The Ascend Fellowship Impact Fund

Awardee

Sustainable Leadership Initiative: Parents and Caregivers as Rising Educators

Stephanie Parra and Maria Harper-Marinick
ALL in Education

This award supports the planning and implementation of ALL In Education's Sustainable Leadership Initiative.

The initiative focuses on two key elements of a healthy community – educational and economic opportunity. Rooted in work championed by Ascend at the Aspen Institute, the Initiative takes a two-generational (2Gen) approach to integrate services and supports that are designed to offer parents and caregivers from low socioeconomic backgrounds opportunities for economic advancement through alternative career pathways and professional development in education.

This effort will be boosted by a partnership with Aspen College Excellence Program Senior Fellow and 2015 Ascend Fellow Dr. Maria Harper-Marinick, who will provide strategic guidance on how AlE can leverage post-secondary partnerships to develop micro-credential pathways for parents, ultimately allowing them to earn certifications and degrees as a long-term goal of the initiative.

Awardee

The Story of Convergence Partnership

Amanda Navarro
Convergence Partnership

Convergence Partnership will build on their initial narrative and storytelling efforts, including place-based narrative audits, funder trainings, podcast production, and the development and release of the seminal report, Funding Narrative Change: As Assessment and Framework by Convergence Partnership. This effort will provide greater visibility to Convergence Partnership as a long-standing field leader in funding and supporting efforts to build civic, narrative and economic power in pursuit of racial justice and health equity.

Convergence Partnership will advance the following activities during this grant period:

• Produce and disseminate a case study report that builds on the 2022 Funding Narrative Change report and amplifies community narrative power-building stories.
• Develop and disseminate summative knowledge products (e.g., edited volume, blogs, peer journal articles) that offer key learnings, accomplishments and reflections from the Partnership's 18-year-old history.

Awardee

Health and Power Organizing Project

India Ornelas
University of Washington

This award supports the continued convening of the Health and Power Organizing Project (HPOP), allowing members to build strong relationships, develop a shared analysis of power within academic population health, and equip ourselves with the skills needed for community organizing.

The series of conversations with community organizers aims to identify ways in which scholars can contribute to social justice and health equity movements. They will also examine issues related to family health and well-being that can benefit from 2Gen and community organizing approaches (e.g. birth equity, child care, early childhood learning, family food and housing security).

Awardee

Everyone’s Campaign: The Fight for True Access to Affordable Mental Health Care

Catherine Monk and Atiya Weiss
Columbia University and The Burke Foundation

Everyone’s Campaign seeks to respectfully disrupt the ossified mental health care system by influencing policy, systems, and practice related to accessing affordable, insurance-based mental health treatment, with a focus on the perinatal period given the 2Gen impact for this population and associated potential for persuasive messaging.

Impact Fund resources will sponsor a cross-sector, non-partisan convening with a World Café agenda — circulating attendees in small groups to consider challenges and tackle system barriers.

Among the goals of the project are to debunk myths — that the problem is simply a workforce shortage, — and directly engage representatives from insurance companies, policy, government officials, think tanks, clinicians, and patients in identifying the specific financial and administrative road blocks and devising concrete steps towards solutions.

Awardee

Erica Phillips

National Association for Family Child Care

This award supports a unique global learning project organized by NAFCC. The goal is to convene and learn from innovative provider-centered associations, organizations, and initiatives elevating home-based child care worldwide. Through this project and the resulting convening, NAFCC plans to identify how leading organizations in up to five countries empower women and caregivers to operate safe and nurturing early learning programs from their homes.

Ultimately, this funding supports the empowerment of home-based child care leaders in NAFCC’s community by sharing best practices from around the world and fostering connections.

Awardees

Canal Promise Neighborhood Plan

Richard Raya
Marin Promise Partnership

The funds will be used to launch a cradle-to-career, collective impact planning process in the most segregated Latino community in the San Francisco Bay Area - the Canal District in the city of San Rafael. The proposed planning process will create a holistic vision for the Canal District that includes academic excellence, family support systems, and a neighborhood economic development plan.

Marin Promise Partnership (MPP) partnered with the Marin Community Foundation, County of Marin, City of San Rafael, San Rafael City Schools, and a network of CBOs to launch this 6-12 month planning initiative in January 2025. This initiative is called the Canal Promise Neighborhood Plan, and represents MPP's next step in scaling place-based collective impact across the county, the focal point of its current strategic plan.

Awardee

Mapping the Priorities of Native LGBTQ+ and Two-Spirit Relatives

Cary Waubanascum
University of North Dakota, Dept. of Indigenous Health

Cary Waubanascum Hawpetoss and Tahatunhahelahawi Rayan Arnold propose a qualitative study to explore the health priorities, needs, perceived supports, and policy recommendations of Native LGBTQ+ and/or Two Spirit' individuals.

This study will engage ten (10) Native LGBTQ+ and/or Two-Spirit individuals, guided by the following broad research questions:

• What are the health priorities and needs of Native LGBTQ+ and/or Two-Spirit individuals?
• How do Native LGBTQ+ and/or Two-Spirit individuals perceive the support they receive from their families, communities, systems, policies?
• What supports work? What supports are needed?
  What are policy recommendations at local, tribal, state and/or federal levels?

This funding will support dissemination of research results through a written executive report detailing the findings from participants and presentations tailored to tribal communities and other audiences, including academic and professional conferences, and policymakers.