Family policy councils are groups that work to influence government policy on families. Most are nonprofit and volunteer-based, and most are within the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 or one particular state. However, several groups exist in the English-speaking world

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

. Family policy councils may conduct policy analysis, foster strategic leadership involvement, promote an informed citizenry, provide resources for families, and seek to influence public opinion.

Many family policy councils are conservative

Conservatism

Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...

, religious, state-level organizations dedicated to the promotion of their ideals on family values

Family values

Family values are political and social beliefs that hold the nuclear family to be the essential ethical and moral unit of society. Familialism is the ideology that promotes the family and its values as an institution....

; many of these work closely with Focus on the Family

Focus on the Family

Focus on the Family is an American evangelical Christian tax-exempt non-profit organization founded in 1977 by psychologist James Dobson, and is based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Focus on the Family is one of a number of evangelical parachurch organizations that rose to prominence in the 1980s...

 and the Family Research Council

Family Research Council

The Family Research Council is a conservative or right-wing Christian group and lobbying organization formed in the United States in 1981 by James Dobson. It was fully incorporated in 1983...

 and oppose same-sex marriage. Some also advocate on other issues, such as the Florida Family Policy Council against the teaching of evolution

Evolution

Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...

 in public schools.

There are also a number of more liberal family policy organizations that conduct similar operations to their conservative counterparts toward the promotion of rights and resources for different types of families, such as those formed by interracial parents, same-sex partners, and single parents.

Family policy councils

• Australian Family Association
  Australian Family Association
  The Australian Family Association is a conservative political organisation with the aim of supporting and strengthening traditional family values. It was founded in 1980 by the National Civic Council's then president, B. A...
  
   (Australia)
• Campaign for Children and Families (California)
• Love Makes a Family
  Love Makes a Family
  Love Makes a Family is a non-profit advocacy and assistance organization of families headed by LGBT people, and their friends, working for equal marriage and family rights in the United States. It is also the name of a former organization in Connecticut that disbanded in 2009 after achieving its...
  
  
• Planned Parenthood
  Planned Parenthood
  Planned Parenthood Federation of America , commonly shortened to Planned Parenthood, is the U.S. affiliate of the International Planned Parenthood Federation and one of its larger members. PPFA is a non-profit organization providing reproductive health and maternal and child health services. The...
  
  
• The Family Foundation of Kentucky
  The Family Foundation of Kentucky
  The Family Foundation of Kentucky is a non-profit organization based in Lexington. Headed by Kent Ostrander, the Foundation serves as a public policy watchdog on Kentucky issues affecting the family...
  
  

See also

• Alliance Defense Fund
  Alliance Defense Fund
  The Alliance Defense Fund is a conservative Christian nonprofit organization with the stated goal of "defending the right to hear and speak the Truth through strategy, training, funding, and litigation." ADF was founded in 1994 by the late Bill Bright , the late Larry Burkett , James Dobson The...
  
  
• American Family Association
  American Family Association
  The American Family Association is a 501 non-profit organization that promotes conservative Christian values, such as opposition to same-sex marriage, pornography, and abortion, as well as other public policy goals such as deregulation of the oil industry and lobbying against the Employee Free...
  
  
• Family Research Council
  Family Research Council
  The Family Research Council is a conservative or right-wing Christian group and lobbying organization formed in the United States in 1981 by James Dobson. It was fully incorporated in 1983...
  
  

External links

• Focus on the Family
  Focus on the Family
  Focus on the Family is an American evangelical Christian tax-exempt non-profit organization founded in 1977 by psychologist James Dobson, and is based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Focus on the Family is one of a number of evangelical parachurch organizations that rose to prominence in the 1980s...
  
  's State Family Policy Councils