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 The Children, Youth and Family Consortium (CYFC) works to improve the lives of children, youth and families by supporting and creating new knowledge and encouraging the use of evidence-based knowledge in public and private policy development and family related professions. We do this by:
Educating policymakers on issues affecting children, youth and families, and encouraging them to use research to inform policy decisions.
Convening and supporting multi-disciplinary community and university partnerships to design and conduct research relevant to the issues and needs of children, youth and families.
Conducting research on issues that are timely and relevant to Minnesota's children, youth families.
Connecting community members and University faculty/staff to inform and translate research.
Supporting the work of University faculty by translating and disseminating research.
Convening multi-disciplinary community and university groups to network, share ideas/information, and build relationships.
CYFC’s core work is directed by a set of perspectives and guiding principles.
Perspectives
Interdisciplinary
Children, youth, families and the communities in which they live are multi-dimensional. Their strengths as well as the problems they encounter are not the purview of a single discipline. Complex problems require solutions that integrate the best of multiple areas of inquiry and diverse ways of knowing in order to be successful.
Complex
The well-being of children, youth and families is shaped, at least in part, by the reciprocal influence of multiple systems and environments in which the individuals live and interact, as illustrated by CYFC’s Circles of Influence model. These include the social environment, made up of family, neighborhood, workplace, schools, community, religious institutions, policy, law, media, society, culture, and more. It also includes the natural and designed environments.
Developmental
Development occurs at every stage of life with each developmental stage influencing the next. All individuals go through processes of change throughout their lives that have lasting effects on their well-being. Over time, the interaction of innate or biological factors (such as maturation) and environmental factors shape an individual’s life course.
Guiding Principles
Mission-oriented
CYFC aligns its work with the threefold land grant mission of the University of Minnesota – teaching, research and outreach - by modeling and encouraging the adoption of public engagement methods and principles in the implementation of research and teaching.
Collaborative
CYFC partners with stakeholders in reciprocal relationships, characterized by reciprocity, respect, trust, authenticity, communication and commitment, to insure mutual benefit and accountability.
Diverse
CYFC embraces and respects the various experiences, perspectives, knowledge and values that come from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, cultures, ethnicities, world views, faith systems, sexual orientations, physical and mental capacities, and stages of life.
Nonpartisan
CYFC contributes balanced, evidence-based information to policy conversations. CYFC’s work, including policy work, is grounded in research. We are non-partisan and support no specific political position, party, or ideology.
Strengths and Assets Based
CYFC identifies and highlights the assets and strengths of children, youth, families and communities and builds on them to develop solutions and strategies to address needs and problems.
Balanced
CYFC works proactively to raise awareness, provide frameworks for understanding, generate new ideas and create novel strategies regarding issues of importance to children, youth and families in Minnesota. CYFC also responds to the needs and requests of University and community constituencies to assure that its work is timely and relevant.
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