Child, Youth and Family Policy

Marji Erickson Warfield, PhD'91, Concentration Chair

The Child, Youth and Family (CYF) Policy concentration prepares graduates for a wide variety of leadership roles in organizations that foster the healthy development of children, youth, and families. CYF students acquire technical skills through rigorous preparation in core management concepts, tools, and applications for use in government, nonprofit and private-sector organizations. The curriculum combines theory and practice to ensure that graduates bring scholarly knowledge to bear on real-world problems.

Connection to Heller Research Institutes and Centers

Students in the concentration benefit from access to the Institute for Child, Youth, and Family Policy, a research institute engaging in both quantitative and qualitative research studies of children and families as well as the social policies that directly affect their well-being, and the Center for Youth and Communities, which works to improve the quality of education, workforce development, and community systems in order to prepare young people for college, work, and life.

Course Requirements

• The full spectrum of MPP core courses
• The following specialized courses:
  • HS 334a, Child and Family Policy: U.S. and Cross-Cultural Perspectives
  • HS 511b, Contemporary Issues in the Management of Child, Youth, and Family Services
• Additional course(s) selected from the following list in consultation with a faculty advisor:
  • HS 212a, Contemporary Issues in Gender and Public Policy
  • HS 216f, Policy Perspective on Women, Work and Inequality
  • HS 217f, Citizen Leadership: Problems, Policies, and Civic Actions
  • HS 304a, Environmental Justice and the Human Effects of Climate Change
  • HS 307a, Immigration Policy and Human Rights
  • HS 309f, Policy Approaches to Gender-Based Violence
  • HS 320f, LGBTQ+ Justice: A History of Pride, Prejudice, and Policy in the United States
  • HS 324f, Social Experimentation in Child, Youth and Family Policymaking
  • HS 334f, Disability Policy: Intersections with Health, Poverty, Education and Family Policy
  • HS 335f, Perspectives on Youth Policy, Program Management, and Systems Design
  • HS 342b, Policy, Advocacy, Protest, and Community Organizing
  • HS 346b, Policy Perspectives on Criminal Justice Disparities
  • HS 360f, Balance Wheel of the Social Machinery? Context and Contention in K-12 Education
  • HS 534b, Perspectives on Economic and Racial Equity