• Families are the foundation of all societies and civilizations. As the family goes, so goes society. Yet, we also know that as society goes, so goes the family. In the language of social sustainability, there is a symbiotic relationship between families and societies. Sometimes this is a positive relationship and sometimes it is forgotten and left by the wayside of social change. The intention of this article is to present and provide the means for families and Clinics for Sustainable Families to become the primary influences for democratic societies to evolve, become socially sustainable, and transcend the long failed history of societies, nations, and civilizations.
   
• Families can exist quite well without societies, nations, or civilizations.
   
• Societies and nations cannot exist without the presence of families as the source of future generations of leaders, innovators, and decision-makers.
   
• Values underlie all decision-making.
   
• A holistic set of values underlie the decision-making of our species’ biologic sustainability for over 8,000 generations.
   
• Those same values offer societies, and the organizations that support societies and nations, the capability of also becoming sustainable – socially sustainable.
   
• For societies to achieve that stage, societies must actively implement policies that support the family to produce the leaders, innovators, and decision-makers who have the competence to support the transcendent interests of that nation and society.
   
• The social mechanism for generating functional, healthy families are Clinics for Sustainable Families in all local communities, similarly as there are local community public education schools.
   
• The skills of successful child rearing and parenting are known that enculturate and socialize children to become socially responsible and competent adults. Teaching these skills and knowledges is as necessary for the development of social stability and peace as language and mathematic skills are necessary for the development of commercial, governmental, and economic progress and growth.
   
• Effective parenting skills are eventually lost over generations. The Clinic’s permanent presence is necessary so that child rearing and parenting skills are reinforced with each generation of children, who eventually become parents.
   
• The permanent presence of Clinics in local communities will give democratic nations and societies the capability to transcend the limitations of all prior societies.
   
• The presence of Clinics will require democratic nations to form an intention to become socially sustaining into the distant future. Such an intention must be preceded by a vision for that future, and succeeded by an operational philosophy, and a set of conscious, intentional strategic missions that bring those nations into a socially sustainable future.

An intentional agenda of public social policies that promote social evolution through families via a national network of local community Clinics would go far to develop democratic societies to become sustainably stable and prosperous.

These conclusions recognize that the holism of social existence can only come into existence to create a sustainable future when the values that have sustained our species, from the individual, family, to the international community of nations, are introduced to children in their earliest ages.