Postsecondary Success for Parents Initiative
Ascend at the Aspen Institute’s Postsecondary Success for Parents (PSP) initiative raises awareness of and shares recommendations to better support the one in five students enrolled in college who are parents. We work with systems, institutions, and students who are parents to ensure families have access to the resources necessary to achieve their educational goals, ultimately advancing their family’s economic mobility and well-being.
ABOUT THE POSTSECONDARY SUCCESS FOR PARENTS INITIATIVE
This initiative is guided by Ascend’s comprehensive two-generation (2Gen) approaches that build family well-being by intentionally and simultaneously working with children and the adults in their lives together.
Since 2018, the Postsecondary Success for Parents (PSP) initiative has been a key driver in building a student parent movement — an expansive, nationally-coordinated effort to advance the development of innovative solutions that provide greater postsecondary access, affordability, and success for parents. We focus on the more than four million student parents enrolled in postsecondary pathways – a group that should inform and strengthen higher education’s equity agenda.
Our Community
To make postsecondary systems more accessible to student parents, Ascend taps into the power of partnership to build a sphere of influential champions that affect positive change for parenting students.
The Ascend Parent Advisors are a group of parents who understand first-hand how to improve policies and programs for student parents. Their lived experiences inform Ascend’s strategies and affect our advocacy around systems change.
Today, more than one in five college students in the US are parents. Our ‘1 in 5’ podcast vividly profiles students who are parents pursuing their education while raising a family and working. Throughout the series, student parents share their journeys raising a family, working, and navigating challenges while pursuing a postsecondary degree. These experiences of students who are parents should not be unfamiliar or unheard, especially on college campuses.
In 2020, Ascend established the Postsecondary Leadership Circle, a group of 20 college and university leaders who advise the Postsecondary Success for Parents (PSP) Initiative. Members of the Leadership Circle are spearheading innovative practices and family-friendly strategies on their campuses that advance postsecondary pathways for student parents across the country. This Playbook showcases Leadership Circle members’ successes and lessons learned in implementing their action plans to support student parents on campus in order to highlight potential paths forward for other institutions.
PSP Initiative’s Change Strategies
Black and Native Family Futures Fund
Ascend at the Aspen Institute’s Black and Native Family Futures Fund is a new capacity-building fund that will provide financial support and expert technical assistance to selected Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) campuses that are committed to improving the success of their student parents.
Policy Acceleration Partnerships
Ascend at the Aspen Institute’s Policy Acceleration Partnerships is an effort by six public entities representing various cities, counties, and states as strategic partners and field innovators to increase economic mobility and well-being for students who are parents.
Postsecondary Leadership Circle Activation Fund
Ascend at the Aspen Institute’s Postsecondary Leadership Circle Activation Fund is a capacity-building fund that will provide financial support, technical assistance, and a community of practice to accelerate student parent success, with a special focus on single mothers, at four community colleges across the country.
Parent-Powered Solutions Fund
Ascend at the Aspen Institute’s Parent-Powered Solutions Fund is the first student parent-led fund dedicated to advancing the work of organizations and initiatives that support student parents’ postsecondary success.
The inaugural awardees, selected by Ascend Parent Advisors in 2020, included six organizations. The 2023 iteration of the fund will similarly provide financial resources to organizations and institutions supporting parents in completing postsecondary programs, including workforce development, career and technical education, and baccalaureate degree programs.
PSP Initiative’s Publications
Thank you to our philanthropic partners
We sincerely appreciate the generosity and partnership of ECMC Foundation, Imaginable Futures, the Liz Blake Giving Fund, the Lumina Foundation, and Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies for their ongoing support of and contributions to the Postsecondary Success for Parents initiative.
Contact the Postsecondary Success for Parents Team
To learn more about ways you can support student parent success, please contact our Senior Program Manager, Jennifer Pocai, at ascendpsp@aspeninstitute.org.
For press or media inquiries related to Postsecondary Success partners or products, please contact our Communications Officer, Kathy Lugo (katherine.lugo@aspeninstitute.org).
Stories from Postsecondary Success for Parents
On the Rise Series: Harnessing Your Advocacy
ASCEND ANNOUNCES SIX 2023-24 PARENT-POWERED SOLUTIONS FUND PARTNERS
