Pathways to Postsecondary Success for Pregnant and Parenting Teens

Hosted by the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR)

Student Parent Success Initiative (SPSI)

Friday, April 12, 2013 1:00—2:15 p.m. E.T.

For too many teen parents, parenthood marks the end of their high school careers as well as any aspirations these young parents may have harbored for attending college. Many programs do exist to support pregnant and parenting teens in completing high school, but fewer focus intensively on college preparation. This webinar will highlight findings from a forthcoming IWPR report on teen parent programs that actively promote transitions to college in addition to high school graduation. The panel will feature the perspectives of leaders from three of the promising approaches highlighted in the report and leading advocates for teen parents and the programs working to assist them.

Speakers:

• Cindy Costello, Ph.D., author of upcoming IWPR Pathways paper
• Pat Paluzzi, President /CEO, Healthy Teen Network
• Susan Carparelli, President and CEO, Florence Crittenton
  Services of Colorado, Denver, CO
• Andrea DeSantis, New Heights Program Manager, Washington, DC
• Anne Teschner, Director, The Care Center, Holyoke, MA
• Moderator: Tiffany Boiman, Senior Outreach and Policy Analyst, IWPR

Topics will include:

• Highlights and key findings from IWPR’s forthcoming report on pathways to postsecondary success for pregnant and parenting teens.
• An overview of policies and programs that support efforts to help pregnant and parenting teens complete high school and pursue college careers.
• Testimonials and expertise of program officials representing three distinct program models that encourage both high school completion and college attendance for teen parents.
  
  

Participants will have the opportunity to submit questions and comments to presenters.

You must be registered to access the event. Register online!

Read news and updates on student parent programs and research in our monthly SPSI Newsletter.

Click here to view the webinar.

Financing Child Care for College Students with Children:

Opportunities to Support Two Generations of Learners

Hosted by the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR)

Student Parent Success Initiative (SPSI)

Friday, November 30, 2012, 1:00-2:15 p.m. E.T.

Speakers:

• Anne Mitchell, President, Early Childhood Policy Research , co-founder, Alliance for Early Childhood Finance, and former President, National Association for the Education of Young Children.
• Todd Boressoff, Toolkit author, and President, Boressoff Early Childhood Consultancies
• Christine Johnson-Staub, Senior Policy Analyst, Center for Law and Social Policy
• Lynn Edlefson, Director, University of Wisconsin Office of Child Care and Family 
  Resources and Board Treasurer, National Coalition for Campus Children's Centers
• Moderator: Tiffany Boiman, Senior Outreach and Policy Analyst, IWPR

Access to high-quality early care and education (ECE) can have critical multi-generational benefits. It improves children's social and cognitive outcomes and enhances parents' ability to fulfill their educational and career ambitions, and provide economic security for their families. College students with children are often single parents, and are more likely than other students to be first generation college students and to have low-incomes. The stakes are high for these students and the families they support.

This webinar highlighted a variety of federal, state, and local funding sources that can, and have been, harnessed to launch and maintain child care resources for college students. It shared findings from a toolkit on financing child care for students with children, by IWPR and the National Coalition of Campus Children's Centers.

Topics included:

• The role of early childhood education in student parent success, and how it might be better integrated into postsecondary education systems.
• Real-world examples of federal, state, and local funding sources that have been used to fund child care for student parents; and
• Perspectives on fundraising from campus early care and education professionals.

Eastern Michigan University Keys to Degrees Single Parent Program
Promoting Student Parent Success in Higher Education
Student Parents and Postsecondary Success— Research, Policy, and Practices

About the theme:

The past few years have been challenging for our country, our colleges, universities, colleagues, and many of our work-life programs.  This conference focuses on current times with optimism for the future of work/life.  Conference workshops will explore the current status of workforce initiatives, highlights research trends to help propel us into the future with effective strategies, and more clearly define our vision as we consider fundamental change, new partnerships, and best practices in tough times.

Registration:

Registration is closed. For more information about fees, go to the Conference Registration page. Registration fees include all meals and snacks.

Keynote speakers:

Arlie Russell Hochschild, UC Berkeley Professor of Sociology and author of The Outsourced Self: Intimate Lives in Market Times

and

Sharon Lerner, Journalist, Senior Fellow, Demos, and author of The War on Moms: On Life in a Family-Unfriendly Nation.

Webinar Materials/Presentations
Recorded Webinar 
Slideshow/Powerpoint

Please join us for a webinar!

Federal Supports for Low-Income Student Parents:

Spotlight on the Pregnancy Assistance Fund

Hosted by the Institute for Women's Policy Research's
Student Parent Success Initiative (SPSI)

Wednesday, July 25, 2012, 2:00-3:15 p.m. E.T.

Register online (no cost)!

Too often the birth of a child brings an end to a young mother's education or leads those around her to give up on her prospects for college.

This webinar will feature a federal initiative, the Pregnancy Assistance Fund, that provides resources to help pregnant and parenting adolescents and young adults attain high school or college education. The webinar will focus on early program lessons and strategies used by grantees who work to encourage and support college education among young parents.

Join the conversation on Twitter! The Department of Health and Human Services (@hhsgov) and IWPR (@IWPResearch) will be live tweeting this event using the hashtag #PAFChat.

Speakers:

• Evelyn Kappeler, Acting Director, Office of Adolescent Health, 
  U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• Susan Warfield, Program Director, the Student Parent HELP Center, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
• Jaimie Edwards-Caleb, Pregnancy Assistance Fund Grant Coordinator, Virginia Department of Health
• Stephanie Davis, Director of the Office of Pregnant and Parenting Student Support (OPPSS), Southwest Virginia Community College
• Tiffany Boiman, Senior Outreach and Policy Associate, IWPR (Moderator)

Topics include:

• An overview of the Pregnancy Assistance Fund, its mission, scope and funding;
• How states take leadership in program design, administering, scaling up, and replicating local initiatives; and
• Perspectives from local program administrators regarding benefits, challenges and implementation experiences.

Participants will have the opportunity to submit questions and comments to be addressed by presenters near the end of the event.

You must be registered to access the event. Register online!

Increasing Opportunities for Low-Income Women and Student Parents in STEM at Community Colleges

Expanded access to STEM careers has the potential to improve the well-being of low-income families specifically, while also generally strengthening U.S. competitiveness. However, women have traditionally been underrepresented in STEM careers and collegiate programs of study, a pattern replicated on community college campuses, as well. The presenters examine trends in women's pursuit of STEM degrees and certificates at community colleges, as well as promising institutional approaches designed to encourage better access, persistence, and completion rates in sub-baccalaureate STEM programs for women in general and student parents in particular.

Tiffany Boiman, Senior Outreach and Policy Associate, Institute for Women's Policy Research, DC; Mimi Lufkin, Chief Executive Officer, National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity, PA

Increasing Opportunities

for Low-Income Women and Student Parents

In Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM)

at Community Colleges

The Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR)

Speakers :

• Sara Manzano-Díaz, Director, Women's Bureau, United States Department of Labor
• Roberto J. Rodriguez,  Special Assistant to President Barack Obama for White House Education Policy
• Cynthia Costello, Ph.D., Director, Costello Consulting and the author of the report
• Karen Wosczyna-Birch, Ph.D., Executive Director, Regional Center for Next Generation Manufacturing (RCNGM), Connecticut Community Colleges
• A student parent enrolled in RCNGM program
• Pamela Brown, Ph.D., Program Director, Division of Undergraduate Education, National Science Foundation

Moderator:

• Barbara Gault, Ph.D., Vice President and Executive Director, The Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR)

As the nation seeks to expand access to high-quality, postsecondary degrees through our community colleges, we must innovate to expand women's access to careers in STEM fields, where their representation remains stubbornly low.

IWPR shared findings from our new report, Increasing Opportunities for Low-Income Women and Student Parents in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math at Community Colleges, which examines trends in women's pursuit of STEM degrees and certificates at the community college level, highlighted a variety of promising approaches at community colleges around the nation, and articulated a set of policy and program recommendations for improving women's access to and completion of STEM degrees and certificates. The panel also discussed student experiences, current policy initiatives, labor market demand for women in STEM occupations, and the steps being taken to increase the proportion of low-income women and student parents in STEM programs.

Click here to view the webinar.

Please join us for a webinar!

Online Learning and Student Parents:

Benefits, Challenges and Future Directions

Hosted by IWPR’s Student Parent Success Initiative (SPSI)

Monday, February 27, 2:00-3:15 p.m. E.T.

This webinar, hosted by IWPR’s Student Parent Success Initiative, highlights findings from analysis conducted by Wider Opportunities for Women and the Institute for Women’s Policy Research that addresses online learning, primarily at community colleges, as a vehicle for promoting engagement, retention, and college completion among students with children.

Topics include:

●      Who are student-parents, and what are their challenges?  Speakers will discuss research on the prevalence of college students with children, and why and how online learning can help address their needs.

●      The history of online learning at community colleges;

●      Examples of how programs  use technology and online learning to deliver classes to student parents in ways that allow better integration with work and family obligations, including hybrid models of instruction, classes with multiple exits and entrances, and supports that facilitate success in an online environment; and

●      Administrator perspectives on the key elements, benefits and challenges related to online program implementation and operation.

Listeners will have the opportunity to submit questions and comments to be addressed by presenters near the end of the event.

Speakers include:

●      Kevin Miller, Ph.D., Senior Research Associate, IWPR

●      Mary Gatta, Ph.D., Senior Scholar, Wider Opportunities for Women

●      Frank Mayadas, Ph.D., Senior Advisor, Sloan Foundation

●      Alexandra Pickett, Associate Director, SUNY Learning Network

You must be registered to access the event.  Register online!

Also, view photos from the event.

What's Missing in Child Care and Early Education in America

Participants

Introduction
Lisa Guernsey
Director, Early Education Initiative
New America Foundation

Featured Speakers
Joan Lombardi, Ph.D.
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary and Inter-Departmental Liaison for Early Childhood Development, Administration for Children and Families
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Barbara Gault, Ph.D.
Executive Director and Vice President
Institute for Women’s Policy Research

Eric Karolak, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Early Care and Education Consortium

Danielle Ewen
Director of Child Care and Early Education
CLASP

Moderator
David Gray
Director, Workforce and Family Program
New America Foundation

Link to full webinar.

Link to slideshow.

Join us for a webinar.

Closing the Financial Gap for Low-Income Student Parents:

The Benefits of Integrated Service Delivery on
Community College Campuses

This event is hosted by IWPR's Student Parent Success Initiative, and co-sponsored by CLASP and Single Stop USA.

On June 23, SPSI presented on the needs of student parents along with Women Employed (Chicago, Illinois) at the Student Parent Success Symposium, hosted by Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. Topics included child care, financial aid, examples of promising programs, and the need to bundle services and information so that parents can more easily access the resources they need to succeed in college.

Space is limited, so please RSVP online.

Registration will close on March 21, 2011.

Please join the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) for a special event to discuss the role of child care in promoting higher education among low-income parents. The discussion will include a presentation of findings from IWPR's new report Improving Child Care Access to Promote Postsecondary Success among Low-Income Parentsand will address policy and program interventions intended to improve child care access, as well as the challenges faced by student parents attempting to improve their credentials.

Distinguished experts will include:

Keynote Speaker: Joan Lombardi, Ph.D., Deputy Assistant Secretary and Inter-Departmental Liaison for Early Childhood Development, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Sherrill Mosee, President and founder of Family Care Solutions, Inc., Philadelphia, and President of the Higher Education Alliance of Advocates for Students with Children

Todd Boressoff, President of Early Childhood Consultancies and former policy chair of the National Coalition of Campus Child Care Centers

Kevin Miller, Ph.D., IWPR Senior Research Associate and report author

This event is a part of IWPR's Student Parent Success Initiative. With the increased emphasis on ensuring a prepared workforce, as well as the prospect of significant cuts in key federal funding streams, the time is ripe for a dynamic discussion about the critical role played by child care access for the four million student parents pursuing postsecondary education in the United States.

Sponsored by the National Coalition for Literacy and the Institute for Women's Policy Research, this forum will highlight the impact of literacy on low-income women. The event will be held in the historic Charles Sumner School, at the corner of 17th and M Streets, NW, one of the first schools for black students in the District of Columbia. 

"Women's Education and Economic Opportunity: The Role of Literacy" takes a broad view of literacy issues and will bring together expert researchers, practitioners, advocacy organizations, and policymakers from Congress and federal agencies to explore potential near-term policy developments, and suggest directions for future research, policy, and advocacy work. Panel discussions will focus on some of the key factors that influence literacy levels for low-income women, including:

- Postsecondary transition, persistence, and success;

- Economic equity, workforce development, poverty, and TANF; and,

- Minority women, immigrant integration, and language proficiency.