“Raising children is sacred work. It should matter to all of us.”
In August 2024, former United States Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy released an advisory calling attention to the urgent need to support the mental health & well-being of parents and caregivers. The 63 million parents with children under 18 in the United States—as well as other formal and informal caregivers helping to raise children—are facing various challenges in their role. These challenges and concerns are contributing to parents and caregivers reporting higher stress compared to other adults and increasing levels of stress over time.
The advisory highlights a number of parental stressors, including:
- Financial strain, economic instability, and poverty
- Time demands
- Children’s health and safety
- Parental isolation and loneliness
- Technology and social media
- Raising children in a rapidly changing world
As Dr. Murthy states in his advisory, the challenges and the stress parents and caregivers face should matter to every one of us. Addressing these issues will require a collective approach at all levels, and the report offers suggestions for steps that can be taken by all of us: employers; communities, community-based organizations, and schools; health and social service systems; researchers; governments; and individual people who care for children or have caretakers in their lives.
At the Institute for Community Health (ICH), we are proud to know that many programs we work with are already implementing some of the recommendations that Dr. Murthy provides in his advisory to support parents and caregivers in raising children. The City of Cambridge in particular has made noteworthy investments into programs that bolster parents and their families. We want to share some of our partners’ important contributions to this work alongside some of Dr. Murthy’s recommendations.
- Promote and expand funding for programs that support parents and caregivers and their families.
- The City of Cambridge has funded the Cambridge Preschool Program (CPP), which provides free or low-cost high-quality preschool to some 3 year olds and all 4-year olds in the City of Cambridge. This program helps address the financial and time constraints caregivers face when seeking high-quality early education and care for their children.
- Create opportunities to cultivate supportive social connections among parents and caregivers.
- Cambridge Dads centers fatherhood in their programming. Father figures in Cambridge with children ages 0-8 have the opportunity to receive individual support and attend events where they can play with their children and connect with other dads. In a recent survey, a Cambridge Dads participant shared his appreciation for programming that centers fathers: “It’s just nice that there’s an organization that both provides information and support to dads, and also highlights the need for dads to be more involved with their kids.”
- Equip parents and caregivers with resources to address parental stressors and connect to crucial support services.
- The Agenda for Children Literacy Initiative (AFC) offers a wide range of programs to empower parents and caregivers while providing resources to support them and their children. AFC’s Let’s Talk program builds children’s literacy skills by providing free books to families and connecting parents with a Literacy Ambassador, who offers home visits and reading strategies. Pathways To Family Success, an AFC program, hosts workshops and events to help low income families navigate the school system.
- Elevate the voices of parents and caregivers to shape community programs and investments.
- With funding from the Bureau of Substance Addiction Services (BSAS), the Cambridge Public Health Department has established a Youth Wellness Working Group comprised of local parents and people who work with Cambridge youth to create opportunities for dialogue about youth mental health and substance misuse, and to drive local decision-making about how to prevent and address youth substance misuse in Cambridge.
ICH partners with these organizations to document their outcomes, assess strengths and gaps, build capacity, and tell the story of how their programming supports parents and caregivers. Across these partnerships, we aim to help programs understand how to better evolve to meet the needs of the families they serve. We hope that by lifting up vital work being done in one of our own communities, ICH can contribute to a culture that allows parents and caregivers to thrive.