Family Impact Seminar

The Family Impact Seminar convenes policymakers and their aides to discuss pressing policy issues and how they impact families.

About the Seminar

The Wisconsin Family Impact Seminar (FIS) is a component of the La Follette School’s policymaker outreach program. Established at UW-Madison in 1992, FIS was designed to provide state legislators and program administrators with nonpartisan, research-based information on family issues. Our Family Impact Seminar is affiliated with the national Family Impact Institute, with the goal of better connecting research and policy, and to promote a family impact and racial equity lens in policymaking. According to the institute, 25 states and the District of Columbia are part of the FIS network.

The Family Impact Seminar takes the form of a series of seminars, discussion sessions, and/or briefing reports, and is based on an issue relevant to a bipartisan group of state legislators (Advisory Board). Researchers/presenters then apply the family impact lens to the issue with attention to whether policies have impacts on families.

J. Michael Collins speaks to an audience at the capitol.
Professor J. Michael Collins speaks to a policymaker audience at the Wisconsin State Capitol.

Annual support of the Wisconsin Family Impact Seminar is made possible by the Phyllis M. Northway Fund and the UW-Madison Chancellor’s Office.

Contact


Contact Mindy Walker, Outreach Engagement Manager, at mindy.walker@wisc.edu.

Contact the La Follette School

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