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Family Re-Union 10: Back to the Future |
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FAMILY RE-UNION 10: BACK TO THE FUTURE
ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND NEXT STEPS
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
November 19, 2001
(615)322-5638
We are proud to celebrate the tenth anniversary of this remarkable effort to advance policies and practices that strengthen our families. Join a remarkable group of academic experts and experienced practitioners, government, business and foundation leaders and inspiring family members to continue this great tradition.
Family Re-Union 10 will bring together leaders in the fields addressed by previous conferences and those who are engaged in trail-blazing activities in these fields. Participants from previous years have been anxious to discuss progress in their fields, frustrations they have faced, and to create a vision for future activities, new voices are waiting to be heard and new research and understanding needs to be shared. Despite the wide diversity of topics addressed there are many issues that they hold in common. Participants will be able to explore these across various disciplines, geographic and cultural differences, and many different program and funding strategies.
The ten working group sessions are designed to be very interactive and to produce serious and thoughtful recommendations for the future. Although divided by topic, the groups will examine cross-cutting issues and will each address the following questions:
- What is the impact of this issue on famlies?
How does it affect the development and well-being of children?
- How has this issue changed since the conference on this topic?
What some key accomplishments? Disappointments?
- What are the next steps and new approaches that we should take as we address this issue?
How should we address replication, expansion, research and evaluation?
- Who are the stakeholders that are responsible to take these actions?
What is the role of state and local government, philanthropy and academia? How should they work together?
- Who in this group will take action toward future progress in the field?
Who will agree to report the results?
Foundation leaders, state and local government officials, non-profit administrators, and academic experts will join local leaders with grassroots experience at the Family Re-Union 10 conference site in Nashville. Through the satellite broadcast, citizens are able to participate in Community Conversations at down-link sites around the country. This conference is designed to lead to new research, policy and program initiatives in state and local government, academia and the philanthropic community. Exemplary models and best practices will be implemented with local variations, and policy makers will learn how to adapt to new realities and remove barriers to family and community strength.
Some of the principles that have guided every conference since 1992 will guide the participants. These include a belief that each issue must be examined as it affects all generations of a family, the power of interdisciplinary approaches, the importance of flexible policy that encourages teamwork and creativity, and support and respect for the complex systems that each family and community represent.