As part of its M.A.N. C.A.V.E. (Men All Need to be Caring, Actively-Engaged, Vested, and Encouraged) Fatherhood Initiative, which aims to improve child well-being and promote positive relationships between fathers and their children, the City of Phoenix Head Start Birth to Five Program is sponsoring a free Fatherhood Virtual Summit on December 3, 2020 and December 4, 2020 from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. ET. This event will combine keynote presentations and breakout sessions geared toward parents, grandparents, foster care providers, educators, and others who work with or raise boys.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation brief presents four models to illustrate how program activities of Responsible Fatherhood (RF) programs may contribute to intended outcomes. The four models in the brief depict linkages between RF activities and, as measured in the Parents and Children Together (PACT) Evaluation, four intended outcomes of RF programs to include healthy relationships between co-parents, father development and well-being, consistent employment, and parenting skills and father involvement. The models also include research question recommendations for future evaluations to build the evidence base.

In Spring 2020, the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Center for Urban Families (CFUF) hosted a two-part roundtable with practitioners from 10 youth-serving organizations that provide outreach and services to young fathers. This CFUF brief highlights strategies the practitioners developed to improve services for fathers of color, ages 18-24. The practitioners also shared their engagement approaches and their perspectives on program research and evaluation.

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.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation research-to-practice brief covers background information on the consequences of domestic violence on families and children and illustrates how prevention and intervention efforts on domestic violence are framed within fatherhood programs. The brief also identifies various promising practices in these programs to support both the prevention of domestic violence and interventions when incidences have already been perpetrated. The brief was developed through the Preventing and Addressing Intimate Violence when Engaging Dads (PAIVED) study.

On June 10, 2020 from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. EDT, this interactive webinar presented by The Dibble Institute will focus on the roles of state and community-based responsible fatherhood programming, the necessity of addressing trauma in program planning, and providing working solutions to fatherhood program challenges. The featured presenters are Kimberly Dent, Executive Director, The Ohio Commission on Fatherhood, and Avis Files, Director of Pathway, Inc., Toledo, Ohio.

The webinar is free, and organizations that include fathers in their programs are encouraged to attend, as well as fatherhood program managers, front-line program staff, evaluation staff, State and County Department Directors serving fathers and families, and Responsible Fatherhood grantees (current and future).

In this June 10, 2020 opening session scheduled from 10:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. hosted by the National Partnership for Community Leadership during the online 22nd Annual International Fatherhood Conference, presenters will discuss programs supporting responsible fatherhood, effective parenting approaches, and strengthening family dynamics in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. This virtual Fatherhood Conference brings together parents, policy makers, researchers, and practitioners working with low-income parents and youth to empower them and provide strategies and resources to strengthen family supports. (Please note that registration fees are required to attend the Conference.)

Featured speakers include: Scott M. Lekan, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary and the Acting Commissioner of the Office of Child Support Enforcement in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF); Clarence H. Carter, Director of the Office of Family Assistance and the Acting Director of the Office of Community Services in ACF; Kimberly Dent, Executive Director of the Ohio Commission on Fatherhood/Ohio Department of Job and Family Services; Ronald Mincy, Professor of Social Policy and Social Work Practice and Director of the Center for Research on Fathers, Children, and Family Well-Being; Debra Pontisso, Chair of the National Responsible Fatherhood Roundtable and Visiting Scholar with the Strong Families Commission, Inc. of Pennsylvania; and Jeffrey Johnson, President and CEO of the National Partnership for Community Leadership.

Fathers faced with child care responsibilities while trying to work or look for work find it challenging to participate in Responsible Fatherhood programs. This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report features the Building Bridges and Bonds (B3) study, which strives to help sustain program engagement by examining factors inside and outside programs, as well as considerations regarding learning over time. The report overviews study results on these three factors (for example, creating a positive and comfortable environment, addressing barriers to accessing services, or considering participant perspectives) in the form of a tip sheet which programs can consider when trying to encourage father engagement.