Advancing Family Economic Mobility in New England: A Regional Learning Community on Parent Engagement and Leadership

A Whole Family Approach to Jobs: Helping Parents Work and Children Thrive (WFAJ) is an initiative led by the Administration for Children and Families Region 1 Office. The WFAJ connects federal and state New England leaders, including parents, into a learning community, in various ways: (1) an annual convening of state teams, (2) intermittent meetings on emerging areas of interest related to economic mobility, and (3) topical learning communities on subjects of interest to the states, including parent engagement and leadership, racial equity and access, the child tax credit, and the benefits cliff effect. The learning community is designed to help cross-sector leaders in six New England states learn the ingredients to start, maintain, and succeed in embedding parent voice and leadership in their state's practices, programs, and policies. This Mathematica brief describes the activities of the WFAJ Parent Engagement and Leadership regional learning community from December 2021 through December 2023. The brief includes takeaways related to how facilitators planned and facilitated meetings, meeting attendance, how sharing and learning occurred, what participants learned and collaboration examples, and changes participants made to their agency or states' practices and programs.