The Institute for Child and Family Policy (ICFP) at Columbia University was initiated in 1999 to meet the urgent need for systematic exchange among policy researchers and policy shapers from different disciplines. Since then, the Institute’s mission has shifted to focus on outreach to students from the different graduate schools that are part of the greater Columbia University system, so that students of policy can more easily communicate with and learn from one another, as well as from the outstanding faculty and resources the University hosts. The mission of the Institute is based on the premise that scholars working together can address problems that would be beyond the reach of individual researchers and together achieve results that would be more than the sum total of their individual efforts.
The primary goal of the Institute is to increase dialogue and foster collaboration between students of policy, policy faculty, and research scholars at Columbia University and beyond so that together, fundamental problems in the formation, analysis, implementation, and evaluation of social policies (specifically policies that impact children and families) can be most effectively identified and addressed. The distinctive approach of the Institute is its integration of both a developmental and an international-comparative perspective into its work, as well as its effort to engage students and schools of different disciplinary backgrounds.