Family Impact Analysis Checklist Template printable pdf download

FAMILY IMPACT CHECKLIST

Using Evidence to Strengthen Families

Policymakers from across the political spectrum endorse families as a sure-fire, vote-winning strategy. Researchers have demonstrated

the valuable role families play in promoting academic success, economic productivity, social competence, and so forth. Professionals

who educate or deliver services to families recognize the viability of family-centered approaches for achieving program goals.

Yet family considerations are rarely addressed in the normal routines of policy and practice. Pro-family rhetoric is not enough. The

Family Impact Checklist is one evidence-based strategy to help ensure that policies and programs are designed and evaluated in

ways that strengthen and support families in all their diversity across the lifespan. This checklist can also be used for conducting

a family impact analysis that examines the intended and unintended consequences of policies, programs, agencies, and

organizations on family responsibility, family stability, and family relationships. Which types of families are affected? How are they

helped or hurt? What steps can be taken to strengthen families’ capacity to support their members and the contributions they

make to society?

This brief guide provides a four-step overview of how to use a family impact checklist to conduct a family impact analysis. More

detailed guidelines and procedures for conducting a family impact analysis are available in a handbook published by the Family

Impact Institute at

USING THE CHECKLIST TO CONDUCT A FAMILY IMPACT ANALYSIS

1. Select the rule, legislation, law, program, agency, or organization and decide what components will be

analyzed.

Family impact analysis can be used to review rules, legislation, laws, or programs for their impact on families,

and to evaluate the family focus and operating procedures of agencies and organizations. Court decisions, regulations,

administrative practices, and implementation procedures can also be analyzed for their impact on family well-being. Family

impact analysis can be a preliminary process conducted at an early stage when a policy or program is being designed, at an

interim stage when a policy or program is being implemented, or at a later stage when being evaluated or reauthorized.

2. Determine which family types might be affected.

Families come in many forms and configurations. In beginning the

process, it is important to identify which types of families may be impacted by the policy, program, or practice.

Which types of families does or will the policy, program, or practice affect? __________________________________

q particular family structures?

q families in a particular stage of the life cycle?

q families from particular incomes or educational levels?

q families from particular cultural, geographic, racial/ethnic, or religious backgrounds?

q families who have members with special needs (e.g., cognitive, emotional, physical)?

q those who function as a family even if they are not legally recognized as such?

3. Select a family impact checklist and conduct the analysis.

Family impact analysis is most incisive and

comprehensive when it includes expertise on (a) families, (b) family impact analysis, and (c) the specifics of the policy,

program, agency, or organization. Five basic principles form the core of a family impact checklist. Each principle is

accompanied by a series of evidence-based questions that delve deeply into the ways in which families contribute to

issues, how they are affected by them, and whether involving families would result in better solutions. Not all principles and

questions will apply to every topic, so it is important to select those most relevant to the issue at hand.

These questions sound simple, but they can be difficult to answer. The principles are not rank-ordered and sometimes they

conflict with each other. Depending on the issue, one principle may be more highly valued than another, requiring trade-

offs. Cost effectiveness and political feasibility also must be taken into account. Despite these complexities, family impact

analysis has proven useful across the political spectrum and has the potential to build broad, bipartisan consensus.

4. Disseminate and apply the results.

A family impact analysis seldom results in overwhelming support for or opposition

to a policy or program. Instead, implications are drawn regarding how the policy or program affects specific types of families

and particular family functions. Disseminating the results to policymakers and the public may generate interest in and the

momentum for developing policies, programs, and practices that are more responsive to and supportive of family well-being.

Family Impact Analysis Checklist Template

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