Job Descriptions & Roles

Job Descriptions for Whole Family Work

Foundations supporting whole family work can support grantees in identifying roles and competencies needed to successfully implement program and policy work and can also draw from job descriptions and competencies for foundation staff who may directly engage in the work.

Currently seven states have 2Gen coordinators; in the Women’s Funding Network policy cohort, each fund had staff dedicated to whole family work, and more than 10 organizations in the Ascend Network have explicit roles for 2Gen leaders and staff. Important considerations for roles with Whole Family, 2Gen responsibilities include:

Seniority: managing the operationalizing of whole family approaches requires fluidity in authorizing funding, holding partners accountable, and influencing and engaging systems leaders, while managing day-to-day coordination. Does the organization have the right blend of skills identified in the job description, and identified in the selected candidate, to ensure that the person can move between coordination and leadership?
Capacity: implementing whole family approaches takes significant time, partnership, and skill. Does the organization have the will, bandwidth, and resources to ensure the role has the capacity to focus on whole family work exclusive to other responsibilities?
Resources: Whole family approaches often require blended and braided funding streams; does the organization have sufficient funds to support a long-term role that can embed the approach culturally and operationally?

Resources include:

A matrix of roles and responsibilities for a range of whole family work.

Sample 2Gen coordinator posting for the state of Colorado.

Sample 2Gen senior management role for United Way of Central Indiana.

A Word About Language

Whole family, multi-generational approaches meet the needs of and provide opportunities for children and the adults in their lives together. These approaches are highly contextual, and may be called “whole family,” “two-generation or two-gen,” and “multi-generational” approaches in some organizations, communities, and contexts. Particularly for Indigenous communities, an approach that supports multiple generations within a home or family is important. The goal of a whole family, multigenerational approach is to ensure economic, educational, and health stability and mobility for the whole family, using mechanisms and strategies that give both generations in the family a balloon, and not one a dead weight.

This guide uses “whole family” for consistency and ease of reading; and encompasses the meanings of these other terms.

This guide also uses “parents,” which includes caregivers, mothers, fathers, grandparents, and others who are in the lives of children. Families are defined by the families themselves in our view, rather than by an outside agency, and the guide reflects this as well.

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Job Descriptions for Whole Family Work

A Word About Language