First Focus on Children is a bipartisan advocacy organization working to center children in federal policy and budget decisions. Central to First Focus’s work is the belief that systematic efforts to promote evidence-informed policymaking are crucial to improve youth outcomes because children cannot employ political power on their own policy issues. With this award, the convenings will focus on two critical issue areas affecting youth in the United States today: 1) equitable education funding and resource allocation to align funding with student achievement, and 2) increased access to public benefits through reduced administrative burden. Both convenings will be structured as strategic policy interventions with the goal of bringing senior policymakers and decision-makers with jurisdiction over child-serving systems in conversation with leading researchers, lived experts, and advocates to promote targeted policy solutions.
This award will support two in-person convenings in Washington, D.C. designed to promote the uptake of research evidence by congressional policymakers whose decisions have wide-ranging implications for the well-being of children and families.
