The Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency (BIAS) project, sponsored by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and led by MDRC, is the first major opportunity to use a behavioral economics lens to examine programs that serve poor and vulnerable families in the United States. This report presents findings from four tests of behavioral interventions intended to increase the percentage of parents who made child support payments and the dollar amount of collections per parent in Cuyahoga County, Ohio.

Parents who owe child support and do not have their payments automatically deducted from their paychecks through income withholding typically need to actively initiate a new payment each month. The BIAS team examined the payment process in Cuyahoga County and diagnosed a number of behavioral factors potentially impeding collections. The team collaborated with the Cuyahoga Office of Child Support Services (OCSS) to design a number of behavioral interventions intended to increase collections and evaluate them using randomized controlled trials. (author introduction)

In most of the two-generational strategies and programs, the attention is mainly focused on mothers. However, this brief from the Center for Law and Social Policy explains the early evidence from research that shows if noncustodial parents - mostly young men - are successfully employed and in healthy relationships in their own lives, they can also contribute to more successful outcomes for their children, both financially and emotionally.

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.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program stakeholders and their human services partners increasingly understand the importance of meaningfully engaging noncustodial parents while also holding them accountable for the economic and social growth of their children. A noncustodial parent does not have primary care, custody, or control of the child and may have an obligation to pay child support. It is important to note that many noncustodial parents pay child support and are actively engaged in their children’s lives. However, barriers such as unemployment, underemployment, or incarceration can hinder noncustodial parents from providing for their children, even when many want to do so. Some TANF agencies and their partners have built programs to provide the necessary supports and connections for these individuals to help them achieve self-sufficiency/

The OFA PeerTA Network hosted a webinar on June 9, 2015 at 1:30 PM Eastern, titled Strategies for Building and Maintaining Noncustodial Parent Programs to share strategies for building and sustaining programs to engage and serve noncustodial parents. While previous webinars have focused on strategies to engage noncustodial parents, this webinar focused on the nuts and bolts of program development; it introduced several programs that have supported noncustodial parents for at least 10 years and explored how these sustainable programs were planned and initiated.

At the end of this webinar, participants were able to:

• be aware of three models of TANF programs and their partners creating programs to serve noncustodial parents
• understand how these programs began, including justifying the need for a program serving noncustodial parents, mapping available assets, and identifying a champion; and
• be ready to identify some next steps that they could take within their agencies to start a program that would work for their communities.
Featured presenters:

Ann Marie Winter, Chief Operating Officer, and Margie McGranahan, Employment Services Director, Gulf Coast Jewish Family and Community Services. Established in 1996, Florida’s Noncustodial Parent Employment Program aims to help unemployed or underemployed noncustodial parents establish a pattern of regular child support payments by obtaining and maintaining employment. It is operated through a series of partnerships between organizations such as CareerSource Pinellas and the Gulf Coast Jewish Family and Community Services.

Juan G. Valdez, Parent Support Services Manager, Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services. The Parent Support Services program in Illinois was established in April 1994 to provide noncustodial parents with a way to address their needs and concerns to support their children. TANF dollars are used to provide specific services to qualified noncustodial parents.

Mike Roberts, Human Services Program Specialist for Districts 2, 3 and 6, Alabama Department of Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention. The Alabama Fatherhood Initiative is a joint effort of the Department of Human Resources Family Assistance and Child Support divisions, developed in 2002 to further the welfare reform goal of strengthening families, enhancing child support collections, and addressing other needs of children who are growing up without the involvement of natural fathers in their lives.

This brief provides a general overview of four Responsible Fatherhood (RF) grantees involved in the Parents and Children Together Evaluation (PACT) Evaluation. The brief: 1) provides a general overview of two approaches to service delivery in fatherhood programs; 2) documents how service delivery is linked to fathers’ characteristics; and 3) describes how service delivery approach may be linked to program participation and retention rates. Data gathered via staff interviews, program observations conducted during site visits, ongoing interactions with leadership at each program, and data on service receipt from each programs’ management information system was used to create this brief. (author abstract)