Family Re-Union 2: Reinventing Family Policy

FAMILY RE-UNION 2:
REINVENTING FAMILY POLICY
July 30, 1993

Adopting the perspective of the first Family Re-Union, Vice President and Mrs. Gore and representatives of federal, state and local government held a day-long series of roundtables. Their goals were to consciously listen to families and consider how programs and policies would work if they officially used a family-focused approach. They discussed how government would measure and reward success if the strength of the whole family were the goal and how policies would have to change as a result. Participants identified specific strategies for changing programs and policies so they would be driven by the needs of families not bureaucracies. Results included:

• A federal, state and local government effort known as "Partnerships for Stronger Families" which matched federal flexibility in funding with local priorities and local accountability for results. These partnerships provided greater government flexibility for the Indiana Step-Ahead Councils and the Oregon Option .
• At Vice President Gore's request, senior officials of the Departments of Health and Human Services, Education, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, Labor and Agriculture met to determine how this work applied to their agencies.
• Family-focused principles were used to design the application process for the Community Empowerment initiative, led by Vice President Gore, where local communities could define their own goals and strategies.