Attachment 4:
HHS/ACF Healthy Marriage, Responsible Fatherhood, Positive Youth
Development, Rural and Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
HHS/ACF Key Priorities and Initiatives
The current administration has developed several major initiatives in areas that it feels will benefit children, adults, and society. The Department's Healthy Marriages, Responsible Fatherhood, Positive Youth Development, Rural, and Faith-based and Community initiatives can be promoted among the populations that ACF serves. All should fit with the overall goals of the safety, permanency and well-being of children. We encourage States to propose creative approaches to achieving the goals of these initiatives in the context of the child abuse prevention and child welfare system. The following is a brief description of each initiative:
Healthy Marriage
The Healthy Marriage initiative encourages services to strengthen
parental relationships and promote healthy marriages. This
initiative's mission is "Helping couples, who choose marriage for
themselves, to develop the skills and knowledge necessary to form
and sustain healthy marriages." The Administration for Children and
Families (ACF) is working with its partners across the country to
develop community-wide initiatives to promote healthy marriages and
strengthen families. These initiatives will bring together
government agencies, faith-based and community organizations, and
other partners to offer the knowledge, skills and resources needed
to build and sustain healthy marriages. If your State is interested
in starting a healthy marriage initiative, or if you are aware of a
community initiative already forming, ACF can support those
efforts. The next two pages provide more details on this
initiative.
Responsible Fatherhood
This initiative's goal is to help men become responsible,
committed, involved fathers. The following principles guide the
Responsible Fatherhood initiative: (1) all fathers can be important
contributors to the well-being of their children; (2) parents are
partners in raising their children, even when they do not live in
the same household; (3) the roles fathers play in families are
diverse and related to cultural and community norms; (4) men should
receive the education and support necessary to prepare them for the
responsibility of parenthood; and (5) government can encourage and
promote father involvement through its programs and through its own
workforce policies.
Positive Youth Development
This initiative includes promoting a philosophy of working with
youth that models ongoing relationships with adult mentors; safe
places with structured activities; healthy lifestyles;
opportunities to acquire marketable skills; and opportunities for
community service and civic participation. The Positive Youth
Development effort involves several agencies within ACF. The Family
and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) and the Children's Bureau
emphasize positive youth development in the Runaway and Homeless
Youth Discretionary Grant program and in the Chafee Foster Care
Independence Program, respectively. ACF provides additional
technical assistance to States through its National Resource Center
on Youth Development. For more information, visit: http://www.nrcys.ou.edu/nrcyd/
Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
In January 2001, President Bush issued Executive Order 13198 that
established five (5) Centers for Faith-Based and Community
Initiatives within five Federal Departments, one of which was the
U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. The President
charged each of these Centers with coordinating Department efforts
to eliminate policy barriers that prevent faith-based and other
community organizations from participating in the provision of
social services. We encourage States to include faith-based and
community organizations in the coordination of title IV-B and CBCAP
related community programs and to include these organizations as
sub-grantees or contractors as appropriate. For more information
about the HHS Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives,
visit: http://www.hhs.gov/fbci/
Rural Initiative
Secretary Thompson's Rural Initiative is aimed at doing "a better
job of expanding and improving the provision of health care and
social services in rural America." There are 54 million Americans
who live in rural areas. We encourage States to determine ways to
enhance and strengthen programs and services in their rural areas.
For more information, visit the HHS Rural Assistance Center at: http://www.raconline.org
Healthy Marriage Matters to ACF
Background
Research suggests that family structure is related to child well-being. All things being equal, children who grow up in married, two-parent families do better on a host of outcomes than those who do not. Further, many social problems affecting children, families, and communities could be prevented if more children grew up in healthy, intact families. Examples of social science findings include:
- Married couples seem to build more wealth on average than singles or cohabiting couples, thus decreasing the likelihood that their children will grow up in poverty.
- Children who live in a two-parent, married household enjoy better physical health, on average, than children in non-married households.
- Marriage reduces the risk of adults and children either perpetrating, or being victimized by, violent crime.
Congress acknowledged the importance of married-couple families when it reformed the welfare system in 1996. The 1996 legislation stipulated that three out of the four purposes of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program either directly or indirectly promote healthy marriages. President Bush echoed this sentiment when he indicated that healthy marriages would be a focus of his administration. In proclaiming National Family Week in November 2001, he noted:
"My Administration is committed to strengthening the American family. Many one-parent families are also a source of comfort and reassurance, yet a family with a mom and dad who are committed to marriage and devote themselves to their children helps provide children a sound foundation for success. Government can support families by promoting policies that help strengthen the institution of marriage and help parents rear their children in positive and healthy environments."
ACF Healthy Marriage Initiative
More recently, ACF began a healthy marriage initiative. This initiative aims to help couples who choose marriage for themselves to develop the skills and knowledge necessary to form and sustain healthy marriages. In practical terms, it involves:
- Developing demonstrations. In consultation with states, a number of communities have approached ACF to conduct healthy marriage demonstration projects. These are broad-based efforts to work with key community sectors (e.g., local governments, businesses, civic organizations, non-profits) to strengthen marriages.
- Emphasizing marriage in Federal programs. ACF's program offices will promote healthy marriages in every appropriate program. For example, marriage education and enrichment services could be provided, alongside existing services, to low-income couples who utilize Refugee Resettlement, Children's Bureau, Community Services, or TANF services.
- Conducting research. This initiative will use existing funds to explore the types of marriage strengthening services that exist and their effectiveness, so that future resources can be targeted more wisely.
- Training. The initiative will provide training about healthy marriage issues to interested Federal ACF staff.
This initiative is not about:
- Trapping anyone in an abusive or violent relationship.
- Forcing anyone to get or stay married.
- Running a federal dating service.
- Withdrawing supports from or diminishing in any way, either directly or indirectly, the important work of single parents.
Additional Information
ACYF-CB-PI-02-05 included numerous suggestions for implementation of the Healthy Marriage initiative. This PI is available from the Children's Bureau website at: http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/cb/laws_policies/policy/pi/pi00index.htm#2002
For more information on the Healthy Marriage initiative, visit the ACF website at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/key.html or contact Bill Coffin, Special Assistant for Marriage Education, at bcoffin@acf.hhs.gov or (202)260-1550.
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