Family Formation and Community Connections:

• What are the trends in marriage and childbearing over time, across different regions, and for different subgroups of the populations?
• What are the developmental processes affecting marriage, childbearing and child rearing?
• How the processes of family formation vary by race, ethnicity, and socio-economic status.
• What are the community influences on family formation?
  

What is a Community? Definitions, Concepts, and Assumptions about Families and Communities as Complex Systems:

• How are families and communities are changing?
• What are the major forces exerting changes on families and communities?
• How does that impact our definitions of family and community?
• Why do individuals, families, communities, and environment need to be understood as part of a dynamic and integrated system?
• How do individuals, families, and communities influence each other? What would policy and social programs that promote positive individual, family, and community growth and change?
  

Early Childhood Development:

• Why is brain development in the first five years of life so critical?
• What is the systems perspective on understanding child development?
• What roles do relationships and the family system play in promoting development? Community? the larger society?
• Are early childhood interventions cost effective? What are optimal parenting environments that support family development?
• What do attachment studies teach us?
• Who are a child’s significant others? (mothers and fathers, grandparents, childcare providers, and other caring adults in neighborhoods, schools, parks, libraries, family resource programs, and faith communities). What else?
  

Education & Learning
Schools as are a major force source of social reform our in society and can serve as a hub in of community change. While much school reform has focused on improving curriculum management and accountability, there is a growing recognition of the importance of expanding school reform to address barriers to learning--health, family and social problems that impede student achievement.

• What happens in school?
• How do families and the schools affect each other? The community and schools?
• What is the role of schools in promoting healthy development (resilience and protective factors)?
• The role of promoting lifelong learning? building learning communities that transcend the school? Why are school programs so critical today?
  

Youth Development.

• What are the differences between prevention versus promotion as potential intervention strategies?
• What are the influences of communities and families on youth development?
• What can community-based initiatives (e.g., community youth charters, community charting of developmental assets for youth) do to enhance the ability of families?
• What are the characteristics of effective youth programs versus programs that have been shown through evaluation research not to be effective?
  

Monday
Oct. 13

Families and Seniors: Across the Generations

• The United States is in the midst of a demographic revolution that will dramatically alter our national character. Why?
• What is the graying of America? Who are today’s old?
• What approaches are needed to the “graying of America”?
• A key task of successful family-centered community building is the discovery of meaningful relationships with people of all ages and viewing children and seniors as both agents and beneficiaries of development. How can that be accomplished?
  

Balancing Work and Families: What Role Does the Community Play?

• What are recent trends in work and family life?
• How are popular conceptions of work and family life changing?
• How does the increase in work/family conflict affects: children, parents, employees, employers and the community.
• How can we transform community values and practices to make it easier for workers to balance their responsibilities to their employers and their families?
  

Adult, Social, Civic and Faith-based Networks

• What are "social capital": social networks, norms of reciprocity, and civic engagement?
• What are trends in social capital (or social connectivity) in American communities over the 20th century and especially over the last 30 years?
• What are explanations for the decline in social connectedness in recent years? (role of work, urban sprawl, two-career families, TV, immigration, generational change, the Internet).
• What are consequences of reduced social capital for youth and children, education, crime, community and personal health and democracy?
• How we might go about revitalizing community life in America today?
  

Health and Wellness

• The health of individuals includes their physical, psychological and social development and well-being.
• What is the state of health care in America?
• How does health and health care vary by SES? race-ethnicity? region? education? etc.?
• What policy changes would be helpful?
  

Housing and Transportation

• What are the connections between family circumstances, housing need and affordability, the availability of transportation options, and employment?
• How have Federal Government, law and public policy -- including tax policy - influenced transportation choices, the housing market, and housing affordability?
• How does our dependence on the automobile influence the livability of cities and regions, housing, traffic, mobility, and job opportunity?
• What are the roles and effectiveness of public housing and public transportation?
• Why is housing affordability continues to be a serious issue for many of the nation's families, and what some communities are doing to address this issue?
• How do current transportation and housing patterns and systems - along with race and class - affect low-income residents and families?
• How can the design of housing and transportation systems can facilitate energy conservation, reduce costs and expenses for families, and improve quality of life?
• What community-based initiatives have addressed housing and transportation issues in innovative ways?
• Exploring future policy options for more effectively meeting the housing needs of families with special needs.