Brief
A range of programs within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) encourage state and local human services agencies to recognize fathers’ contributions to and desire to be involved in their children’s lives and facilitate ongoing economic contributions and family involvement. As family structures have become increasingly complex, there is a growing interest in developing full-family service models and an increasing need to identify and apply effective father engagement approaches across human services program areas. Programs focused primarily on serving fathers, such as…
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The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services promotes the economic and social well-being of families, children, individuals, and communities. Many ACF programs interact with and serve fathers in an effort to promote economic self-sufficiency and social well-being for them and their families. Across ACF, we are implementing rigorous research and evaluation projects to better understand how to serve fathers and their families. This brief describes ongoing research and evaluation projects related to 1) ACF’s Responsible Fatherhood…
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In October 2019, FRPN released a Request for Proposal inviting states to apply for small planning grants to develop long-term plans to enhance father inclusion in state programs and policies. Twenty states applied for a nine-month FRPN planning grant and in January 2019, FRPN made awards of $10,000 to 11 states: Colorado, Connecticut, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Washington, and Wyoming. FRPN funders/researchers supported the statewide planning teams by: preparing a logic model for each planning site highlighting their proposed…
Brief
As part of our six-year effort to build research, practice, and policy in the fatherhood field, the FRPN developed a statewide planning initiative to support states in developing long-term plans to enhance father inclusion. This brief describes FRPN’s State Planning Grant Initiative and the activities that funded states pursued to begin the process of achieving systemic change aimed at father inclusion. It also describes the challenges they encountered, their early accomplishments, and the next steps that they plan to take.
Brief
Programs designed specifically to support fathers in their role as parents are relatively new to the policy landscape. Originally emerging as an outgrowth of welfare reform and stronger child support enforcement in the 1990s, fatherhood programs ahve since evolved from a narrow focus on financial stability and support to a more balanced agenda that emphasizes healthy relationships, parenting skills, and father involvement. Accompanying these changes has been a growing interest among researchers in studying the role that fathers play in the lives of their children. In this brief, we…
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This resource provides an overview of the Colorado Parent Employment Program (CO-PEP). CO-PEP focuses on helping noncustodial parents overcome barriers to employment in order to increase child support payments. An assessment of the program is underway.
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Since the 1970s, Americans’ household incomes have become more volatile, fluctuating year-to-year and week-to-week. Increased income volatility is particularly prominent among low-income families, many of whom are served by the U.S. system of means-tested income support programs. These programs provide income, goods, and services to families who prove that their income (and sometimes assets) are low enough to qualify for a particular program and meet other program requirements. At initial application, during benefit receipt, and at recertification periods, each income support program has…
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The Learn, Innovate, Improve (LI2) process is a systematic, evidence-informed approach to program improvement. LI2 involves a series of analytic and replicable activities, supported by collaboration between practitioners and applied researchers, to help human services programs design, implement, and iteratively test programmatic changes. As a continuous improvement process, LI2 is intended to build practitioners’ capacity for better using and producing high-quality evidence; ultimately, this process can be institutionalized within the program environment.Human services programs (such as…
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Low-skilled men, especially minorities, typically work at low levels and provide little support for their children. Conservatives blame this on government willingness to support families, which frees the fathers from responsibility, while liberals say that men are denied work by racial bias or the economy--either a lack of jobs or low wages, which depress the incentive to work. The evidence for all these theories is weak. Thus, changing program benefits or incentives is unlikely to solve the men's work problem. More promising is the idea of linking assistance with administrative requirements…
Brief
New York launched a pilot employment program to help parents behind in their child support in four communities between 2006 and 2009. The program was part of the state's Strengthening Families Through Stronger Fathers Initiative. Our evaluation found that the program's combination of employment assistance, case management, and other support services substantially increased the earnings and child support payments of disadvantaged parents who were not meeting their child support obligations.
