Marriage and relationship education (MRE) andresponsible fatherhood (RF) programs share the goalof improving the lives of children by strengtheningthe interpersonal skills of their parents. The origins of these program areas are distinct: MRE beganprimarily as a way to prepare couples for marriagewhereas RF was originally designed to prepareunmarried fathers to reconnect with their childrenand families. However, a common purpose has emerged between the two fields. According to the U.S. Census, more than 2.5 million children areraised in families without their biological father. This statistic…
Other
The inaugural White House Community Roundtable and Town Hall Meeting on Responsible Fatherhood and Healthy Families was held in Chicago, IL, on August 5, 2009. The event was the first in a series of locally focused meetings designed to highlight the importance of fatherhood in communities across the nation. It provided a forum for responsible fatherhood program representatives, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers at the Federal, State, and local levels to discuss the successes and challenges faced by fathers and responsible fatherhood programs. (Author abstract)
The nation's Child Support Enforcement (CSE) program is a federal/state/tribal/local partnership to promote family self-sufficiency and child well-being. In most states, approximately half of all child support orders are established and enforced by a federal and state financed child support enforcement entity known as the IV-D program (from Title IV-D of the Social Security Act). About one-third of all children in the United States will receive some assistance from CSE and approximately 58 percent of CSE cases involve never-married parents. Services are available to a parent with custody of a…
The benefits of father involvement in the lives of children have been well-established. However, child welfare agencies continue to struggle with implementing father involvement policies and practice. All states are required to participate in the federal Child and Family Services Reviews (CFSR) that measure outcomes in child welfare agencies. While there is no specific measure for father involvement, there are four relevant proxies under a Child Well-Being Outcome. The National Family Preservation Network has developed this guide to assist child welfare agencies improve their practice and…
This paper introduces the major themes associated with young disadvantaged men, including low educational achievement, joblessness, out-of-wedlock childbearing, and incarceration. By age 30, between 68 percent and 75 percent of young men with a high school degree or less are fathers (NLSY). Half of them are married when their first child is born and far fewer continue their education post-high school. The paper briefly reviews four major forces that help shape social and economic outcomes for young men who are fathers and for their partners and children: employment and earnings prospects;…
Family Expectations (FE) is a program in Oklahoma City designed to strengthen the relationships of low-income couples who are expecting a baby or have just had a baby. For all families, this period is typically full of promise but also vulnerability. FE is one of eight sites that are participating in a large national evaluation of Building Strong Families (BSF), a federally funded program for unmarried parents. The underlying rationale for BSF is that relationship skills education and family support services provided to unmarried parents in a romantic relationship will help them learn how to…
This book summarizes the current research on children whose parents are incarcerated, and discusses the implications of those findings for policy and intervention. It uses a developmental perspective to integrate theory with research and delineates how both resilience processes and contextual factors shape experiences and outcomes for children whose lives are affected by the incarceration of a parent. Following a chapter on multidisciplinary perspectives on research and intervention with children of incarcerated parents, Part 1 discusses background information and current trends in service…
The Office of Family Assistance (OFA) sponsored a site exchange series during late spring and summer 2009. During these two- to three-day exchanges, a "host" grantee--working with OFA's technical assistance team --designed a site visit and learning session for a small group of visiting grantees. Site exchanges focused on different types of community-based partnerships that Healthy Marriage grantees have formed to better engage various high-priority populations such as couples, youth and young adults, and low-income families. This report (the final of 3 in the series) summarizes how grantees…
The Office of Family Assistance (OFA) sponsored a site exchange series during late spring and summer 2009. During these two- to three-day exchanges, a "host" grantee--working with OFA's technical assistance team --designed a site visit and learning session for a small group of visiting grantees. Site exchanges focused on different types of community-based partnerships that Healthy Marriage grantees have formed to better engage various high-priority populations such as couples, youth and young adults, and low-income families. In support of the demonstration grantees' efforts to strengthen…
