A study funded by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation was conducted to identify strategies to support high-quality facilitation in healthy marriage and relationship education (HMRE) programs for youth. The basis of the study is a formative evaluation of a facilitation skills training curriculum for HMRE program staff at two community-based organizations: Catholic Charities of Wayne County in New York and Youth and Family Services in South Dakota. This report explores the content-related curriculum on the following topics: Managing Energy, Debriefing and Drawing Out Teachable Moments, and Building Trust and Challenging the Comfort Zone. The curriculum and supporting resources are available for download as well as three tip sheets with key lessons from each module of the curriculum.

A healthy relationship can play a critical role in establishing family stability for both adults and children. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on families nationwide with reports of higher rates of stress and declining marriages. Understanding the importance of healthy relationships in promoting economic stability among TANF recipients, the Office of Family Assistance (OFA) awards Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education (HMRE) grants for a variety of programs working to integrate skills-based relationship education into employment services. During this June 28, 2022 OFA webinar, HMRE grantees and subject matter experts discussed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on marriage and relationships. Webinar participants learned numerous ways HMRE grantees are engaging clients in programming such as family stability, healthy relationships, and economic security; explored how HMRE grantees adjusted during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how their clients benefited from the pandemic adaptations; and heard about how these grantees will utilize lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic to improve future efforts.

Webinar speakers included: Nikkole Abbas, Director of Family Support and Advocacy Services, Youth and Family Services of South Dakota; Robert Ketchum, Data Manager/Adult Educator, Youth and Family Services of South Dakota; and Mariana Falconier, Associate Professor of Family Science in the School of Public Health and Project Director of the University of Maryland’s TOGETHER program. The webinar was moderated by Robyn Cenizal, Project Director, Family Strengthening, ICF.

Research from SmartAsset explores what it takes financially for one parent to stay home and the other to support the household. It adds context to the tradeoffs families face when making caregiving and work decisions. Within Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) services, it can support more realistic financial planning discussions and help families think through how income choices affect stability, caregiving roles, and long-term goals.

The MIT Living Wage Calculator estimates the income families need to cover basic expenses based on where they live and family size. It helps clarify a common disconnect in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) work—employment alone does not always equal economic stability. Practitioners can use it to ground conversations about self-sufficiency in local reality, making it easier to connect job planning and financial goals to actual household needs and improve family stability.

This report is part of the Responding to Intimate Violence in Relationship Programs (RIViR) study to evaluate approaches for assessing teen dating violence. The report covers how to accurately identify youth in Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education (HMRE) programs who are experiencing teen dating violence (TDV) so they can be referred for additional services. The report also examines how youth and TDV program staff perceive tools to assess TDV and strategies to implement these tools. The report compared two HMRE programs—More Than Conquerors, Inc. of Conyers, Georgia and Youth and Family Services of Rapid City, South Dakota.