PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — New research finds that parents feel mostly optimistic about the future for their children, but they have some significant concerns.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is an organization based in Princeton, New Jersey. Their stated goal is "to improve the health and wellbeing of each and every person who lives in the United States," according to Jennifer Ng'andu, managing director—Program.
"We focus on children and families as a cornerstone of what makes us a society," she said, "and we wanted to hear from parents and their wisdom because in order to advance the wellbeing, we really need to learn from those that are living day to day."
Ng'andu recently joined the KYW Newsradio In Depth podcast to talk about the results of a new survey on parents and their children.
"(We) ultimately reached out to 2,000 parents across the country from diverse groups to hear what they were sort of hopeful about, challenged with, and what they felt like they really needed to help and support their families and their wellbeing," she detailed.
Overall, she said parents thought the future was bright for their kids. But they were all concerned about barriers to success as well — things like discrimination at both the individual and structual level.
"In many ways, whether you were a white person or a Black mom or dad, you actually saw that someone's child might have unequal opportunity compared to yours because of where they live or what they look like or their racial and ethnic background," she said.
"They believe that there is potential to achieve what is sometimes known as the 'American dream' — but I also want to point out that they are also very clear-eyed about the fact that there are real challenges."
