Insights from parents and caregivers are driving systemic change and transforming RWJF's approach to supporting families.
Imagine what our world might look like if caregivers, however we define them—parents, grandparents, foster and adoptive parents, guardians, or anyone who has primary responsibility over any child—were prioritized in the design and delivery of our systems. A world where every family has the resources needed to raise healthy, thriving children. This is the world we all deserve—but it is not the world we have.
Our systems—like healthcare, government, community development, economic supports for families, and others—weren’t designed to prioritize the health and wellbeing of children and their families. Systemic, structural barriers to health and opportunity have been intentionally built and held in place by policies and practices that deprive too many of the opportunity to thrive, often along lines of race, gender, and class. While the problems may sometimes seem too engrained to tackle, we must remember that people created these laws and practices that shape inequitable systems, and people can yet again create more equitable systems for all our children and families.
To achieve this, we are evolving our approach to how we support children and families.
One new way we’re working is with our Family Advisory Committee (FAC). Established with the help of Advocacy and Communications Solutions, the FAC is made up of 11 caregivers from across the country with unique and diverse backgrounds who are all driving toward equity in their own ways in their communities.
The Family Advisory Committee Helps Us Reach Our Goals
Our work is committed to confronting structural racism in these systems, transforming them to work better for all families, regardless of their background. The FAC plays a pivotal role in helping us set and meet goals in service of that commitment. Members provide perspective, learning, and guidance based on their experiences as parents, caregivers, and advocates, helping us more deeply understand the real, often unnoticed barriers that families face in the tax and care systems—including how taxes are collected and revenue is distributed and how childcare is provided all over the country—and the solutions that can effectively advance inclusion and equity.
These insights have shaped our approach to economic inclusion and guide our strategies, funding, and programming to make our systems more equitable. Members of the FAC:
- Review grants alongside RWJF staff, sharing their perspective on whether work shares alignment with our long-term goals.
- Partner with program officers to foster new grantees and partnerships.
- Collaborate with our partners on specific projects, like reimagining what family-supportive tax and care systems look like, and how we can take a more equitable approach to our policy work.
- Define new ways of measuring success and progress toward the Foundation’s long-term goals.
- Inform RWJF’s internal caregiving guidelines and payment structures to ensure that people can be fairly compensated.
- Co-designed a national call for proposals to support community organizers and representative leadership at the local and state levels.
Meet the Members
FAC members have long been working to advance economic inclusion for family wellbeing, equitable and accountable public health and healthcare systems, and healthy and equitable community conditions. Their stories remind us why we do this work and why our nation must strive for better futures for all families.
Over the past year, we captured the experiences of eight FAC members. They shared personal moments of triumph and inspiration as parents and caregivers, and why working toward more equitable tax and care systems is a priority for them. Swipe through to learn more about how these leaders are informing our perspective through their own journeys:
Baisha Whitten—mother of 2 and accountant from Milwaukee—champions family needs like healthcare, childcare, and job support. Rooted in her family's history, she values intergenerational bonds and uses genealogy to reconnect with lost relatives.
Briana Jones—mother and water technician from Rochester, N.Y.—built a strong support system after the birth of her daughter. Now, Briana is growing her network, advocating for, and creating stronger support systems for other families in her community.
Charles Perry—father of 5, poet, and former Marine from Houston—promotes resilience through creativity and community. Charles uses poetry to advocate for his twin sons with autism and give voice to others facing adversity.
Corhonda Corley—mother and disabilities advocate from Zachary, La.—was called to a life of advocacy by her son, who's autistic and nonverbal. His joy keeps her fighting for the rights of people with disabilities in healthcare, education, and other systems.
Fran Gladney—biological and foster mother from St. Louis—supports children and families involved in the foster system. Since becoming guardian of her great-niece, who she’s since adopted, Fran has fostered six more children, providing care and stability.
Michaela Martin—single mother and policy manager from Irvine, Calif.—overcame the barriers of student parenthood with support from her mother. Now Michaela breaks down those barriers, advancing policies to support student parents, like Oregon Senate Bill 564.
Sharita Bingham—mother of 6 and teacher from Charlotte, N.C.—advocates for children with ADHD and mood disorders. Currently earning a PhD in Psychology, Sharita aims to establish school support groups, equitable testing centers, and faculty training programs.
Waukecha Wilkerson—single mother of 3 and CEO from Compton, Calif.—returned to college with support from her son and a local organization. Now with multiple degrees, she helps lead that same organization and founded her own business to support student parents.
Looking Toward the Future, Together
RWJF is always striving to connect more deeply with communities across the country that our grantmaking impacts. But the power dynamic between Foundation and grantee can sometimes make it tough to get authentic feedback on how we’re doing from our usual partners.
The FAC helps address this gap by ensuring that diverse family voices, represented through an array of parents and caregivers, are in dialogue with the Foundation. Without FAC member input, we risk making assumptions about what families need, what their priorities are, what excites them about the future, and how they hope to lead their communities toward more equitable outcomes.
When developing the FAC, we learned a lot from grantees, organizations like Funders for Family Leadership, and colleagues at community, regional, and other national foundations about what models would work for our organization.
We hope other organizations, funders, and nonprofits alike looking to create a FAC will feel encouraged by our experience and look to peer organizations for help in the process, as we did.
Putting our trust in the leadership of parents and caregivers has been tremendously affirming, and the FAC has become a vital part of the RWJF family. We know that the FAC is just one way for an organization like RWJF to impactfully incorporate real feedback from caregivers. As we continue to evolve, we remain committed to and excited about finding new and better ways to co-create a new social contract for children and families.
The FAC is critical to advancing economic inclusion for all families. Learn more about how else RWJF is working to achieve its generational goals and address structural racism.
About the Author
Mike White, program associate, focuses on achieving health equity inclusive of perspectives and needs from across sectors and communities.