Background of Family Re-Union

Family Re-Union is a series of annual conferences moderated by former Vice President Al Gore and Tipper Gore that bring together families, and those who work with them, to discuss and design better ways to strengthen family life in America. At the core of Family Re-Union is the belief that programs and policies should respond to the needs and strengths of families and communities not to the demands of government bureaucracy. For the past eleven years, Family Re-Union has explored a different topic of critical importance to families. In a year-long planning process, dozens of local and national experts share their experience with the Vice President, Mrs. Gore, government leaders, and conference sponsors and planners. The conference design grows from and highlights many of these discussions, leading to the new insights, public and private commitments, and ultimate results of each Family Re-Union.

The conferences are currently sponsored by Vanderbilt University's Child and Family Policy Center and The Applied Developmental Science Institute of the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University. Funded by charitable foundations and individual donors, they provide a lively exchange of ideas among national experts, grassroots program directors, academic researchers, and average citizens. The conference site is Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Family Re-Union includes plenary sessions, roundtable discussions, and independent films presenting video clips on the topic through the eyes of children and of the media, In recent years, President and Mrs. Clinton have also participated in the conference.

Family Re-Union is a dynamic and on-going policy development process that changes the way issues are perceived as each year's topic is explored. Countless local programs, policies and new partnerships have been inspired by Family Re-Union. See individual conferences for summaries that describe just some of the results.