Mission

The mission of the Center for Work and Family is to generate high quality research and community-based programs that assist families at all socioeconomic levels with the challenges of integrating work and family life, so as to maximize family and individual well-being and worker happiness and productivity.

The Center's aim is to create and communicate:

• new knowledge about the challenges and thriving strategies for simultaneously achieving work and family goals
• community-based programs and therapy-based interventions to assist families to manage effectively work and family responsibilities so that families meet occupational, material, emotional, and relational goals

The Center is committed to the training of future generations of mental health and community program professionals in the research methods and clinical/community interventions that will equip them to create, implement, and evaluate family-focused interventions in the area of work and family.

History

The Center for Work and Family was founded in 1998. Our initial project was a collaboration with HELP USA to develop family support programs for homeless families moving from welfare to work. This project has been replicated in a shelter for families that are homeless by virtue of domestic violence, and in a project focused specifically on families with pre-teens and teens.

Dr. Fraenkel's pioneering work on time issues in couples and families formed the unique theoretical basis for the Center's research and programmatic activities. His membership on the national board of Take Back Your Time Day and frequent appearances on American and European television and in the popular press have brought widespread attention to the problems for families that come from overwork and overscheduling.

The Center expanded its focus with the addition of the Money and Family Life Project. Judy Stern Peck's innovative work on identifying the core values underlying conflicts in family businesses and questions around intergenerational transmission of wealth expanded the Center's range of offerings to the upper end of the socioeconomic spectrum. She and her team have since developed programs for public schools and, in collaboration with Dr. Fraenkel, are creating a program to be implemented in the homeless shelters to assist poor families with the challenges of money management.