Chris King and Cynthia Juniper attend launch of 2Gen Vision for Austin initiative

Ray Marshall Center staff, including Ascend 2-Generation Fellow Dr. Chris King and Cynthia Juniper, have been engaged in research on 2-Gen antipoverty efforts for more than a decade.  The work began with program design efforts for the Community Action Program of Tulsa County with colleagues at Harvard to provide low-income parents and children simultaneously with high-quality human capital and related services.  CareerAdvance® was piloted in 2009-2010 with support from the George Kaiser Family Foundation before securing 10-years of funding from USHHS’s Health Professions Opportunity Grant (HPOG) program.  The evaluation of CareerAdvance® continues through 2020 with colleagues at Northwestern, NYU, Columbia and Oklahoma State University.

In 2015, King and UT emeritus professor Aletha Huston convened a group of thought leaders and funders from the community, including United Way for Greater Austin (UWGA), to craft a 2-Gen Vision for Austin.  United Way subsequently stepped up to become the “backbone” organization for a 2-Gen collective impact initiative for Austin that has received generous support from the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation for an intensive strategic planning process that culminated in the release of the Family Opportunity Roadmap: Austin/Travis County 2-Generation Strategic Plan, 2019-2023 in mid-December.  King and Juniper were among other leaders of the initiative at the launch of the community-wide strategic plan on December 13th in Austin.  To view video from the event, see the UWGA’s YouTube Page.  To view photos from the event, see their Flikr Stream.