Governor Pence Hosts Summit on the Family and the Economy

Press Release

Today Governor Mike Pence focused on the well-being of Hoosier families and the economy at the state's first ever Summit on the Family and the Economy, held at the Indiana State Library. The all-day summit attracted a diverse group of leading researchers and practitioners to help us better understand the social and economic effects of family formation, and to assess our progress as a state.

"Family is a key indicator of success and looking for ways that we can encourage more young people to get married, to stay married, to wait to have children until they're married is very important," said Governor Pence. "The Summit on the Family and the Economy is a great opportunity for Hoosiers to come together to discuss family formation and its effect on the economy and I look forward to the results that may come out of the Summit."

Decades of social science research that is supported across the political spectrum confirms that one of the greatest causes of poverty and inequality is the number of children born to unmarried parents. The Summit is an important step in developing practices in Indiana to better strengthen Hoosier families and reduce poverty. In addition to the Governor, speakers at today's Summit include:

· Ryan Streeter, Senior Policy Director for Governor Pence
· W. Bradford Wilcox, Director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia and Director of the Home Economics Project for the Institute for Family Studies and the American Enterprise Institute
· Ron Haskins, Senior Fellow and Co-Director of the Center on Children and Families at the Brookings Institution
· Robert Lerman, Professor of Economics at American University and Institute Fellow at the Urban Institute
· Laura Smith-Wynn, Founder and Executive Director of the Indiana Parenting Institute
· Mary Myrick, President, and Kendy Cox, Director of Community-based Training Services, of Public Strategies

The Pence Administration has taken other steps to strengthen the foundation of families, including:
· On Governor Pence's first day of office, he required all state agencies that impact families and children to draft a family impact statement, to ensure that no rule or regulation in the state of Indiana would be a detriment to healthy families in our state.
· Governor Pence signed legislation this year to expand and improve adoption in Indiana.
· The Administration held the state's first ever summit on infant mortality last year to begin a discussion on how we could confront the crisis of infant mortality in Indiana.
· Governor Pence strongly supported and signed a legislative bill to create the state's first ever voluntary pre-K program to help Indiana's low-income kids.

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