Tips for Creating a Motivating and Supportive Environment for Staff Success in Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education Services

Healthy marriage and relationship education (HMRE) staff are essential for successful implementation of HMRE services, including recruiting and enrolling participants, delivering curriculum workshops, providing case management, and carrying out the behind-the-scenes work that makes an organization run smoothly. Research points to three key factors that can affect high-quality service delivery: (1) capacity (whether staff have the necessary knowledge and skills to provide the services), (2) motivation (whether staff have buy-in and confidence to deliver the services), and (3) opportunity (whether the work environment and resources enable staff to perform at their best).

This brief presents four tips for supporting HMRE staff and examples from the experiences of the HMRE grant recipients who participated in the Strengthening the Implementation of Marriage and Relationship Programs (SIMR) study. The SIMR study was designed to develop and test promising approaches to address implementation challenges related to recruitment, retention, and content engagement in HMRE services.