or can that... you know, for policy, that programs work best when families can count on them.

If there's unclear rules, if there's short-term funding, if it's complex applications that, like, kind of create instability or undermine outcomes because you don't know how to get there, you know, or what to do, or I've got to go to four different locations, and, you know, and if I don't have transportation, how am I even supposed to do that? Like, we create...

These these obstacles for folks.

So we think that there's some real clear considerations in our policy, both in the, you know, big piece or the government, you know, all the way through real local policy, but then also in the ways in which our for-profit partners work or non-profit partners work.

Just-in-time scheduling is a good example, right? It might make money sense to wait to send out a schedule until Sunday night about where someone needs to be based on what works coming down the line and those types of things.

But If you're a parent and you don't know until Sunday night where what location you're going to be, what your hours are, how many hours you're going to get.

You know, how are you how do you plan for that? What does that mean? So, you know, when we think about reliability and predictability equals stability, that isn't just sort of like pie in the sky.

Like there's very.

clear opportunities for us to be better in that and think about that across the board.

When we talk about centering family voices and systems design, sometimes this idea of families are recipients of a thing.

No, they're essential partners and they're knowledge holders who are bringing their lived context to these systems that we wouldn't ever be able to see The system can't see that on its own.

We need that context.

And so what are the ways that they're compensated, that there's permanent family advisory roles that should just be standard across all programs to ensure that there's sort of this justice-centered, people-informed systems change is happening? We know that flexibility reduces harm, that, you know, things that are being so that are so stringent that that that it creates more harm than good.