Executive Summary

Families: Four Strategies For Adding Value

Donald Fraser
Mayor of the City of Minneapolis

November 1993

When families are in trouble, cities are in trouble. After the riots in Los Angeles, we heard a number of prescriptions for addressing the poverty and social disorganization that were at the root of the tragedy. But when examined carefully, few of those prescriptions would have made a difference. More money for infrastructure, more money for housing, or more money for summer jobs would not have reached the core of the problem. Even more money for full-time jobs would have limited success because many of those young people aren't ready for a full time job.

The real problem is far more fundamental. It lies in the weakened capacity of families to nurture children, to give children the strong sense of self-worth and optimism they need to become healthy, productive adults. And if that core self-confidence is missing in our young people, we cannot build the kind of community that will hold our families together in times of change and stress.

Four broad strategies will help us strengthen the community fabric that supports families: First, cities need to provide services that enable supportive relationships to flourish. This can occur at a recreation center, a library, or a school, through block clubs or neighborhood organizations, at child care facilities or neighborhood commercial centers. We need to make new arrivals in our neighborhoods feel welcome and help them locate neighborhood resources.

Second, we must continue to foster economic opportunity. A job that can support a family is fundamental to family stability. We suffer in the United States from the growing unfairness in our economic system. The decline in the availability of jobs that pay enough to support a family is most visible in the central cities but is rapidly growing in our rural areas as well.

Third, we must strengthen informal neighborhood networks. The enormous energy and variety of daily activities in neighborhoods is one of the most hopeful vital signs for a community. What goes on in a volleyball league, a chess club, a synagogue youth group, a museum, or a YMCA, is every bit as important to families as the services provided by a specialized child welfare agency.

Fourth, we must help build affirming relationships between children and caring adults. The most critical factor in the healthy development of children is the presence of a caring, committed adult in that child's life. Parents are the ideal people, of course, to provide this unqualified love and support. But it is not only the parents who provide a child with the strong influences that he or she needs to build confidence and self-esteem. Public schools have sought to involve "classroom grand-parents" in the elementary school curricula. Many companies have "adopted" a school and employees have gotten involved in the lives of the students. The Big Brother and Big Sister organizations have for years made it possible for adults to spend time every week with a young person.

When a child is blessed with a strong family which is well connected to the community, our cities and towns flourish. We must invest from the very beginning in the healthy development and functioning of families and their children, and we must enlist the help and cooperation of the entire community, including the visible participation of our business leaders.

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