Support for Agape Child & Family Services’ 2Gen Model

Agape Child & Family Services is a faith-based organization dedicated to serving individuals and families experiencing poverty and improving communities in the Memphis, Tennessee, area. 2Gen is its place-based, two-generation program model comprised of different initiatives that support individuals and whole families. These initiatives provide case management and wraparound services focused on early childhood development, spiritual and emotional wellbeing, youth in schools, postsecondary and workforce pathways for adults, housing stability, and increased social capital and economic assets. 

Mathematica first partnered with Agape to document 2Gen’s implementation and the experiences of the families who were being served. This component included a survey of Agape’s Families in Transition initiative, focused on providing housing support to families fleeing domestic violence. A second component focused on integrating research, evaluation, equity principles, and capacity building to strengthen services for two of 2Gen’s initiatives: Stars (youth mentoring) and TeamWorks (workforce development). For this effort, funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation (Casey), Mathematica, Casey, and Agape partnered to use the Learn, Innovate, Improve (LI2) framework to build staff’s capacity to meet families’ needs during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. To advance capacity building, Mathematica trained Agape staff to lead program change using LI2. Mathematica will create and disseminate products that share lessons about (1) helping practitioners improve services in a way that is equitable and inclusive and (2) fostering cross-sector partnerships that can support equity-infused program improvement.