Aspen Policy Acceleration Partnership Program (increasing family prosperity and well-being for student parents): An Evaluation Study

Posted by Aspen Institute on May 2, 2023

In 2021, Ascend announced six recipients of the Aspen Policy Acceleration Partnership grants, an effort to support cities, counties, and states committed to increasing family prosperity and well-being for student parents. Since then, these six public entities have worked with Ascend to increase student parent access to supports and public benefits. These partnerships aim to make sure that policies and systems lead parents to credentials and careers that provide living wages, access to opportunities for advancement, and continued learning in sectors with high growth and demand – and we’re proud to share their progress.

Ascend asked Insight Policy Research to evaluate the Acceleration grant program implementation from January to December 2022. You can read the newly released evaluation report describing important findings and key successes – from influencing policy change in existing childcare subsidies programs to prioritize student parents, to working with postsecondary systems to develop comprehensive student parent data collection plans.