Strengthening Families

We believe that experiencing secure and supportive relationships with parents and caregivers leads to greater health and well-being for young people.

Supportive relationships with parents and caregivers are the cornerstone of healthy development for adolescents. The positive effects of a strong bond between a young person and their caregiver extend to adulthood. These healthy relationships are associated with lower levels of psychological distress and higher levels of self-esteem, happiness, and life satisfaction.

While the role of parents and caregivers certainly changes in adolescence, their significance does not. Research confirms that parents continue to have more influence on their adolescent children than peers on many important outcomes. As young people grow, parenting shifts from making decisions for the younger child to helping adolescents make decisions on their own. Supportive caregivers can also minimize the chance that young people engage in high-risk behavior.

Parenting adolescents is a unique adventure. Conflict is common as young people begin to test authority, seek more independence, and negotiate more responsibility. Many parents rate this stage of a child’s life as the most difficult stage of parenting. Adverse childhood events experienced by parents and caregivers themselves, as well as economic stress, racial or identity-based discrimination, poor mental health, and other structural barriers, can create an even more challenging parenting experience. Add to this the evolving stressors young people face today and parenting can feel incredibly overwhelming and even isolating.  

But parenting was never meant to be a solo endeavor. Parents and caregivers benefit greatly from strong social connections, opportunities to practice parenting skills, access to concrete support, and communities and systems that prioritize whole-family health and well-being.

To support parents and caregivers in developing secure and supportive relationships with their adolescent child(ren), we will fund organizations that create the conditions parents and caregivers need to:

• Strengthen family bonds and cultivate healthy parent/caregiver-adolescent relationships
• Deepen knowledge of adolescent development and parenting strategies that support young people’s health and well-being
• Develop meaningful social connections with other parents, caregivers, and advocates
• Access concrete support, especially in times of need