Economic Security and Healthy Child Development

Audio Recording

Government safety nets were revamped in the mid-1990s to “make work pay.” But that promise remains unfulfilled for many of the nation’s 13.7 million low-income working families. These hard-pressed households are struggling to get by, too often facing impossible choices as they try to stretch their incomes to provide food, housing, health care, and more.

With new leadership vying for the White House and many statehouses, shifts in the policy landscape may be ahead in 2009. To further a thoughtful dialogue on ways to protect vulnerable households and help them thrive, the Urban Institute, with support from the Charles Stewart Mott and Annie E. Casey foundations, is publishing a series of linked essays: “A New Safety Net for Low-Income Families” (http://www.urban.org/projects/newsafetynet).

This kick-off conversation begins at the intersection of family needs and children’s development, where parents in low-wage jobs lack the time and resources to adequately fill their dual roles of worker and parent—and where work can seem like a losing proposition. In the policy world, employment and child development are often discussed separately, but a “family security” approach proposed by one essay bridges these two paramount concerns.

Panelists:

Shelley Waters Boots, senior research associate, Center on Labor, Human Services, and Population, Urban Institute


Ellen Bravo, author, Taking on the Big Boys; coordinator, Multi-State Working Families Consortium


Olivia Golden, senior fellow, Urban Institute; former assistant secretary for children and families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (moderator)


G. William Hoagland, vice president of public policy, CIGNA Corporation; former policy adviser to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist


David Wessel, economics editor, Wall Street Journal

Resources

- Speaker bios (PDF)
- Family Values at Work: It's about Time! (PDF)
- Supporting Parents' Employment and Children's Development: Summary (PDF)
- A New Safety Net for Low-Income Families (PDF)

At the Urban Institute
2100 M Street N.W., 5th Floor, Washington, D.C.

Light breakfast will be provided at 8:30 a.m. The forum begins promptly at 9:00.