This report is from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation and is an evaluation of the Community Healthy Marriage Initiative. It focuses on the implementation of three projects funded through section 1115 grants from ACF’s Office of Child Support Enforcement. The report examines three different approaches to implementing a healthy marriage initiative and describes how various organizations leverage their strengths and abilities to implement their programs. The report includes demographic data on each of the program participants and if they are receiving TANF benefits.

This study, which was done through the National Fatherhood Initiative, provides an estimate of the taxpayer costs of father absence. Fatherhood absence has increased from 8 percent of children in single-mother households in 1960 to 34 percent in 2008. Researchers estimate the cost of father absence to the federal government to support father-absent homes equated to around $99.8 billion dollars in Fiscal Year 2006. One of the largest fatherhood absence expenses is TANF at around $15 billion.

From the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, this report provides data on the importance of father involvement within the lives of children. Researchers analyze case outcomes for children within the child welfare system in relation to nonresident fatherhood involvement.

The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation commissioned this brief, which describes the Responsible Fatherhood, Marriage and Family Strengthening Grants for Incarcerated and Re-entering Fathers and their Partners (MFS-IP). Authors provide an overview of the implementation and impact evaluation of this initiative on families around the country.

This issue brief is from the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse and provides an overview of “what works” in fatherhood programs. Researchers outline evaluation procedures for such programs, as only rigorous evaluations of programs can provide evidence of whether programs have the positive outcomes for families. This issue brief outlines ten lessons learned from evaluated fatherhood programs.

Offered at the OFA Entrance Conference for Healthy Marriage and Promoting Responsible Fatherhood Grantees, this presentation offers information on the use of logic models for healthy marriage programs. The presentation provides a basic understanding of logic modeling and how to build appropriate logic models for specific programs.

Mentoring programs can often provide positive youth development similar to the support a youth receives from caregivers. This issue brief, from the National Human Service Assembly, offers information on how greater family engagement in youth mentoring programs can lead to better outcomes for mentored youth and how mentoring principles be applied to help connect isolated families to resources and supports to achieve self-sufficiency.

The RAND Corporation authored this report on the effects of work-conditioned welfare programs on marriage or child well-being. By using a theoretical framework and past research in this area, authors find that welfare programs can increase family income, which will affect child outcomes.

The Brookings Institution authored this report on the economic mobility of families based on Census Bureau data. Authors matched family income from the 1960s to the income of their children in the late 1990s to early 2000s. While median family incomes have grown for black and white families, the income gap between black and white families still exists.

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania conducted this study on the recent trends on marriage stability in the United States. While recent data offers conflicting evidence, authors review data, and conclude that marital stability has increased among married couples since the mid-late 1970s.