About SPARK
Origin: Student Parent Families at the Center
The SPARK Collaborative grew from the Student-Parent Families at the Center Project—a collaborative effort shared by the Urban Institute, Wellesley Centers for Women, and a 45-member leadership council and funded by Imaginable Futures in 2021–2022. This project mapped 11 policy systems that routinely touch student-parent families into a framework and culminated in a fact sheet series and the Roadmap for Change to Support Pregnant and Parenting Students, which comprehensively highlights opportunities for change and necessary support to aid parenting students and their families as they pursue their academic journeys.
SPARK became official when ECMC Foundation funded the Data-to-Action Campaign for Parenting Students. Theresa Anderson, Autumn R. Green, Michaela Martin, and Lina DeMorais developed the SPARK name to characterize their cross-organizational collaboration that originally conceptualized that project, though the project partners have changed over time.
As a continuation and evolution of this work, SPARK has become a values-driven shared space that promotes ongoing collaboration among lived experience experts, researchers, policymakers, higher education institutions, and other community members that centers cohesive and coordinated action. SPARK is best characterized now as an organizationally-inclusive workshop or "makerspace" that provides resources for anyone in the student-parent ecosystem—especially student parents themselves—to have the tools to build on existing knowledge and pursue effective change efforts.
SPARK has developed with the support of Imaginable Futures, ECMC Foundation, and the Annie E. Casey Foundation and thought partnership of the Urban Institute, Child Trends, the Pregnant Scholar, and Skills and Training in Action Research Fellows Nina Owolabi and Krystle Pale. Several other projects support by our funders have road-tested the SPARK concept and contributed to its development.
We invite others to join our community, as we offer connections and resources for anyone committed to supporting parenting students.
What We Do
We use data, research, lived expertise, and past learning to inform policy and practice solutions while developing future generations of leaders.
Collaborate
Constellations are small topic-focused subnetworks or working groups. Learn more!
Share Knowledge
Visit our resources section for reports, data, news articles, blogs, and more from across the field.
Invite and Connect
Stay in the know about data, research, and policy on student parents by subscribing to SPARK's monthly newsletter.
Why We Do It
We see incredible work happening across organizations, institutions, and individuals in the student-parent space. Our collective goal is to serve as a resource space that uplifts, connects, and makes accessible the resources stemming from those efforts and to build community. We see SPARK akin to a makerspace with tools and supplies that can help identify, create, drive, and sustain effective initiatives, policies, research, and support programs that spur widespread change for pregnant and parenting students.
Mission
The Student-Parent Action through Research Knowledge (SPARK) Collaborative aims to collaboratively build evidence and make the case for policy change to support pregnant and parenting students so that they can meet their education and life goals.
Vision
We endeavor for pregnancy and parenting not to determine a person's ability to meet their goals. We also envision a future where all organizations and decisionmakers are coordinated and are working toward supporting parents in pursuing and achieving their goals.
Partners
Who We Are
The SPARK Collaborative is an association of individuals and organizations that build evidence and take action that supports pregnant and parenting students. We bring together teams with lived expertise as student parents, data expertise, policy expertise, legal expertise, and expertise in the systems that affect student parents and their families to holistically approach student-parent issues. The SPARK Collaborative is stewarded by a working board and STAR Fellows. Learn more about each of us.
Gratitude
The SPARK Collaborative was made possible by the collective input of many. Without the deep insights, research, brainstorming, and cheerleading of the people below, we would not be here. Thank you for making this work possible and for all you do to advance pregnant and parenting students in higher education!
Special thanks go to:
Ali Caccavella for early ideation on the SPARK concept.
Amy Ellen Duke-Benfield for early ideation on the SPARK concept.
Aulana Kaipo for her efforts to code resources for our Resource Library in summer 2024.
Autumn R. Green for her early co-leadership of SPARK and for her conceptualization of the SPARK concept.
Cameron Pagador for her efforts to code resources for our Resource Library in summer 2024.
David Croom for being an early thought partner on SPARK.
Heather Willoughby for being an early and ongoing thought partner on SPARK.
Jennifer Pocai for being an early thought partner on SPARK.
Kahlene King for her incredible efforts to code resources for our Resource Library in summer 2024.
Lina DeMorais for being part of the team that developed the SPARK name and a collaborator on the Data-to-Action Campaign for Parenting Students proposal, which was the first project that established SPARK.
Marjorie Simms for being an early and ongoing thought partner on SPARK.
Michaela Martin for being part of the team that developed the SPARK name and a collaborator on the Data-to-Action Campaign for Parenting Students proposal, which was the first project that established SPARK.
Ryan Kelsey for being an ongoing thought partner and booster for SPARK.
Su Jin Jez for being an early thought partner on SPARK.
Teresa Bill for coordinating and dedicating time of her amazing summer interns to develop the SPARK resource library.
Members of the Student-Parent Families at the Center Leadership Council for helping spark the concept of SPARK and discussing the early concept.