PT

Organization Name: The Urban Institute

Focus Area: Adult Learners
Region: United States
Sector: Non-Profit
Investment Year: 2021
The Urban Institute is a research organization that believes decisions shaped by facts, rather than ideology have the power to improve public policy and practice, strengthen communities, and transform people’s lives for the better. The Urban Institute has strong research and technical expertise across a variety of issue areas, with 11 policy centers focusing on a range of issues, including education.

Why We Invested

Although student parent families are the same families served by many agencies and programs, in addition to postsecondary institutions, we often look at these many varied supports in siloes, separating the Department of Labor from the Department of Health and Human Services to the Department of Education. It would be more effective and efficient to approach solutions and supports for student parents holistically. The Urban Institute, in partnership with Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW), is developing a policy roadmap to support student parents’ needs. This project consists of several components, including 1) the creation of a family-based framework that identifies promising research and practice 2) the establishment of a cross-sectoral leadership council to inform this body of work, and 3) the development of a roadmap for how further research or changes in policy or practice would help student parents meet their education goals.