This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation brief is part of the Strengthening Relationship Education and Marriage Services (STREAMS) evaluation which assessed HMRE programs in five sites. The brief illustrates five steps for increasing recruitment capacity in these programs. Lessons learned from the brief could be adopted for HMRE programs serving adults to build and implement recruitment approaches. Additional STREAMS reports will identify how these recruitment approaches were implemented to better deliver HMRE programs.

The two-generation (2Gen) approach to building stronger families is gaining momentum in several states, including Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Minnesota, Tennessee, and Washington. In these states, a 2Gen coordinator has been identified to work with frontline staff, families, community partners, and across statewide departments to advance 2Gen strategies. On July 28, 2020 at 3:00 p.m. ET, Ascend, an Aspen Institute initiative, will host a webinar which will cover how these states are working toward systems change to help families experience more equitable and positive outcomes.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report covers the 2015 cohort of Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood (HMRF) grantees, which were awarded five-year grants in September 2015. The report examines grantees’ operations from July 2016 to March 2019, including how these programs recruited and served participants and how the grantees staffed their respective programs. The report also reviews HMRF program participants’ characteristics and identifies changes in their characteristics during this review period.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report reviews data collection and performance measurement improvements that will be used to evaluate the next cohort of Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood (HMRF) grantees in late 2020. The review examines three key areas: what changes to the HMRF performance measures would improve the usefulness, quality, and clarity of data collected; what enhancements to Information, Family Outcomes, Reporting, and Management (nFORM) (the data collection system through which grantees submit data) would increase data quality and improve user experience and data access; and what training and technical assistance activities would help grantees when using nFORM. The review is drawn from lessons learned from the 2015 cohort of HMRF grantees.

This referral guide helps fatherhood practitioners better understand what types of referrals are appropriate for individuals who have survived domestic violence. The brief also includes information on anger management programs, battering intervention programs, and domestic violence agencies. This guide was created through the Preventing and Addressing Intimate Violence when Engaging Dads (PAIVED) study, which was funded by the Office of Family Assistance and overseen by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation is hosting a webinar on July 22, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. ET to discuss fiscal approaches for implementing the Family First Prevention Services Act. The discussion will include guidance on budget preparation of evidence-based programs. Presenters will provide tips on how to develop estimates on staffing and needed resources for prevention services administration, estimate matching Title IV-E revenue, and forecast cost savings from out-of-home placements as a result of successful prevention services. Presenters include representatives of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Mainspring Consulting, and the Hawaii Department of Human Services.

This issue brief identifies the correlation of racial trauma and trauma caused in family violence. The brief covers issues of structurally embedded inequalities, how individual actions cause racial trauma, and racial trauma’s impact on communities of color. Beyond the research, the brief features approaches taken in Virginia that individuals, communities, organizations, and service professionals could adopt to prevent and mitigate race-based traumatic stress.

This report by Economic Mobility Pathways (EMPath) provides a comprehensive analysis of various ways in which poverty can affect families, and discusses the intergenerational model developed by EMPath to combat these effects. The authors emphasize how poverty impacts families at three key levels: outcome level, inner-self level, and family level. EMPath’s intergenerational model incorporates assessment, goal setting, coaching, and incentives for each individual (adult/child) in the family, as well as the family as a whole to address all three levels and disrupt the cycle of poverty. The report also includes direct quotes from families participating in EMPath’s programs taken through interviews and focus groups to help develop understanding of poverty’s effects on families.

The National Indian Child Welfare Association has produced a toolkit designed for family advocates, child welfare workers, and agencies engaging American Indian and Alaska Native children and families in Systems of Care (SOC). Developed and designed by Indian people, the toolkit is a comprehensive collection of best practices, tribal protective factors, strategies for overcoming trauma and mistrust, outreach techniques, and culturally-based practical examples of how to support and enhance family engagement at all levels of the SOC structure. The toolkit also includes information on trainings and a listing of useful online resources.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report presents findings of the Strengthening Relationship Education and Marriage Services (STREAMS) evaluation, which is a random assignment impact analysis and process assessment of five Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education (HMRE) grantees. The process study report identifies findings on The Parenting Center’s experiences in the design and implementation of Empowering Families, which was designed to offer integrated HMRE and economic stability services to couples raising children together. The STREAMS impact evaluation reviewed the effectiveness of the integrated HMRE Empowering Families program and whether intensive economic stability services effect participants’ employment and earnings and relationship quality and co-parenting.