The Empowering Families program, as a part of the Strengthening Relationship Education and Marriage Services (STREAMS) evaluation, a large multisite evaluation conducted from 2015 to 2022 to identify strategies for improving the delivery and effectiveness of healthy marriage and relationship education program, included an eight-session workshop that integrated Healthy marriage and relationship education (HMRE) content with information on financial literacy and job and career advancement. The HMRE content came from Family Wellness, a relationship skills and parenting curriculum designed to promote healthy family interactions. The program supplemented workshops with one-on-one services, including case management, financial coaching, and employment counseling. This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report describes the impact of the Empowering Families program after one year. The report also provides information on program implementation and costs.

Healthy marriage and relationship education (HMRE) programs aim to support the well-being of families. For such programs to be effective, it is critical that clients attend regularly, yet studies have found that HMRE program providers sometimes struggle to maintain high rates of participation. Identifying and exploring typical participation patterns in HMRE programming can increase understanding of this challenge and point to ways in which programs can promote and support regular participation. This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation brief describes typical patterns of participation in three programs that were part of the Strengthening Relationship Education and Marriage Services (STREAMS) evaluation, a large multisite evaluation conducted from 2015 to 2022 to identify strategies for improving the delivery and effectiveness of healthy marriage and relationship education programs. The brief identifies distinct patterns of participation in each of these programs and provides profiles of the clients who participate in these distinct ways.

The findings from the Strengthening Relationship Education and Marriage Services (STREAMS) impact studies, a large multisite evaluation conducted from 2015 to 2022 to identify strategies for improving the delivery and effectiveness of healthy marriage and relationship education programs, are summarized in this Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation webpage. The webpage offers a series of site-specific impact reports which present findings from additional exploratory analyses and discuss the implications of the impact findings for healthy marriage and relationship education programming and research.

The Office of Family Assistance (OFA) held the Linking Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Families to Employment and Economic Opportunities Meeting in August 2017. This meeting allowed TANF program representatives from around the country the opportunity to learn about promising practices and actionable implementation strategies to improve employment outcomes and economic independence among TANF families. This session included the efforts of the Office of Adolescent Health to Coordinate adolescent health initiatives across HHS, including Teenage Pregnancy Prevention programs.

This Executive Order by the Trump-Vance administration announces the White House’s Faith Office to assist faith-based entities, community organizations, and houses of worship in their efforts to strengthen American families, promote work and self-sufficiency, and protect religious liberty.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration is hosting a webinar on January 21, 2025 at 2:00 p.m. ET, which will address the economic stability of service members, Veterans, and their families (SMVF). This webinar will explore critical areas such as employment opportunities, income supports, SSI/SSDI, Outreach, Access, and Recovery (SOAR) for Veterans, and housing solutions, providing valuable information and resources to support maintaining or achieving economic stability among the SMVF community.

The Office of Family Assistance’s TANF Outcomes Technical Assistance and Logistics (TOTAL) team delivers training and technical assistance to state TANF programs and partners responding to the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 (FRA). The team hosted their December office hours, which discussed work and education outcome measures, including eligibility, definitions, and calculations. This TOTAL slide deck includes five scenarios that capture the content discussed.

For any questions or assistance on education outcome measures, contact the TANF Data Division at tanfdata@acf.hhs.gov. 

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) of 2014 amended the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and significantly shifted how state vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies offered services to youths with disabilities, particularly to students. WIOA requires state VR agencies to offer preemployment transition services (pre-ETS) to students with disabilities and to reserve at least 15 percent of their federal program funds for that purpose. This Social Security Administration resource describes the extent to which WIOA and pre-ETS access affected employment-related outcomes for youths with disabilities who receive Supplemental Security Income payments.