Child & Family Stability
Common sense suggests and research confirms that children and youth do best in stable households where they know what to expect and where they feel safe and secure.
All parents juggle the competing demands of raising a family, but caregivers who are experiencing poverty or near poverty circumstances are more challenged to navigate these demands and provide stable environments and consistent support for their children. On a daily basis, they may have difficult choices: pay for food or for child care; take a sick child to the doctor or risk losing their job; or attend a parent/teacher meeting or find a new place to sleep that night. Chronic, cumulative, and potentially toxic stress can be overwhelming for the entire family and have lasting impacts on the lives and outcomes of children.
Strategies to Address Child and Family Stability
Strategy L/12
Encourage the formation and maintenance of committed two-parent families.
Strategy M/13
Ensure young women and men have the necessary information about and sources for reproductive health care so they can plan for pregnancy when they are ready to raise a child.
Strategy N/14
Improve birth outcomes of all children and their mothers.
Strategy O/15
Help more families get on and stay on a path to living-wage income and asset building.
Strategy P/16
Take dramatic steps to address our affordable housing crisis, which will stabilize working families, prevent family homelessness, and minimize the disruption of a large number of children who move from school to school due to housing affordability issues.
Strategy Q/17
Create a more connected community to ensure all families have ready access to employment, shopping, service areas, schools, parks, and other daily destinations.
Strategy R/18
Develop efforts focused on addressing mental health issues and/or reducing the mental health impacts of living in low-opportunity environments.
Strategy S/19
Invest in strategies that support comprehensive criminal justice reform, and create a community where families are not destabilized due to interactions with the criminal justice system.
Strategy T/20
Re-envision a human services system in which the needs of families are addressed holistically and services and support are coordinated to achieve the best possible outcomes.
Agents of Change
Leading on Opportunity works alongside community to improve child and family stability.
Yuly Rodriguez
Community Impact Director
Stephanie Kripa Cooper-Lewter, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Join Our "Day of Opportunity"
Join us on March 26, 2019 for a Day of Opportunity as we celebrate community milestones and successes - big and small - since the release of the Opportunity Task Force Report & highlight ways you can take action as an Opportunity Ambassador and Agent of Change.

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Latest information about
Child & Family Stability.
$70 Million for Affordable Housing in Charlotte
Charlotte Observer • Eli Portillo - January 15, 2019Three major financial institutions are pledging more than $70 million to fund low-income housing developments in Charlotte, giving a boost to the city’s efforts to keep up with the fast-rising costs of renting or buying a home. Bank of America, Ally Financial and Barings said they will invest a combined $70.75 million through a series of initiatives. The bulk of it, $50 million, will be in the form of low-interest loans to private developers building income-restricted housing.
Read MoreCommunity Impact Director Speaks to Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners at Budget Priority Public Hearing
Yuly Rodriguez, Community Impact Director, Leading on Opportunity - January 15, 2019It is now our opportunity to rally behind our community, which in part includes the Latinx community, that represents one quarter of the children entering kindergarten in Charlotte every year - about 3,000 children.
Read MoreLeading on Opportunity's Executive Director Reflects on Tradition
Creative Mornings CLT • Matt Olin - December 7, 2018On Friday, December 7, 2018, hundreds of creative Charlotteans packed the halls of LaCa Projects – to explore the global theme of “Tradition.” As Executive Director of Leading on Opportunity, Dr. Cooper-Lewter’s talk is a timely and moving meditation on what it takes to create new Traditions that will lift up everyone in our community.
Read MoreJoin Us
We invite you to join our movement to increase pathways to opportunity and upward mobility for all children, youth and families.



March 16, 2019
Leading on Opportunity Executive Director Plenary Speaker at Movement Day Charlotte
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