Integrating Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education with Economic Stability Services: Findings from Two Programs

Some healthy marriage and relationship education (HMRE) programs offer economic stability services in addition to relationship skills education. The Office of Family Assistance (OFA) in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) funds community-based programs that offer HMRE and economic stability services as part of OFA’s Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood grant programs. This brief offers lessons for HMRE program providers seeking to integrate HMRE and economic stability services and examines two social service agencies that received federal grants from OFA —The Parenting Center in Fort Worth, Texas, and Family and Workforce Centers of America in St. Louis, Missouri—to design and implement such integrated programs. The brief draws on findings from ACF’s Strengthening Relationship Education and Marriage Services impact studies as well as each agency’s experience delivering its program.