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Acknowledgments
This report documents the results of implementation research in three of the Office of Child Support Enforcement Community Healthy Marriage Initiative pioneer sites: Boston, Massachusetts, Jacksonville, Florida, and Chicago, Illinois. As such, it could not have happened without the support of many people. We especially thank the families—predominantly low-income women with children—whose lives are represented in the statistics and stories throughout this report. We hope that the report reflects their experiences and contributes to policy decisions that will improve their lives and opportunities.
We are particularly grateful for the many kinds of support we received from the leadership in each of the initiatives.
In Boston, Relationships for Real Life’s Jan Quiram and Nancy Smith’s assistance were invaluable in setting up and arranging interviews, planning our time onsite and helping us to fully understand their activities, plans, and challenges. Richard Claytor of the Child Support Enforcement Department was also very helpful to us in gathering information and working to set up and transfer program data that is analyzed in this report. Jessica Pearson and Center for Policy Research staff also helped compile program data. Many other members of the RRL staff, the ACF Regional officers and other staff at CSE generously shared their expertise with us, and we appreciate their contributions to this profile of their efforts.
In Jacksonville, Jacksonville Network for Strengthening Families’ Robyn Cenizal was instrumental in planning all site visit activities including arranging a comprehensive set of interviews, class observation and attendance at a graduation ceremony. Her time and effort are greatly appreciated. Denise Simpson at DOR and staff at the Duval County Child Support office helped us gather information about program activities and constructed the child support data files for this report. Many other JNSF staff, facilitators and coalition members along with ACF regional officers shared their program experiences with us, and contributed greatly to our understanding of program implementation.
In Chicago, IHRMI’s Patricia Godfrey readily took the time and effort to set up interviews in various locations, gather program documentation and provide insight into site operations. Karen Newton Matza of CSE shared her insights and helped put together the child support data files, and Octavia Powell at Catholic Charities compiled the program participant data file. Many other staff from organizations affiliated with IHRMI and ACF regional staff participated in the site visit and shared their insight and knowledge with us. Their time and expertise are reflected in IHRMI’s profile.
We received helpful feedback throughout the process from Mark Fucello, Nancye Campbell, and Naomi Goldstein of the Office for Planning, Research, and Evaluation at the Administration for Children and Families. Their guidance is evident in this report and is much appreciated. The report also benefited from the helpful comments received from Myles Schlank, Eileen Brooks, and Margot Bean of the Office of Child Support Enforcement at the Administration for Children and Families. Within our project team, we appreciate the efforts of Mai Nguyen and Valentina Akhmerova in arranging data transfers and creating analytic files, and Danny Occoquan for taking meticulous notes on the healthy marriage site update calls. Elaine Crider, of Crider Associates, assisted in interviewing and writing up program activities in Florida and Illinois. The Lewin Group, as the contractor for Technical Assistance to CHMI sites, has been very helpful to us and to the site. We appreciate their collaboration.
Lastly, the views presented are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services or its agencies.
The Authors
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