Founded by the Urban Institute, the Wellesley Centers for Women, and the Pregnant Scholar, the Student Parent Action through Research Knowledge (SPARK) Collaborative’s mission is to build a national coalition to develop bodies of data, research, and insight that inspire and inform meaningful action for pregnant and parenting students.

The SPARK Collaborative envisions creating a new national agenda to support student parents through a coalition of organizations, stakeholders, and allies invested in higher education access; family and two-generation economic and social mobility strategies; and racial, class-based, gender, and other forms of equity. The Collaborative purposefully and meaningfully elevates and centers the experiences and roles of pregnant, parenting, and caregiving students and amplifies their contributions in all elements of this work.

The SPARK Collaborative will launch in fall 2022. The inaugural project of the SPARK Collaborative is the Data-to-Action Campaign for Pregnant and Parenting Student Success.