Society benefits when all children and families have access to opportunity. Our Children, Youth, & Families program funds work in Greater Philadelphia to promote a better early care and education system, more effective and equitable public education policies, and the coordination of quality development opportunities for older youth. Our grantmaking focuses largely on critical transitions in the lives of children as they progress from birth, through early childhood, and into young adulthood.
Our approach is designed to effectsystems and policy change in each of the program’s funding areas. The linked essay provides an overview of the Foundation’s view of systems change. In the CYF program, systems change means several things:
We fund innovative pilot programs when there is a good chance that public systems -- such as state or municipal governments -- will commit to adopting a successful initiative.
We fund research and the development of quality data when it will support changes in policy or practice.
We provide technical assistance and capacity building support to organizations we view as critical to creating policy and systems change.
In all cases, we strive to promote stronger coordination among the public systems that impact the lives of children.
