This Resource Guide was developed to support service providers in their work with parents, caregivers, and their children to prevent child abuse and neglect and promote child and family well-being. It was created by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Children’s Bureau, Office on Child Abuse and Neglect, its Child Welfare Information Gateway, and the FRIENDS National Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention. The resources featured represent the work of a broad-based partnership of national organizations, Federal partners, and parents committed to strengthening…
Strong, healthy families give their children the best chance at success in school and in life. The Family Goal-Setting Guide explores how strong partnerships can positively influence the goals families set in the Family Partnership Process. (Author abstract)
Brief
This brief, one of three in a series, focuses on Community-Centered Responsible Fatherhood Ex-Prisoner Reentry Pilot Project (Fatherhood Reentry) programs’ efforts to support healthy marriage among program participants. Fatherhood Reentry programs included several activities to strengthen relationships between fathers and their partners/coparents and to encourage healthy coparenting and family reunification. This brief describes the activities provided by the Fatherhood Reentry programs and offers recommendations, based on an implementation study of the Fatherhood Reentry projects, for…
This report describes program design and implementation of two Healthy Marriage programs that are part of the Parents and Children Together evaluation: The Healthy Opportunities for Marriage Enrichment program from The El Paso Center for Children in El Paso, Texas; and the Supporting Healthy Relationships program from University Behavioral Associates in Bronx, New York. The report includes a focus on the job and career advancement services offered by the two grantees, and presents data on enrollment, initial participation, retention, and the amount of services couples received from July 2013…
Brief
This brief provides a general overview of four Responsible Fatherhood (RF) grantees involved in the Parents and Children Together (PACT) Evaluation. The brief: 1) provides a general overview of two approaches to service delivery in fatherhood programs; 2) documents how service delivery is linked to fathers’ characteristics; and 3) describes how service delivery approach may be linked to program participation and retention rates. Data gathered via staff interviews, program observations conducted during site visits in fall 2013; ongoing interactions with leadership at each program; and data on…
This report provides detailed summaries of major research investments by OPRE's Division of Family Strengthening (DFS) along with brief overviews of past projects. The featured projects cover topics that include strengthening relationships within families, supporting fatherhood, nurturing children through their families, reducing teen pregnancy, and supporting youth in their transition to adulthood. The report also describes DFS's investments in activities to disseminate rigorous research on family strengthening topics to a diverse range of stakeholders including federal and state policy-…
Other
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance released a toolkit that provides resources to assist programs with implementation of economic stability and workforce development (ESWD) initiatives The primary purposes of this toolkit are to provide programs with practical resources to: help HMRF programs implement ESWD initiatives; inform programs about evidence-informed ESWD practices and tools; and provide programs with a conceptual framework from which they can build a full system of care to move participants along a…
Brief
This brief, the fourth in a series of six using qualitative data collected during the Hispanic Healthy Marriage Initiative Grantee Implementation Evaluation, describes how study sites addressed domestic violence in the family strengthening and relationship education services they provided. The major finding of the study is that programs treated domestic violence with requisite seriousness and expressed concern about the prevalence and effects of domestic violence in their communities. (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)
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)
