This brief summarizes findings from a qualitative research study that explored the strategies five home visiting programs use to engage fathers and the fathers’ experiences with the programs. Interviews with program staff and clients revealed that young fathers’ motivations to participate are similar to those of older and experienced fathers, and that they benefit similarly from the program. However, young fathers present unique challenges, including relationship instability, family resistance, logistics, and developmental immaturity. The lessons programs shared may help other programs that serve low-income families in their efforts to engage young fathers. (author abstract)

This fact sheet provides descriptive characteristics of Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education programs serving youth, characteristics of those served, and the most commonly used curricula, program goals, and expected outcomes. (author abstract)

This report describes the major research investments of our Division of Family Strengthening through Fiscal Year 2015. This division has primary responsibility for research and evaluation projects related to strengthening relationships within families, supporting fatherhood, nurturing children through their families, reducing teen pregnancy, supporting youth in their transition to adulthood, and preventing family violence.

This report presents the research organized into six different sections, showing the breadth of our family strengthening research. These sections include:

• Supporting Fatherhood
• Strengthening Relationships
• Nurturing Children Through Families
• Supporting Positive Youth Development And Reducing Teen Pregnancy
• Preventing Family Violence
• Other and Cross-Cutting Research (author abstract)

This report describes program design and implementation of four Responsible Fatherhood programs that are part of the Parents and Children Together evaluation. The report presents data on enrollment, initial participation, retention, and the amount of services fathers received from December 2012, the beginning of PACT enrollment, through August 2014. The report then discusses two approaches to service delivery adopted by the grantees and describes how these approaches may inform patterns related to program inputs and outputs and future Responsible Fatherhood programming. (author abstract)

The Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education Models and Measures project developed recommended measures for assessing the outcomes of healthy marriage and relationship education programs. The products focus on two key target populations: parents in complex families and adolescents between the ages of 14 and 18. For each of these populations, we developed:

1. A dynamic measures spreadsheet that summarizes the items and measures recommended for assessing a range of targeted outcomes that may be used in evaluations of programs that serve the population.

2. A companion “tip sheet” with advice on collecting data from the population. (author abstract)

This resource is the tip sheet for parents in complex families.

This brief provides a general overview of the two Healthy Marriage (HM) grantees involved in the Parents and Children Together Evaluation (PACT), provides participation rates in services, and documents how the two grantees integrated job and career advancement services for parenting couples into their programs. This brief uses data obtained through staff interviews and program observations during site visits; ongoing interactions with program leadership; and data from a management information system that programs use to record data on couples’ receipt of services. (author abstract)