Demonstrating the urgent need for broad national action and collaboration between private and public leaders in our communities, The White House Council for Community Solutions released an analysis showing that in 2011 alone, taxpayers shouldered more than $93 billion to compensate for lost taxes and direct costs to support the young people disconnected from jobs and school. At least one in six young adults is disconnected from education and work, according to this report. Projections show that over the lifetime of these young people, taxpayers will assume a $1.6 trillion burden to meet the…
One in six newborns were born poor over the past 40 years, and nearly half remained poor half their childhoods. These persistently poor children are nearly 90 percent more likely than never-poor children to enter their 20s without completing high school and are four times more likely to give birth outside of marriage during their teenage years. Children whose parents did not complete high school are less likely to complete high school themselves. This paper examines the magnitude of child poverty, family characteristics related to childhood poverty persistence, and childhood poverty's lasting…
This study evaluated the family-inclusive case management component of the Chicago-based Safer Return program, which engages family members in service provision to former prisoners. Using qualitative and quantitative data, the research focused on the associations between family support and family members' and formerly incarcerated persons' short-term outcomes. The research found that family members have strong and positive relationships with their formerly incarcerated relatives. However, engaging families in the reentry process directly can be challenging because incarcerated persons are…
Brief
This research brief describes implementation findings from the evaluation of Responsible Fatherhood, Marriage and Family Strengthening Grants for Incarcerated and Reentering Fathers and Their Partners (MFS-IP). It documents approaches to teaching relationship skills among incarcerated and reentering fathers and their families. The multi-year implementation and impact evaluation of the MFS-IP grants is funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (Author abstract)
This report summarizes and synthesizes study findings on the effectiveness of responsible fatherhood programs, including those aimed at promoting responsible fatherhood and economic self-sufficiency among low-income and noncustodial fathers. In particular, there is growing interest in ascertaining "what works for whom"--that is, in examining program impacts among meaningful subgroups of fathers in order to foster better program design and provide a basis for targeting program services. (Author abstract modified)
Brief
Recruiting and retaining participants are common challenges for programs serving low-income fathers. In this brief, we summarize several promising practices from the Strengthening Families Evidence Review (SFER) on recruitment and retention. The SFER, a systematic review of family-strengthening programs serving low-income fathers or couples, was conducted by Mathematica Policy Research under contract to the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation within the Administration for Children and Families. This brief focuses on the 90 studies of 70 responsible fatherhood programs included in…
Sponsored by the Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Building Strong Families (BSF) evaluation used a random assignment research design to test eight voluntary programs that offer relationship skills education and other support services to unwed couples who are expecting or have just had a baby. After three years, the study showed that BSF had no effect on the quality of couples' relationships and did not make them more likely to stay together or get married. (Author abstract)
Sponsored by the Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Building Strong Families (BSF) evaluation used a random assignment research design to test eight voluntary programs that offer relationship skills education and other support services to unwed couples who are expecting or have just had a baby. After three years, the study showed that BSF had no effect on the quality of couples' relationships and did not make them more likely to stay together or get married. (Author abstract)
This report is a technical supplement to the 36-month impact report for the Building Strong Families (BSF) evaluation (Wood et al. 2012). It provides additional detail about the research design (Chapter I), analytic methods (Chapter II), and variable construction (Chapters III, IV and V) that were used for the 36-month analysis. Chapter VI of this report provides a discussion of the subgroup analysis that was conducted. Chapter VII discusses the treatment-on-the-treated (TOT) impact analysis, an analysis of BSF's effects on couples who actually attended BSF group sessions. The full set of…
This report synthesizes the facilitated discussions from the National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families Peer-to-Peer Networking Forum, held in Washington, DC, on July 18 - 19, 2012. This report includes background information on healthy marriage and relationship education and summarizes Forum discussions around implementation, challenges to integration, and opportunities for collaboration and partnership. It also highlights tools and products available through the Resource Center to support integration efforts. (Author abstract)
