Healthy Marriage & Responsible Fatherhood Grantee Locations
State Data
HMRF Grantee in Alabama
Auburn University - The Alabama Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education Initiative (AHMREI) is a large-scale partnership coordinated by Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama. AHMREI has nine additional implementation partners at Family Resource Centers around the state and local referral partners including domestic violence prevention organizations, school systems, and Head Start centers. AHMREI offers offers marriage and relationship education targeted for youth in high schools and a broad spectrum of adults who attend programs as couples or as individuals depending upon their current relationship status and assessed needs. The adults participate in comprehensive services and programs that include education on marriage and relationship skills, strategies for managing toxic stress, regulation of emotions, parenting, conflict resolution, financial management, and employment skills. A public advertising campaign about the value of healthy marriages and the necessary skills to increase marital/family stability is used to market the availability of community Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education and related services. While programs are available for all interested individuals near the implementation sites, recruitment methods are focused on lower-resourced and underserved populations. AHMREI has more than a decade of experience building partnerships on community and state levels. Those experiences allow AHMREI to continue contributing to the positive trends that are turning the tide on marital and family instability in Alabama. Family relationships, stress management, good health, economic self-sufficiency, and stability are all inextricably linked. AHMREI’s goal is to empower citizens in these areas to ensure optimal outcomes for them, their families, and communities.
HMRF Grantees in California
Cambodian Association of America - The Cambodian Association of America (CAA), located in Long Beach, California, provides a program teaching low-income individuals, immigrants, refugees, and youth ages 18-24 years old the benefits of healthy marital relationships. The program’s target population includes low-income Cambodian, Vietnamese, Laotian, Samoan, and Hispanic residents. The program is available to all residents in need, regardless of race or ethnicity, however. CAA provides culturally and linguistically competent and appropriate services in their approach, allowing the organization to effectively address the myriad socioeconomic, intergenerational, and culture-related challenges that may cause or exacerbate marital discord and conflict. The organization helps participants create and sustain strong relationships, strengthen parenting and co-parenting skills, and foster economic empowerment through education and employment. The Healthy Marriage Healthy Life (HMHL) program uses evidence-based curriculum to strengthen marriages and relationships to improve outcomes for at-risk families. The program design includes four components: 1) public advertising to provide information on how healthy marital relationships contribute to well-being, optimum outcomes for children and for marital stability; 2) evidence-based relationship skills curriculum that provides marriage and relationship education that integrates parenting, financial management, conflict resolution, and job and career advancement elements; 3) premarital education and marriage skills activities to engage couples or individuals interested in marriage; and 4) marriage enhancement and skills training for couples tailored to engage, retain, and serve both spouses in marital relationships.
Cambodian Association of America
2390 Pacific Avenue
Long Beach, CA 90806
562-387-8408
kimthai988@gmail.com
http://www.cambodianusa.com
Children's Bureau of Southern California - Children's Bureau of Southern California (CBSC), founded in 1904, is based in Los Angeles, California, with programs operating in Los Angeles and Orange County. CBSC implements the Dads Matter program using four Family Resource Centers (FRCs) as models to integrate young fathers into the program. The Dads Matter program specifically targets at-risk adolescents ages 15-24-years-old, low-income, and immigrant fathers. The program uses an evidence based curriculum, Supporting Father Involvement (SFI), that focuses on enhancing overall father involvement, increasing parental competence, improving relationships between parent-child and co-parents, and promoting healthy child development. The program provides a comprehensive approach to ensure fathers who complete the program demonstrate changes in the following areas: increased attachment and involvement with their children; eliminated harsh punishment practices; reduced couple’s conflict; and/or decreased child’s maladaptive behaviors. The program also increases participants’ skills in job readiness, positive parenting, and healthy relationships. Long-term outcomes include greater economic stability, improved parenting and co-parenting skills, increased frequency of father/child engagement, and increased financial responsibility of fathers for their children. The economic stability components are integrated into the parenting series. The trainings focus on participant feedback solicited during earlier sessions of the 16-week parenting series. Program staff identifies economic partners to provide appropriate training focused on participants’ requested topics. CBSC also provides additional economic resources and connections through their case management services. The Dads Matter program has fathers and children participate in activities designed to promote healthy relationships. The case management services include: intake and assessment; financial assessment, planning, and intervention; case facilitation; crisis intervention; and resource referral and development. Supportive services include child care and meals during classes, Workshops on Wheels, case management, transportation assistance, parent/child bonding events, and the provision of in-kind goods.
Children's Bureau of Southern California
1910 Magnolia Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90007
shawndijohnson@all4kids.org
http://www.all4kids.org/
Children's Institute - The Children’s Institute, Inc., (CII) is located in Los Angeles, California. CII provides a comprehensive program, Project Fatherhood (PF) that integrates and promotes responsible parenting activities, economic stability, employment, and healthy marriage activities. The goals of the program are to help fathers establish or strengthen relationships with their children, improve their long-term economic stability, and overcome obstacles that prevent them from being effective and nurturing parents. The target population for this program includes biological fathers, expectant fathers, adoptive fathers, stepfathers, and people who are acknowledged as father figures. All participants have children under 24-years-old. The PF program specifically focuses on fathers who receive TANF, active duty military and veterans, immigrants, refugees, and low-income/at-risk juvenile fathers (16-24-years-old). Those who are engaged with the juvenile justice system, aging out of the child welfare system, not enrolled in schooled or employed, and those who may have mental or physical health conditions are specific targets in the 16-24-year-old group. The program includes a comprehensive array of integrated services to support fathers in the areas of parenting, economic stability and employment, and healthy marriage/relationships. The hub of services are the PF Men in Relationships Group, significant others’ group, and parallel children’s group. CI provides evidence-based curriculum, comprehensive father/child/family intake assessments, family events, intensive employment services, legal workshops and individual legal consultations, comprehensive case management, and linkages to a variety of supportive services based on individual and family needs.
Children’s Institute, Inc.
2121 West Temple Street
Los Angeles, CA 90026
213-260-7604
agraves@childrensinstitute.org
http://www.projectfatherhood.org
City of Long Beach - The City of Long Beach’s Life Coaching and Fundamentals of Fatherhood Project (LCFFP), located in Long Beach, California, addresses the lack of resources available to ensure families with children are healthy, safe, and emotionally secure. Working with their partners, LCFFP targets low income fathers ages 18-44-years-old who have any type of relationship with the biological mother of their child to strengthen family protective factors with a focus on building the social, emotional capabilities of fathers. The LCFFP program consists of 10 weeks of fatherhood course curriculum sessions and an invitation to participate in co-parenting workshops and economic stability education through job training and placement opportunities. LCFFP participants also receive a varied combination of bi-monthly life coaching sessions and case management services. The project integrates the resources and expertise of local organizations including Families Uniting Families, Interval House, Goodwill of Southern California, a Continuous Quality Improvement consultant, and the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services. Three long-term outcomes serve as the foundation of this program, to: 1) reduce family conflict and enhance stability and warmth; 2) increase a father’s economic stability so he may financially provide for his children; and 3) establish a citywide fatherhood response network to sustain program impacts.
City of Long Beach
Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services
2525 Grand Avenue
Long Beach, CA 90815
562-570-4186
ana.lopez@longbeach.gov
http://www.longbeach.gov/health
Community Action Partnership of Orange County - The Orange County Healthy Marriage and Family Collaborative (OCHMF), offered through the Community Action Partnership of Orange County, is located in Garden Grove, California. The OCHMF is a county-wide project that provides culturally competent healthy marriage and relationship education at Family Resource Centers (FRCs). The goal is to include healthy marriage and relationship education, including employment training, financial literacy, and father involvement to improve the well-being of low-income parents and children in Orange County, California. The program strengthens marriages as a foundation for supporting stable, nurturing family environments, which in turn contributes to a positive quality of life for the community. At the FRCs, low-income community members are able to access family strengthening services and information. The three primary services being offered through this project are: 1) healthy relationship education; 2) financial stability education and activities; and 3) workforce readiness workshops. These innovative educational programs enhance families’ skills, tools, and abilities to remain financially and emotionally healthy and stable. Community Action Partnership of Orange County
Community Action Partnership of Orange County
1870 Monarch Street Garden Grove, CA 9284-3902
714-897-6670
dbarret@capoc.org
http://www.capoc.org
Encompass Community Services - PAPÁS of the Central Coast (PCC) is a regional project in Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties of California that supports fathers and families in these regions. The project is operated by Encompass Community Services along with the Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo County, Inc. PCC’s program is designed to increase the number of children with involved and loving fathers, and to improve life outcomes for young, low-income fathers and their families. PCC Partners work together within a trauma-informed care framework to strengthen positive father/child relationships, improve employment and economic mobility, and build lasting healthy couple/co-parenting relationships and marriages. PCC’s target population includes: 1) low-income fathers; 2) young fathers 16-24-years-old (although fathers older than 24 may also be served); 3) participants with at least one child between the ages of birth and 11-years-old; 4) Latino and veteran fathers; and 5) fathers with additional risk factors including those currently in or aging out of foster care and those involved with the criminal justice and/or the child welfare system. PCC’s primary goals are to: 1) improve outcomes for low-income, at-risk, young fathers in becoming responsible parents, achieving economic stability and mobility, and improving co-parenting relationships; and 2) strengthen the capacity and linkages among agencies and systems to provide sustainable and enhanced father involvement, co-parenting, and father friendly services in the targeted service area. PCC provides assessments and screenings; parent education tailored to low-income young fathers; father/child relationship building activities; co-parenting/relationship groups and individual counseling; intensive employment support; and case management, including referrals to community-based support services.
Encompass Community Services
225 Westridge Drive
Watsonville, CA 95076
jeff.lehner@encompasscs.org
http://www.encompasscs.org/child-and-family-development/papas
Family Service Agency of Santa Barbara - Family Service Agency’s (FSA) Healthy Marriage and Relationship Stability Program (HMRESP) is located in Santa Barbara, California. The program serves the cities of Santa Maria, Lompoc, Carpinteria, and Santa Barbara. FSA serves those individuals who need healthy marriage and relationship skills building. Participants include co-parents, parents, and/or those who are in relationships. As part of the HMRESP, FSA also offers parent and financial literacy education as well as employment and economic stability assistance. Referrals to nongrant funded support services are provided to program participants. FSA offers all services in English and Spanish and provides child care and transportation for participants on an as-needed basis. FSA partners with a non-profit to provide educational services in Santa Maria. They also collaborate with two literacy programs to offer tutoring and English as a Second Language classes for program participants. FSA’s domestic violence agency partner offers 40 hours of domestic violence advocate training, program development, and case consultation. The outcomes for the program include: 1) increased awareness of HMRESP through the public advertising campaign; 2) improved relationship and parenting skills; and 3) participants making progress to improve their economic stability, which boosts individual and family economic well-being and reduces poverty. FSA aims to mitigate the effects of poverty in Santa Barbara County, which negatively affects all areas of family life, including the relationship between co-parents or a parent and a significant other. Family Service Agency of Santa Barbara
123 West Gutierrez Street
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
805-742-2951
cmacduff@fsacares.org
http://www.fsacares.org
Friends Outside in Los Angeles County - Friends Outside in Los Angeles County (FOLA), located in Los Angeles, California, provides the Dads Back! Academy, which is an incentivized, comprehensive, community-based program for fathers, same sex parents, and mothers who have been incarcerated in state or federal prisons or county jails. Participants have children up to 24-years-old. The target area is South Los Angeles, including Watts in the City of Los Angeles, the Cities of Lynwood and Compton, and surrounding communities in Los Angeles County. FOLA provides comprehensive services to promote responsible fatherhood, including activities that support responsible parenting, economic stability, and healthy marriage/ relationships. Most of the participants are unemployed, primarily Black or African American and Latino, and face unique challenges related to their reentry status. The majority of FOLA’s participants are single or noncustodial parents. Participants’ children often have experienced various levels of trauma, including witnessing parental arrest, experiencing separation from one or both parents, and may be living in out-of-home care. FOLA’s integrated approach is designed to help strengthen, establish or reestablish relationships between a father and his children, or a father and his spouse/partner and their children. FOLA’s services include classes in responsible parenting, economic stability, healthy relationships, and a job readiness workshop designed specifically for the reentry population. Participants are actively enrolled for approximately six months. Services are operated in three phases. Phase one (Immersion) includes comprehensive assessment, case management with support services, and support groups for fathers and families. Phase two (Implementation) provides opportunities for fathers to practice what they have learned through activities that can be observed by project staff. Clients also participate in curriculumbased workshops, job readiness services, support groups, job clubs, case management with support services, and parent/child/family interactive activities. During Phase three (Independence), clients are employed and continue to receive case management with support services, support groups, and career counseling. FOLA’s partners include East Los Angeles Women’s Center (domestic violence), America’s Job Centers, and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Friends Outside in Los Angeles County
261 E. Colorado Boulevard, Suite 217
Pasadena, CA 91101-6135
213-417-8912
kramsey@friendsoutsidela.org
http://www.friendsoutsidela.org/
Healthy Relationships California - Healthy Relationships California (HRC), headquartered in Leucadia, California, provides responsible fatherhood services through the West Coast Dads & Kids Initiative (WCDK). HRC provides fathers with opportunities to learn and develop the necessary skills to get the most from and to give the most to their relationships. Relationship skills are taught through relationship and marriage education classes so fathers can make their relationships with their children and co-parents healthier, safer, more meaningful, and satisfying. The WCDK program provides comprehensive services to strengthen positive father/child engagement, to increase employment and economic mobility, and to improve healthy couple/ co-parenting relationships across seven West Coast metropolitan areas in California, Washington, and Oregon. The target population includes low-income, unemployed or underemployed adult fathers ages 18 and older. Fathers and mothers outside the target population may also participate in HRC’s programs. The fathers complete a comprehensive program combining evidence-based and skills-based relationship strengthening curricula to equip them to succeed at their three most important relationships: their children, their intimate partners/co-parents, and at work. HRC’s West Coast Dads and Kids Initiative uses the World Class Relationships for Work and Home curriculum, as well as Raising World Class Kids. Fathers also attend a JAM (jobs and money) session, a six-hour workshop that provides employment support and financial literacy skills. The participants receive case management services by phone and also are linked to additional support services throughout their communities.
Healthy Relationships California
1045 Passiflora Avenue
Leucadia, CA 92024
425-432-8433
jason@relationshipsca.org
http://www.relationshipsca.org
Public Health Institute - Public Health Institute’s Healthy Relationships & Economic Pathways (HREP) Program is designed to improve healthy relationship skills, job readiness, long-term marriage sustainability, and family cohesion in California’s Stanislaus and Merced Counties. The target population is Opportunity Youth, who are young adults disconnected from school and work between the ages of 14-25-years-old. The main components of the program include healthy relationships education skills, youth job training and career development, and case management and community-centered supportive services. Relationships education and skill building are taught by integrating healthy relationships education into schools so Opportunity Youth can receive training in understanding healthy and unhealthy behaviors, identifying abusive relationships, connecting to resources, increasing peer awareness of abuse issues and related health concerns, and engaging in harm reduction behaviors. Youth workforce development is improved through Technology Boot Camps that provide training and technical assistance as well as case management and support services for youth so they can learn to build a website by partnering with small local businesses as clients. Through this initiative, they participate in six-week workshops tailored to those who are involved in the justice system, in or aging out of foster care, or currently homeless. Students in traditional and nontraditional (community, court, and continuation) school sites participate in professional development for young adults, which is integrated into existing courses or offered as an extracurricular activity. Students and Opportunity Youth learn both soft and hard skills. Opportunity Youth and students in nontraditional schools have skills and needs assessed to determine their needs for case management, referrals and support services, and tailored educational programming. All participants receive opportunity coordination services, including placement and connection to jobs, internships, and further educational opportunities.
Public Health Institute
Ginn House, Preservation Park
600 13th Street
Suite 300
Oakland, CA 94607
510-788-7557
susan.watson@phi.org
https://www.californiateenhealth.org/
Rubicon Programs - Located in Richmond, California, Rubicon Programs, Inc., implements the Fathers Advancing Community Together (FACT) program. FACT provides robust case management services, comprehensive career assessment, and planning and advising to help fathers enter career pathways leading to self-sufficiency. The program serves a part of California’s Contra Costa County, which includes the cities of Antioch, Pittsburg, and unincorporated Bay Point in the East; and Richmond and San Pablo in the West. These areas have high rates of family poverty (families with children under 18-years-old with incomes below the Federal Poverty threshold) and disproportionately large numbers of formerly incarcerated people returning from jail and prison every year. The target population includes fathers who are TANF recipients, as well as homeless, and/or noncustodial parents with active child support cases. FACT also serves fathers reentering the community after incarceration who are part of Rubicon’s Promoting Advances in Paternal Accountability and Success work program. The responsible parenting program includes: 1) parenting classes; 2) coaching and case management for positive parenting and child support; and 3) facilitated playgroups. The economic stability and mobility program includes: 1) pre-employment job readiness training; 2) small-group search training, assistance and digital literacy training; 3) benefits screening and application assistance; 4) transitional employment and on-the-job training; 5) intensive and individualized vocational assessment, career advising, and vocational training scholarships; and 6) job placement and retention services. The healthy marriage and relationship programs include: 1) healthy relationship education workshops for couples; 2) couples relationship case management; 3) family financial literacy training, which includes development of a personal spending plan and household budget; and 4) an innovative lending circle program.
Rubicon Programs, Inc.
2500 Bissell Avenue
Richmond, CA 94804-1815
510-412-1703
ront@rubiconprograms.org
http://www.rubiconprograms.org
Vista Community Clinic - The Dads’ Club at Vista Community Clinic (VCC) is located in Vista, California. This program offers parenting workshops, relationship workshops, and comprehensive case management to help fathers and paternal caregivers achieve healthy relationships with their partners and children. It also promotes economic mobility and addresses other identified participant needs. In addition to offering parenting and healthy relationships education, the Dads’ Club provides support services towards employment through job training and job skills development so participants may obtain and maintain gainful employment. Assistance and support are provided through services coordination that cover basic needs including behavioral health, financial literacy, domestic violence services, housing assistance, substance abuse treatment, and child support, custody, and visitation.
Vista Community Clinic
1000 Vale Terrace
Vista, CA 92084
766-631-5000
salcantar@vcc.org
http://www.vistacommunityclinic.org/
YMCA of San Diego County - The YMCA of San Diego County’s (YMCASD) Connections 2020 is a Healthy Marriage Program located in San Diego, California. The program helps low-income and marginalized youth, 18-24-years-old, develop the skills necessary to make and maintain healthy relationships leading to healthier marriages and stronger families. Connections 2020 is specifically designed to serve low-income, at-risk/disconnected youth, including those who have dropped out or are at risk of dropping out of high school, involved in the juvenile justice system, in or aging out of foster care, runaways, homeless, pregnant, and parenting youth. Youth who have experienced trauma often have impaired abilities to regulate emotions, manage impulses, refrain from engaging in highrisk behaviors, and identifying and engaging in mutually supportive healthy relationships. At the same time, they also often lack the practical skills necessary for economic stability and mobility. Connections 2020 strengthens marriage and relationship education skills by helping youth build specific relational competencies that are often underdeveloped in at-risk/disconnected youth. Participants with children increase their positive parenting skills and are able to work better with their child’s other parent. All participants gain an increased knowledge about healthy relationships and leave with an improved employment status.
YMCA of San Diego County
3708 Ruffin Road
San Diego, CA 92123
760-994-6900
ndevico@ymca.org
http://www.ymca.org/yfs
HMRF Grantees in Colorado
Denver Indian Center, Inc. - The Denver Indian Center, Inc. (DICI), located in Denver, Colorado, is the steward of the Honoring Fatherhood Program (HFP). The HFP provides culturally competent, trauma-informed parenting and relationship skills-building workshops and economic stability support services for income eligible American Indian and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) residing in the seven-county Denver metropolitan area. As an urban hub in the western United States for the AI/AN people, the Denver metropolitan area is home to 14% of Colorado’s AI/AN population. DICI selected AI/AN fathers as the primary target population because of the need for developed and delivered services specific for this underserved subgroup of the community. The HFP utilizes a strengths-based, multi-pronged approach to support AI/AN fathers as they strive to provide economic stability for themselves and their families. The program encourages AI/AN men to become more engaged fathers, partners, and community members. The HFP approach includes: 1) parent skills building and support utilizing the evidence-informed 24/7 Dad curricula; 2) economic stability support in collaboration with the DICI’s Native Workforce program, which is funded through the U.S. Department of Labor, as well as evidence-based case management and job placement services; and 3) marriage/relationship skills building and support utilizing the Leading the Next Generation curriculum that was developed by the Native Wellness Institute.
Denver Indian Center, Inc.
4407 Morrison Road
Denver, CO 80219-1422
303-936-2688
steve@denverindiancenter.org
http://www.denverindiancenter.org
The Center for Relationship Education - Located in Denver, Colorado, The Center for Relationship Education’s (CRE) Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education Project (HMREP) brings together key partners in the targeted seven county areas along the Denver Metropolitan Front Range of Colorado to provide successfully demonstrated marriage and relationship education. CRE’s strategy is to address participation barriers and the economic needs of participants who have difficulty obtaining or maintaining employment and economic stability. The HMREP targets TANF individuals and families, noncustodial and custodial single parent families, active military individuals and couples, low-income and high-risk youth, formerly incarcerated individuals, refugees, and immigrants. The program’s services are collaborative in scope providing: 1) recruitment, referral, participation, and retention strategies to alleviate barriers; 2) marriage and relationship education skills; and 3) wraparound services, monitoring, and follow-up. The goal is to increase the healthy relationship skills of participants through six-to-eight-hour workshops and retreats. Strategic partners, who are long-term experts in each target area, work collaboratively with CRE to identify, enroll, and provide case management to the target populations for service delivery. The HMREP allows overlap in program services for each target demographic to heighten potential of achieving goals.
The Center for Relationship Education
8101 East Belleview Avenue, Suite G
Denver, CO 80237
720.488.8888 ext. 211
rico@myrelationshipcenter.org
http://www.myrelationshipcenter.org
The University of Denver - The University of Denver, located in Denver, Colorado, provides a Healthy Marriage Program called MotherWise. This program serves women who are pregnant or who have a baby less than three-months-old. Participants complete a six week healthy relationship education program. Women are recruited through perinatal care services in the Denver Health Hospital System, from clinics, and community agencies that serve women who are pregnant or who have recently given birth. The program delivers an empirically-based healthy relationship education curriculum, Within My Reach, to groups of women at weekly workshops. Information on infant care and building healthy relationships between parents and their babies is also included in the program. In addition, comprehensive case management services are provided and women enrolled in the program have access to a range of other community services, such as mental health services offered within Denver Health’s Prenatal Care Clinics. In addition, comprehensive case management services are provided and women enrolled in the program have access to a range of other community services, such as mental health services offered within Denver Health’s Prenatal Care Clinics, workforce development training and counseling through their partner, the Center for Work, Education, and Employment. All program participants learn about resources and assistance for domestic and family violence through their domesticviolence prevention partner, SafeHouse Denver. Incentives for attendance as well as supports to reduce barriers to attending such as child care, transportation, and meals are offered to participants. All services are available in English and Spanish.
The University of Denver
1330 Fox St.
Denver, CO 80204
303-871-4280
grhoades@du.edu
https://www.motherwisecolorado.org
HMRF Grantees in Florida
Champions For Children, Inc. - Champions for Children, Inc. (CFC), based in Hillsborough County, Florida implements Positive Parenting Partnership (Triple P) using a public health approach that includes activities to promote healthy relationships among parents. Participants receive tailored interventions in relationship and marriage stability and parenting skills. Interventions vary in intensity based on family risk and protective factors, as well as participants’ choices. While the program is available to all parents in the greater Tampa Bay area, targeted participants include young, low-income families; military families; those with substance abuse diseases; and/or involved with the child welfare system. The program incorporates a variety of assessments and case management services. CFC partners with local agencies for financial management, coaching, and relationship education. The aim is to provide frameworks for relationships, parenting, and financial education designed to prevent and treat behavioral and emotional problems in children and teenagers; problems in families, schools, and communities before they arise; and to create family environments that encourage children to realize their potential by helping parents replace ineffective parenting strategies with effective ones that encourage positive child behavior. Because the curriculum has a public health approach within a sufficiency model, it allows for the intensity of support to match parental needs and/or preferences.
Champions for Children, Inc.
3108 West Azeele Street
Tampa, FL 33609-3059
813-673-4646 ext. 5104
sbularca@cfctb.org
http://www.cfctb.org/
Children's Harbor, Inc. - True North is a Healthy Marriage Program administered by Children’s Harbor, Inc. (CHI) in Broward County, Florida. Understanding the issues facing former foster care youth and the existing system of care, True North was designed as a collaborative research project, comprised of experienced nonprofit partners, a holistic evaluation plan, and intensive evidence-based interventions. The interventions include healthy relationship sessions, strengths-based case management, motivational interviewing, financial literacy sessions, job readiness training, employment opportunities, and permanent connections. True North utilizes youth engagement elements, such as prosocial activities and incentives, to support participant recruitment and retention. Links to supportive services dealing with domestic violence and substance abuse, for example, are also incorporated to reduce barriers to goal achievement. The program helps young adults forge a pathway to successful adulthood by providing opportunities to participate in evidence-based programs and promising practices.
Children’s Harbor, Inc.
19435 SW 58th Manor
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33332-1301
954-252-3072
rpires@childrensharbor.org
http://www.childrensharbor.org
Family Resources, Inc. - Family Resources, Inc., located in Pinellas Park, Florida, provides the Safe2B-You and Me Program for at-risk youth and young adults in Pinellas and Manatee Counties in Florida. The program provides relationship education services to a variety of youth and young adults, focusing primarily on those who are most at-risk in the community. This includes youth in foster care, those who are struggling in school, and those who come from disadvantaged backgrounds. The program also serves young, single, and married low-income adults who may have few healthy role models. These young adults represent the groups that are most likely to be at-risk for troubled relationships, poor parenting skills, and may have personal histories of trauma from abuse, neglect, and/or violence in their homes or communities. They are the least likely to have had permanent mentors or parental figures in their lives and their parents typically have lower levels of education, income, and may already be at high-risk of becoming divorced. Finally, the program provides more widespread services in mainstream high schools in two counties, particularly in areas that are largely serving low-income students. The goals of the program are to: 1) improve healthy relationship and marriage skills; 2) improve parenting and co-parenting skills; 3) improve financial management skills; and 4) help young people have realistic expectations and communication and conflict resolution skills when entering into relationships.
Family Resources, Inc.
5180 62nd Avenue North
Pinellas Park, FL 33781
727-521-5200 Ext. 1003
acoble@family-resources.org
http://www.family-resources.org/
Jewish Family & Children's Service of the Suncoast, Inc. (JFCS) - The Healthy Families/Healthy Children (HFHC) program at Jewish Family and Children’s Service (JFCS) of the Suncoast Inc. is a healthy marriage program located in the Sarasota and Manatee Counties of Florida. The goal of the HFHC program is to ensure that all children in the region live in stable, happy, and healthy family situations. Guided by the Jewish tradition of helping all people, JFCS empowers individuals and families toward self-sufficiency. The program addresses the need for services that will improve knowledge about finances and improve economic self-sufficiency in the target population of low-income individuals, couples 18-years and older and their family members. In conjunction with their community partners, JFCS provides relationship and parenting education and skills, as well as other services for their participants. All classes are offered in Spanish and/or English. JFCS makes a robust effort to address participation barriers through partnerships with local employers and employment skillsbuilding agencies to address the economic stability needs of its participants. JFCS assigns a case manager to every participant to provide individualized support service coordination and to ensure comprehensive service delivery. They are also the advocates for participants who need additional community services and supports. Participants who complete the program have meaningful improvements in marriage and relationship skills, parenting/coparenting skills, family functioning, adult and child well-being, and better economic stability with a reduction in poverty. All services in HFHC are linguistically and culturally sensitive and relevant to meet participants’ needs.
Jewish Family and Children’s Service of the Suncoast
2688 Fruitville Road
Sarasota, FL 34237
941-366-2224
abaker@jfcs-cares.org
http://www.jfcs-cares.org
Northeast Florida Healthy Start Coalition, Inc. - The Northeast Florida Healthy Start Coalition, Inc. (NEFHSC), located in Jacksonville, Florida, implements the Growing Responsible Fathers’ program. This program strengthens and expands responsible fatherhood and provides opportunities for employment, housing, health care, mentoring, and recidivism reduction services. Operating in five northeast Florida counties including Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau, and St. Johns, NEFHSC offers a comprehensive program for fathers, both inside and outside of correctional facilities. Participants receive case management services, referrals, and participate in group-based class activities in addition to responsible parenting, economic stability, and healthy relationship education. NEFHSC has strong community partnerships that have also implemented evidence-based educational programs. Because of the growing need for fatherhood responsibility and its effect on maternal and child well-being, the Coalition has developed a Fatherhood Initiative Task Force for the Northeast Florida region that collaborates with other area fatherhood providers. The goal of the project is to address the comprehensive needs of fathers, to improve fathers’ relationships with their children by increasing financial self-sufficiency, fatherhood responsibility, compliance with child support cases, educational attainment, and reducing domestic violence and recidivism rates. Fathers are referred to the program by the local family courts, reentry centers, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, local Healthy Start programs, the child welfare system, and other community partners. The needs of referred fathers are assessed and addressed through a three-tier case management system that includes group-based classes; and a variety of community referrals, including financial literacy, co-parenting classes, job readiness training, and additional fatherhood education. Program and partner agencies’ staff receive training on domestic violence and the Growing Fathers Workshop is designed to help fathers understand and gain knowledge about the negative effects of domestic violence or intimate partner violence that a father can impose on his entire family.
Northeast Florida Healthy Start Coalition, Inc.
1345 N. Laura Street
Jacksonville, FL 32206
904-647-8942 ext. 102
jjohnson@nefhsc.org
http://nefhealthystart.org
University of Central Florida - The University of Central Florida, located in Orlando, Florida, provides relationship education to low-income, ethnically diverse individuals and couples in the greater Orlando community through Project Harmony. Individuals living in the greater Orlando area are the targeted population for this program. Project Harmony’s goals are to: 1) provide relationship education to low-income singles and couples; 2) increase marital and relationship satisfaction; 3) increase parental involvement through a co-parenting alliance; 4) increase the number of couples in healthy marriages or committed relationships; 5) improve conflict resolution skills; 6) increase communication skills between couples; and 7) improve access to community social services, including mental health and career related services. To support the goal of increasing economic stability, participants are engaged in the Career Pathways Program to improve their knowledge and skills in financial literacy and to enhance employability skills.
University of Central Florida Marriage & Family Research Institute
12649 Triangulum Court
Building 402
Orlando, FL 32816-8036
407-823-4219
bridgette.toussaint@ucf.edu
https://www.mfri.ucf.edu/
University of Florida Board of Trustees - The University of Florida’s Cooperative Extension Service in the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences College (UF/IFAS) implements the Strengthening Marriage and Relationship Training (SMART) Florida Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education Community Partnership Initiative in five strategically located counties across Florida (i.e., Santa Rosa, Duval, Alachua, Manatee, Citrus, and Palm Beach). These counties’ residents represent the breadth and depth of Florida’s rural and urban population geographically, ethnically, and socioeconomically. Comprehensive research-based and evidence-based curricula and community partner programs, services, and resources are provided to program participants. These programs are designed to address the social, emotional, and economic stability needs and well-being of individuals, couples, and children in the identified geographic locations. Programs are provided at two levels of integration (Level I: Information Dissemination and Level II: Training) to assist highly supported, trained, and networked UF/IFAS Extension County Agents and their community partners to strengthen marriages, relationships, and families among Florida residents in four statutory activity areas: 1) Education in High Schools; 2) Pre-Marital Education; 3) Marriage and Relationship Education/ Skills; and 4) Marriage and Remarriage. Youth and young adults, unmarried couples, those preparing for marriage, married couples, and remarried couples in stepfamilies, parents, and active military and veteran couples are served through the program. There is a particular focus on participants who may be vulnerable to low-income, low-resource, substance abuse, mental health, domestic violence, and child abuse issues. The latter populations constitute some of the target groups served through the SMART Program. Participants are evaluated, assisted, and referred to community partner agencies using the SMART Assessment tool. Outcomes include promoting a comprehensive and sustainable approach to helping participants improve adult and child well-being by gaining the knowledge and skills needed to reduce poverty, increase economic mobility and stability, and improve family functioning.
University of Florida Board of Trustees
219 Grinter Hall
PO Box 115500
Gainesville, FL 32611-5500
352-273-3523
victorharris@ufl.edu
http://www.smartcouples.org
University of Miami - The University of Miami, located in Miami, Florida, administers a program that offers services nationwide through effective webbased curricula for low-income couples considering marriage, couples seeking to enrich their relationships, and distressed couples seeking to solve relationship problems. Compared to in-person classes, brief online interventions are much more accessible to low-income couples. Research shows 67% of individuals who are classified at the 100% poverty levels and 79% of individuals who are classified at under the 200% poverty levels have either a smartphone or a home computer with broadband access. The University of Miami also conducts a nationwide public advertising campaign with the dual purposes of recruiting for online programs, while also increasing knowledge of the benefits of marriage and the necessary skills for successful marriages. The program’s target population includes: 1) couples considering marriage; 2) married couples seeking to enrich their relationships; and 3) distressed couples seeking to prevent divorce. All participants are reporting income levels under 200% of the federal poverty level. The University of Miami offers two-web-based curricula - ePREP and OurRelationship – which have been shown to create meaningful and significant improvements in relationship satisfaction, communication, domestic violence, co-parenting, work functioning, depression, and anxiety.
University of Miami
Department of Psychology
5665 Ponce de Leon Blvd.
Coral Gables, FL 33146
305-284-1101
bdoss@miami.edu
https://www.ourrelationship.com/
HMRF Grantees in Georgia
More than Conquerors, Inc. - Located in Conyers, Georgia, More than Conquerors, Inc., implements the Marriage Appreciation Training Uplifting Relationship Education (MATURE Plus II) project. MATURE Plus II is designed to be completely consistent with the overarching purpose of promoting healthy marriage and relationship education. The program serves primarily Latino and African American high school students living in the most impoverished and at-risk areas of Cobb, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Newton, and Rockdale Counties in Georgia. Students are given the knowledge and skills to help them value marriage, improve their present and future relationships, and become more responsible with money through budgeting and financial literacy training. They also receive education about domestic violence. MATURE Plus II integrates job and career advancement services, as well as comprehensive case management. All parts of the program are in line with Georgia’s Education in High Schools Healthy Marriage initiative. In addition to working with schools, More Than Conquerors, Inc. plans and participates in youth-focused events throughout the community to share the message of marriage and healthy relationships with at least an additional 250 youth every year in the targeted counties. All of the program’s objectives are achieved through a community- and school-based approach that focuses on skill acquisition, and utilizes a youth, community, and school saturation model.
More Than Conquerors, Inc.
997 Commerce Drive SW, Suite 1A
Conyers, GA 30094
770-483-3299
pfaust@mtciga.org
http://www.mtciga.org/
University of Georgia - Located in Athens, Georgia, The University of Georgia is working in collaboration with the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) to promote the safety and well-being of youth and families in the child welfare system. The primary goals of the project are to improve family functioning and create positive and stable homes through the integration of comprehensive services designed to improve healthy marriage and relationship skills, as well as promote economic stability and mobility. The target population is families engaged in home visitation and/or DFCS in 12, mostly rural, counties. Families served include: 1) expectant parents and parents with children from birth-to-17-years-old, who are receiving in-home services or family and children services/benefits to reduce risk for neglect/abuse; 2) foster caregivers in committed couple relationships (married or unmarried) because services to manage the stress on couple and co-parenting relations are desirable but not available; and 3) reunified families with sustaining permanency including biological parents of children 0-17-years-old, who were removed from their home and were recently reunified. The program incorporates multiple community-centered strategies to implement healthy marriage and relationship education activities. Working with community partners, the project offers economic stability and mobility activities that enhance the employability skills of low-income participants as well as financial literacy activities. The latter includes education about budgeting, financial planning and management, income tax assistance, and asset development.
University of Georgia
409 Tucker Hall
310 East Campus Road
Athens, GA 30602
706-542-9004
tfutris@uga.edu
http://www.fcs.uga.edu/hmre/projectfree
HMRF Grantee in Idaho
Nez Perce Tribe - The Nez Perce Tribe of North Central Idaho, located in Lapwai, Idaho, provides a comprehensive, reservation-wide effort to engage high school students and young adults with programs, curricula, social forums, and incentives to build knowledge and skills for healthy marriages and relationships. The I-Vision Project, which is the Nez Perce youth program, aims to reach all corners of the Nez Perce Reservation. The project has high visibility in Lapwai, which is the center of Nez Perce’s tribal government, and also at Kamiah, which is 60 miles east on the reservation. The I-Vision Project uses Leading the Next Generation’s Healthy Relationships curricula, which is from the Native Wellness Institute’s Healthy Relationship Program. The program also educates and engages it participants in financial literacy through the Tribal Community Development Financial Institution’s cooperative partnerships. Case management services and culturally relevant support services are provided on a voluntary basis for high school students and young adults on the Nez Perce Reservation. Participants engage with project staff from the recruitment phase to the completion of the program. The I-Vision Project educates participants so they feel empowered to seek healthy relationships, marriages, and have better financial understanding.
Nez Perce Tribe
311 Agnecy Road
Lapawi, ID 83540
208-790-9207 ext. 4813
ryano@nezperce.org
http://nezperce.org
HMRF Grantees in Illinois
Family Bridges - Family Bridges’ (FB) Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education initiative, Deep Roots, Long Branches (DRLB), addresses the emotional, social, physical, and economic needs of low-income communities. FB provides culturally-competent, evidencebased, healthy marriage and family formation supports through the work of a strong community partnership. Located in Villa Park, Illinois, the target audiences are adults and adolescents living in the northern Illinois Chicagoland area, including the Wisconsin/Illinois border (up to Milwaukee, Sheboygan, and Green Bay, WI) with special focus on minorities, low-income, and underserved individuals and families. DRLB offers a range of services including: 1) healthy marriage and relationship education (HMRE); 2) job and career advancement supports to increase participants’ employability and opportunities to achieve economic self-sufficiency; and 3) supports to increase participants’ engagement; and 4) multiple marketing efforts, including social media to promote services. Family Bridges’ staff serve as leaders for the program, which includes seven additional agency affiliates with five or more years of experience conducting HMRE activities across a broad sector of low-income, ethnically diverse populations; including Latino, African American, and Caucasian students, individuals, and couples. This project has positive community-wide results among depressed, underserved, low-income families in eight of the most densely populated counties in Illinois: Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kankakee, Lake McHenry, Will, and Winnebago Counties.
Family Bridges
17W662 Butterfield Rd., Suite 303
Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181
708-524-1600, ext. 225
nancy@familybridgesusa.org
https://familybridgesusa.com/
Illinois State University - The Champaign Area Relationship Education for Youth (CARE4U) is a Healthy Marriage Program administered by the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences at Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois. The program provides at-risk youth (ages 15-24-yearsold) in Champaign County with relationship education, job readiness, and financial management skills. The program’s goals are to enhance participants’ well-being and support their successful transitions to adulthood. The program uses a skills-based relationship education program along with job readiness and financial literacy curricula that are designed specifically for teens and young adults. It also includes a summer youth employment component or community college tuition reimbursement opportunities. Four CARE4U facilitators deliver the curriculum and implement the program with the help of student assistants from Illinois State University and community partner co-facilitators. The program is delivered to groups of 10-20 at-risk youth who are recruited through various community partners. Weekly sessions are conducted at different local sites during the course of the nine month program. Session topics include healthy relationships, communication skills, conflict resolution strategies, job readiness skills, and financial literacy education. This comprehensive approach incorporates promising practices for relationship education serving low-income, ethnically diverse populations. CARE4U provides a long-term program that partners with well-established community organizations and uses both age and culturally appropriate materials with the goal of reducing barrriers to participant enrollment.
Illinois State University
Campus Box 5060
Normal, IL 61790
309-438-2517
ayazedj@illinoisstate.edu
https://about.illinoisstate.edu/care4u
The Salvation Army Family and Community Services - The Salvation Army Family and Community Services’ program, Fatherhood in Action (FIA), is located in Chicago, Illinois. FIA is an integrated, cohort model educational group focused on healthy relationships and understanding one’s role as a father. The primary target of the program is vulnerable fathers, many of whom are in residential treatment facilities or incarcerated. FIA also targets residents of communities in West and Southeast Chicago who live in neighborhoods negatively affected by poverty and violence. The three components of FIA’s program are: 1) understanding one’s role as a father and the effect on children; 2) building a healthy relationship with the co-parent; and 3) workforce development. A majority of the participants in the program have been identified and recruited by our partners through their programming while a small number of participants come from community outreach efforts. Participants are screened by the partners to determine if they are a good fit for the FIA program. After orientation, participants attend an eight-week fatherhood program and also receive on-going case management services. Upon completion of the course, participants are referred to the workforce development program if appropriate.
The Salvation Army Family and Community Services
5045 W 47th Street
Chicago, IL 60638
773-354-1402
derrick_white@usc.salvationarmy.org
http://salarmychicago.org/family
HMRF Grantee in Indiana
Centerstone of Indiana - Centerstone of Indiana, Inc.'s Responsible Fatherhood program, Providing Opportunities for Parental Success (POPS), is located in Bloomington, Indiana. The program provides a comprehensive, evidence-based continuum of services to address the needs of fathers in six Indiana counties: Bartholomew, Brown, Lawrence, Monroe, Morgan, and Owen. POPS is dedicated to helping individuals with children and families sustain responsible fatherhood. The program’s target populations are fathers of all varieties, particularly at-risk fathers (e.g., low-income, TANF-eligible, criminal justice-involved), and military veterans. The program provides one-on-one support to assist fathers with selfassessment, planning and setting goals, and finding and retaining employment. POPS collaborates with community entities (e.g., criminal justice, employment, education, and social services) and consults with domestic violence and child maltreatment experts and agencies to address the participants’ barriers, including poverty, unemployment, limited/inaccessible services and programming, and lack of transportation. By providing responsible fatherhood education, case management services, supportive services, and community collaborations, POPS improves father-child engagement, job stability, and promotes healthier relationships.
Centerstone of Indiana, Inc.
645 South Rogers Street
Bloomington, IN 47403
812-337-2440
jennifer.fillmore@centerstone.org
http://www.centerstone.org
HMRF Grantee in Iowa
Iowa Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives - Healthy Relationships Iowa (HRI), a project of the Iowa Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, is headquartered in West Des Moines, Iowa. The HRI program partners with alternative high school programs, churches, refugee communities, child and family support agencies, and reentry/ substance abuse populations in Des Moines, Wapello, Keokuk, Lee, Muscatine, and Scott Counties. The goals of the HRI program are to: 1) provide marriage and relationship education in high schools; 2) teach pre-marital education; and 3) enhance married couples’ relationships, parenting skills, and reduce divorce rates. HRI offers multiple program activities and integrated comprehensive services that respond to family needs to promote healthy marriage and relationships. The sixcounty project targets individuals who are eligible to receive, are receiving, or previously received TANF as well as at-risk school youth, individuals in foster care, homeless high school students, and the growing Latino population. HRI is structured around an integrated service strategy inspired by World Class Relationships for Work+Home by Healthy Relationships California, and branded as Healthy Iowa Relationships for Work+Home (HIRe), with permission from and in collaboration with the developer. HIRe is curricula geared toward educating incarcerated individuals, refugees, and at-risk participants. HRI provides a foundation for work-ready clients to pursue job plans with Iowa Workforce Development and community college job resources, using career pathways and referrals to specialized areas for those requiring additional services. This integrated work and home strategy allows flexible intake and enrollment, support services, case management, and referrals to community services tailored to fit participants’ individual needs.
Iowa Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
1725 South 50th Street, Suite 228
West Des Moines, IA 50265
515-223-5345
info@iowacenter.org
https://healthyrelationshipsiowa.org
HMRF Grantees in Kentucky
Gateway Community Services Organization, Inc. - The New Pathways for Fathers and Families Program is a responsible fatherhood program in West Liberty, Kentucky administered by the Gateway Community Services Organization, Inc. (GCSO) in partnership with Kentucky River Foothills Development Council. The goals of the program are to promote positive father/child engagement, improve employment and economic mobility opportunities, strengthen relationships and marriages, and decrease the barriers for fathers to achieve success. GCSO provides individualized case management and access to community resources to address the social, emotional, and economic stability needs of eligible fathers in the Kentucky counties of Bath, Clark, Estill, Madison, Menifee, Montgomery, Morgan, Powell, and Rowan. GCSO’s target population is low-income and at-risk fathers. This includes families with TANF experience and fathers with low educational attainment, disabilities, experience with the criminal justice system, and veterans. Responsible parenting activities include skills-based fatherhood education with information about good parenting practices and one-on-one coaching about fatherhood issues. Economic stability activities include job readiness workshops, linkages with additional job training and educational opportunities, job search and placement assistance, and employment incentives at 30 and 90-days of employment. Healthy marriage and relationship activities include marriage and relationship education, conflict resolution skills training, financial literacy seminars, and individualized coaching. An annual parent/child event is also available for program participants. The project also links fathers to transportation, child care, education, and job training services in multiple locations throughout the nine-county area. Individualized, culturally sensitive, gender-competent, and comprehensive case management services also foster program participation and success.
Gateway Community Services Organization, Inc.
151 University Drive
West Liberty, KY 41472
606-743-3133
leah.kohr@gcscap.org
http://www.gatewaycaa.org
Mountain Comprehensive Care Center (MCCC) - Mountain Comprehensive Care Center (MCCC), located in Prestonsburg, Kentucky, offers the MCCC Responsible Fatherhood Opportunities for Reentry and Mobility Program for fathers. The program strengthens positive father-child engagement, improves employment and economic mobility opportunities, promotes healthy relationships and marriages, and decreases barriers to successful community reentry in the six adjacent counties of Floyd, Johnson, Lawrence, Magoffin, Martin, and Pike in eastern Kentucky. MCCC has a physical presence in all six counties and established relationships with the Floyd County Detention Center and Big Sandy Regional Detention Center for prerelease services. Responsible parenting activities offered by MCCC include: 1) skillsbased parenting education; 2) dissemination of information about good parenting practices; 3) one-on-one counseling about specific parenting issues; and 4) facilitation of activities that encourage participants to financially support their children. Economic stability activities include job readiness workshops, and upon release, linkages with job training, educational assistance, job search and placement assistance as well as employment incentives at 30 days of employment. Healthy marriage/relationship activities include marriage and relationship education, conflict resolution skills, financial literacy seminars, and counseling. Semi-annual parent/child occasions and an annual relationship event foster stronger family connections.
Mountain Comprehensive Care Center
104 South Front Avenue
Prestonsburg, KY 41653-1614
606-886-8572
christy.hicks@mtcomp.org
http://www.mtcomp.org
University of Louisville Research Foundation - The University of Louisville Research Foundation, Inc.’s Responsible Fatherhood Program, 4 Your Child, is located in Louisville, Kentucky. This program goes beyond traditional fatherhood initiatives by integrating responsible parenting, economic stability, and relationship education services to fathers at risk for paternal disengagement. The University of Louisville’s Kent School of Social Work uses its existing relationship with the Kentucky Office of Child Support Enforcement for referral to the program. Specifically, through 4 Your Child, non-custodial fathers are provided a comprehensive and solution-oriented program, featuring: 1) group-based parent education and individualized case management services to help achieve financial independence; 2) increase parenting skills, and; 3) develop a co-parenting alliance. There are positive and significant implications for the families 4 Your Child serves, as well as the practitioners, researchers, and policymakers interested in responsible fatherhood. The responsible fatherhood, healthy relationship, and co-parenting skills training is delivered in group-based workshops featuring the 24/7 Dad curriculum. Participants are screened for high levels of co-parenting conflict. In addition to the group-based responsible fatherhood, healthy relationship, and co-parenting training workshops, participants receive workforce development and community support case management services. These case management services begin with an intake assessment followed by the Parent Resource Coordinator convening a team of supportive persons identified by the participant to determine his strengths, needs, and how they can assist him to increase the quantity and quality of his fathering, as well as secure stable employment to contribute to his child’s financial security by overcoming obstacles and maintaining accountability.
University of Louisville Research Foundation, Inc.
300 East Market Street, Suite 300
The Nucleus
Louisville, KY 40202-1959
502-852-3234
armon.perry@louisville.edu
http://www.4yourchild.org/
HMRF Grantees in Maryland
Center for Urban Families
- The Center for Urban Families’ (CFUF), Baltimore Responsible Fatherhood Project (BRFP), is located in Baltimore, Maryland. The BRFP promotes responsible fatherhood, economic stability, healthy relationships (including couples and co-parenting), and marriages. It is a fully integrated system of family strengthening programs and services helping vulnerable families by providing parenting and family stability education and services. The program includes job readiness and occupational skills training, work placement services, retention and advancement assistance, as well as healthy relationship activities. Participants are 98% AfricanAmerican, 30% lack a high school diploma or GED, 25% are on probation or parole, 50% lack stable housing, 35% report having no employment for the past 12 months, and more than 50% report a history of criminal activity and/or incarceration. Ninety-percent of participants face one or more temporary and/or chronic barrier(s) that prevent them from achieving family stability and economic success without guidance, training, and personalized assistance. BRFP’s focus is on young, low-income stepfathers, biological, expectant, and adoptive fathers, stepfathers, or a person who is acknowledged as a father figure for a dependent child or young adult child up to 18-years-old. CFUF uses a service delivery model of Family Stability and Economic Success. The program offers an array of wraparound services tailored to address the needs of parents and their families by providing intensive case management and supportive services. These services also help CFUF address barriers to program completion and employment such as housing, physical and mental health, substance abuse, domestic violence, child maltreatment, child support, personal development, and work supports including clothing, transportation, and childcare.
Center for Urban Families
2201 North Monroe Street
Baltimore, MD 21217
410-367-5691
blyght@cfuf.org
http://www.cfuf.org
Housing Opportunities Commission of Montgomery County, MD
- Housing Opportunities Commission (HOC) of Montgomery County, Maryland, located in Kensington, Maryland, offers the HOC Fatherhood Initiative. The target population is recruited from single, female-led households who participate in the Public Housing/Housing Choice Voucher programs. Through intensive case management, counseling, mentoring, educational workshops, and vocational training, the HOC Fatherhood Initiative reinforces positive parenting skills and advances child well-being, while simultaneously empowering fathers and mothers to improve their economic self-sufficiency and successfully address issues and barriers that may affect father and child as well as family relationships. Participants attend classes where they learn to effectively deal with anger/conflict; responsible parenting skills; and education to work on their self-worth, family relations, and other important components that contribute to healthy relationships and/or marriages with the mother(s) of their child(ren). Attention is placed on fathers learning about power and control, shared parenting, and communication skills. HOC partners with Montgomery College and A Wider Circle to provide comprehensive services that lead fathers to employment and ultimately greater self-sufficiency, which in turn helps them to better support their children and subsequently improve their relationships with the mother(s) of their child(ren). Financial literacy training is offered by PNC Bank. With vocational training, workshops, counseling and mentoring, fathers participate in an integrated program that helps propel them to greater self-sufficiency.
Housing Opportunities Commission of Montgomery County, MD
10400 Detrick Avenue
Kensington, MD 20895-2440
240-627-9555
jonathan.cartagena@hocmc.org
http://www.hocmc.org
HMRF Grantee in Massachusetts
Family Services of Merrimack Valley - To improve outcomes for children, Family Services of Merrimack Valley provides healthy marriage and relationships education and skills programs for lowincome Latino couples in Greater Lawrence, Massachusetts. The Strengthening Couples Program (SCP) has four program elements: 1) implementation of the evidence-based Within Our Reach relationship education curriculum, which is required for program participation; 2) education curricula, including Parenting Wisely for approximately 50% of SCP participants, and 24/7 Dad for a smaller number of parents who require more in-depth parent education; 3) comprehensive case management to leverage additional support services, and 4) economic stability and mobility activities provided by an employment and financial coach who works with couples individually to help them achieve their economic goals. The coaches also coordinate on-site financial and employment workshops and the Valley Works Career Center provides five career center seminars. SCP has a part-time outreach worker, who is focused on male recruitment and retention. This unique program element is designed to address the challenge of recruiting and retaining male partners in this intensive program. SCP partners with several organizations that bring experience and expertise in the areas of economic advancement, domestic violence, and parent education.
Family Services of Merrimack Valley
430 North Canal Street
Lawrence, MA 01840
978-327-6634
acastro@fsmv.org
http://www.fsmv.org
HMRF Grantee in Michigan
Bethany Christian Services - Bethany Christian Services’ Grand Rapids Center for Community Transformation, located in the Grand Rapids, Michigan metropolitan area, follows a comprehensive and integrated model that provides seamless entry into activities for at-risk youth 14-24-years-old. The target population includes youth who are low-income, culturally-underrepresented (including refugees and unaccompanied minors), have truancy issues, are in foster care, and/or are homeless. This population is at high-risk for being human trafficked and having experienced trauma, domestic violence, and/or child maltreatment. Participants receive comprehensive services after being enrolled and are provided with screening, assessment, case management services, and access to a comprehensive and individualized 18-month series of activities including: 1) two evidence-based trauma-informed models, which develop healthy relationships, conflict resolution skills, and parenting skills; 2) a nationally recognized and promising practice model that provides youth with GED preparation and vocational training; and 3) a locally developed social enterprise model that provides opportunities for career exploration, leadership development, entrepreneurial development skills, improving job readiness, and employment. Bethany also utilizes its extensive network of community partners for resource referrals (e.g., mental health, domestic violence services, child maltreatment, housing, and more), training and expertise, and other agency services to ensure access and benefits from needed services.
Bethany Christian Services
901 Eastern Avenue NE
Grand Rapids, MI 49503
616-254-7739
tclarke@bethany.org
https://grcct.com
HMRF Grantees in Missouri
Connections to Success - The Connections to Success initiative, located in St. Charles, Missouri, provides Family Connections (FC), a collaborative program serving parents and individuals. All targeted participants are current residents of the St. Louis region (St. Louis City and County, and St. Charles County) and participants are recruited primarily through referrals from the Missouri Department of Social Services and three local faith-based community organizations located in target ZIP codes within the service region. FC is a cohort-driven, intensive program that integrates evidence-based curricula on healthy marriage and relationships with training and support for obtaining economic stability. The program is specifically tailored for low-income, single parents, at-risk youth, active military and veterans, and formerly incarcerated individuals and their families. Service delivery in FC starts with an orientation, case management assessment, and the creation of a detailed individual development plan, including intensive support from Life Transformation Coaches (LTCs) and program partners. Following the orientation, participants are enrolled in a Personal and Professional Development course that includes skills building modules for job readiness and retention, financial literacy, interpersonal skills, reinforcement of healthy marriage and positive parenting skills, and prevention of domestic violence. Throughout FC, participants work closely with the LTCs who provide coaching and case management to integrate major components of the program. Connections to Success applies its extensive experience linking adults in poverty to employment with partnerships in place for educational and vocational training consistent with labor market demands and youth needs. Participants receive mentoring and ongoing peer support through weekly groups that help individuals and their families apply what they have learned and continue developing knowledge and skills for long-term financial stability.
Connections to Success
3000 Little Hills Expressway, Suite 102
St. Charles, MO 63301-3724
636-940-8027
ctipler@connectionstosuccess.org
http://www.connectionstosuccess.org
Family and Workforce Centers of America - Established in 2011, Family and Workforce Centers of America (FWCA) is a non-profit organization in the St. Louis, Missouri region. FWCA provides comprehensive programs with family strengthening activities that include skill-based training, employment, and financial literacy and asset development that set youth, young adults, and families on a pathway to financial stability. The Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education (HMRE) project targets those living in St. Louis or St. Louis County, who are low-income, TANF or TANF-eligible adults, low-income high school students, at-risk youth who have dropped out of high school, those involved with the juvenile justice system, and individuals in/or aging out of the foster care system. FWCA’s project provides a comprehensive and community-centered program linking education with economic stability and mobility services. FWCA addresses low levels of healthy family functioning; child and adult well-being; high levels of poverty; and economic stability by delivering education and case management services to screen for adverse childhood experiences including trauma, domestic violence, and child maltreatment protocol with referrals to support services. All aspects of the program advocate for a positive family environment; foster child well-being; and economic stability and mobility, while emphasizing self-efficacy and the development of individual strengths.
Family and Workforce Centers of America
6347 Plymouth Avenue
Wellston, MO 63133-1909
314-746-0759
dscales@fwca-stl.com
http://www.fwca-stl.com/
Father's Support Center, St. Louis - Fathers’ Support Center, St. Louis, Inc., (FSC), located in St. Louis, Missouri, provides a comprehensive array of services to fathers. FSC uses evidencebased responsible parenting and healthy relationship education and provides economic stability and mobility education and services. FSC’s goals are to increase the well-being and economic stability of families, adults, and children. The program’s target populations are low-income, single, co-habiting, and married fathers living in St. Louis with a special focus on young fathers. FSC also serves TANF-eligible fathers, incarcerated fathers, and unemployed fathers with recent work histories. The long-term goals of the program are to: 1) help fathers develop healthy relationship and parenting skills that improve coparenting/ family functioning and support adult and child well-being; 2) prepare fathers to become financially and emotionally involved with their children; and 3) help fathers acquire skills to gain and maintain employment to increase economic stability and reduce poverty. FSC provides a six-week, 240-hour Family Formation Program, which uses evidence-based curricula. FSC partners with the St. Louis Agency on Training and Employment, the Missouri Employment and Training Center, Family Workforce Centers of America, and Employment Connection to help participants secure employment services. FSC provides targeted case management services and a variety of education and support services in local One-Stop Career Centers, as well as legal services to secure visitation rights and compliance with established child support orders. Referrals are made to support service agencies to address barriers such as lack of primary health care, substance abuse, domestic and intimate partner violence, child maltreatment, and trauma-informed care.
Fathers’ Support Center, St. Louis, Inc.
4411 North Newstead Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63115-2534
314-333-4170
ctillis@fatherssupport.org
http://fatherssupportcenter.org
The Curators of the University of Missouri - The ShowMe Healthy Relationships (SMHR) project combines the strengths of the University of Missouri Department of Human Development and Family Science, University of Missouri Extension, and three community agencies: Central Missouri Community Action (Columbia); Douglass Community Services, Inc., (Hannibal); and Cornerstones of Care (Kansas City) to provide marriage and relationship education to participants in 21 counties across Missouri. SMHR’s goal is to improve the lives of Missourians by helping singles and couples to: 1) build healthier and more stable couple relationships; 2) become better parents and co-parents; 3) manage stress and increase well-being; and, 4) improve money management and job skills. SMHR has multiple program activities and services that respond to individual, couple, and family needs, and integrates comprehensive services to promote healthy marriages and relationships. Because SMHR believes healthy relationships are important for everyone, working on relationship skills is a great way to support one’s family and increase health and happiness for everyone. SMHR serves single adults, couples, and parents who want to improve their relationships, especially families who face serious stress and challenges. Happy and healthy couples are more likely to have healthy, well-adjusted children.
The Curators of the University of Missouri
University of Missouri
1400 Rock Quarry Road
Columbia, MO 65211
573-882-4325
garneauc@missouri.edu
http://showmehealthyrelationships.com
HMRF Grantees in New York
Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Rochester - Catholic Charities of Wayne County (CCWC), located between Rochester and Syracuse, New York, administers the Thriving Family Program of Wayne County (TFP), which is a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary approach using evidence-based relationship enhancement curriculum. TFP’s target population includes high school students, young adults, African Americans, and immigrants. The program provides screenings for mental health disorders and substance abuse diseases, trauma and domestic violence services, employment training opportunities, and other case management services. TFP has a public marketing component to increase its client base and promote name recognition of the program. TFP is supported by the Wayne County Partnership for Strengthening Families and encourages agency and community collaborations. TFP curricula and activities have been strategically selected and planned to provide healthy educational choices for participants who are single, in relationships, have or are planning to have children, as well as those who are uncertain about future relationships. The overall program design provides a comprehensive approach to assist participants in achieving long-term outcomes of improved individual and family functioning, improved adult and child wellbeing, reduced recidivism, increased economic stability and mobility, reduced poverty, and a successful transition to adulthood for youth.
Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Rochester
180 East Union Street
Newark, NY 14513
315-331-4867
irojas@dor.org
http://www.ccwayne.org
Central Nassau Guidance and Counseling Services, Inc. - The Central Nassau Guidance and Counseling Services, Inc.’s Initiative, Project FORWARD (Facing Obstacles in Relationships and Work with Action, Resources, Direction) in Nassau and Western Suffolk Counties in New York, provides relationship-focused education, case management services, and skill building to promote healthy relationship outcomes and behaviors to youth, young adults, and couples. Project FORWARD works with single individuals 14-29-years-old, couples 16-40-years-old, and young people with mental health and/ or substance use-related disorders, low-income (TANF) recipients, custodial, non-custodial, single, teen parents, and those who are atrisk or involved in the criminal justice system. Project FORWARD uses a three-part approach to reach their target populations: 1) prevention education; 2) outreach to identify and engage other at-risk youth populations (including outreach to agency staff that serve at-risk youth); and 3) case management, economic stability interventions, and structured, evidence-based skill building workshops provided to self-selecting youth and/or young adults (14-29-years-old) and couples (16-40-years-old) who have completed one of the first two parts of the program. Project FORWARD uses a partnership-based, case management-driven, holistic model to integrate targeted, evidence-based interventions that leverage participants’ existing strengths while building new skills to preempt and address causes of stress, dysfunction, and/or obstacles to long-term economic stability, healthy relationships and parenting, and overall wellness.
Central Nassau Guidance and Counseling Services, Inc.
950 South Oyster Bay Road
Hicksville, NY 11801
516-04-3254
kschwarz@centralnassau.org
http://centralnassau.org/programs/projectforward
Montefiore Medical Center - Montefiore Medical Center, located in the Bronx, New York City, delivers healthy marriage services for married couples as well as healthy relationship services for married and unmarried couples. The aim of the program is to meet the myriad of relationship, family, economic, and other social service needs of couples raising children and/or expecting a child in the Bronx. In addition to education, the program also provides employment services, supplemental activities, intensive services for distressed couples, and supportive case management. Following an initial intake assessment, couples are assigned to a cohort and begin core marriage and relationship education (MRE) workshops at Montefiore, which run for 12 consecutive weeks. Services are offered in English and Spanish. All enrolled couples receive 24 hours of MRE. After couples complete the MRE curriculum, they begin phase two of the program that invites them to attend monthly supplemental workshops. Montefiore offers intensive services to couples who meet criteria for being “distressed.” These services include core marriage and relationship education workshops, targeted supplemental workshops, and walkin supportive crisis services. In addition, couples are referred to couples’ treatment when appropriate.
Montefiore Medical Center
334 E. 148th St., 2nd Floor
Bronx, NY 10451
718-401-5050
tmaynigo@montefiore.org
http://www.montefiore.org/SHR
Nepperhan Community Center, Inc. - The Nepperhan Community Center, Inc. (NCC) is a non-profit community-based organization located in Yonkers, New York. NCC’s target population includes at-risk youth ages 14-24-years-old, individuals, couples, caregivers, and parents across the cities of Greenburgh, Mt. Vernon, New Rochelle, Peekskill, White Plains, and Yonkers in the Lower Hudson Valley Region of New York State. With a mission to empower children and families, NCC provides community outreach and support programs to further educational, job readiness, emotional, and life skills in nurturing and culturally diverse environments. NCC supports economic self-sufficiency, healthy relationships and marriages, and parenting skills for youth through its Relationship Education in High Schools activities. With well-established linkages to both local and regional service providers, NCC’s youth program, empowerYOU, has six goals for participants to: 1) improve their financial sustainability and mobility; 2) enhance their parenting skills; 3) build their financial management skills; 4) increase their abilities to manage conflicts and relationships effectively; 5) define and pursue their career ambitions; and 6) help them successfully transition to young adulthood by strengthening their relationship skills and employability.
Nepperhan Community Center, Inc.
342 Warburton Avenue
Yonkers, NY 10701-2228
914-965-0203
elawson@nepperhancc.com
https://www.nepperhancc.com/
Phoenix Houses of New York, Inc. - Phoenix Houses of New York (Phoenix House), located in New York City, administers the Connections Program that serves low-income couples, families, and individuals who are participating in their community-based substance abuse programs in New York City and on Long Island, New York. The goals of the program are to: 1) educate participants about the necessary skills and knowledge to create and/or sustain healthy relationships and marriages; 2) equip participants with the skills and knowledge to raise children in a well-functioning and healthy environment; 3) support the financial stability, job readiness, and employability of participants and significant others to improve economic self-sufficiency and responsibility; and 4) reduce relationship stress and strain on interactions between co-parents. The Phoenix House Connections’ program strengthens marriages and other partner relationships by providing targeted marriage and relationship education skills training for couples and single individuals. Both couples and individual participants engage in financial stability services, with a special focus on debt reduction and child support arrangements. Participants are also referred to internal and external vocational and employment resources for economic advancement. Comprehensive family care management is provided to individuals and couples to ensure the needs of both partners and children are assessed and addressed. Program participants are also connected with support services and community resources to reduce areas of family stress and improve the odds for healthy partner and parent-child relationships.
Phoenix Houses of New York
50 Jay Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201-1144
347-417-5274
gvaida@phoenixhouse.org
https://www.phoenixhouse.org/
Chautauqua Opportunities, Inc. - Chautauqua Opportunities, Inc. (COI), located in Dunkirk, New York, implements the Chautauqua Region Fatherhood Program. The program serves individuals throughout the adjacent counties of Chautauqua and Cattaraugus in New York and Erie County in Pennsylvania. The target population includes fathers or expectant fathers 16-years-old and over who have one or more child under 18-years-old, as well as their families. Specific populations targeted include: TANF recipients and TANF-eligible fathers; fathers who have been incarcerated or are transitioning from incarceration; military veterans; young fathers 16-24-years old who have high risk needs, such as not completing high school, those who are involved in the criminal justice system, single fathers, and those who are in or aging out of the foster care system. The program promotes responsible parenting and healthy parent-child relationships as well as child well-being. Activities in the program include: mentoring; providing skills-based parenting education; supporting opportunities for increased father and child engagement; encouraging child support payments, and advocacy with the state New York Child Support Unit. Activities to increase economic stability are also provided with the goal of increasing the financial support available to the family. These activities include employability and soft skills training; case management and coaching; and financial literacy and budgeting education. The program also connects participants to education programs such as English as a Second Language education and the local Workforce Investment Boards. Activities to advance healthy marriages include evidence-based education that focuses on healthy relationships, emotional regulation, marriage preparation, and the benefits of two-parent families. An active Dads Always Determined to Succeed (DADS) group hosts events to provide opportunities for fathers to spend more time engaging with their children. Peer mentoring opportunities and support groups are also offered through DADS. Counseling and traumainformed supports for participants and their family members who have experienced trauma are available through community providers. Services to address domestic violence or child maltreatment are also provided through partnerships with the Child Advocacy Program and the Salvation Army. Partnerships with local jails help families of incarcerated parents avoid crises. Fathers who are incarcerated are served during this time and post-release. Non-custodial fathers are connected with legal services for assistance with child support and custody issues on an as-needed basis.
Chautauqua Opportunities, Inc.
17 West Courtney Street
Dunkirk, NY 14048
716-366-3333
bvogt@chautopp.org
http://www.chautauquaopportunities.com
Family Enrichment Network, Inc. - Through their New Pathways for Fathers and Families Program (NPFF), The Family Enrichment Network, Inc. (FEN), located in Johnson City, New York, serves fathers who face a number of barriers that interfere with their parenting. These barriers include poor relationships with their children’s mother(s), a lack of positive parenting skills, legal issues, unemployment, financial difficulties, and low levels of education. FEN partners with Family Planning of South Central New York to help low-income Broome and Tioga County fathers gain skills to improve marriages, relationships, and parenting, as well as provide activities to promote the economic stability and self-sufficiency of participants. Upon enrollment, each individual completes a needs assessment and personal goal plan to identify their goals for their marriage/ relationship(s), parenting, employment, and education. Those interested in job/career advancement opportunities complete anonline work readiness assessment tool. This assessment provides a detailed and comprehensive picture of participants’ strengths, barriers, and work readiness. Participants who want to take GED classes complete the Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE) test to determine their skill levels and aptitudes, which guides their appropriate educational placement. Workforce development and economic stability services are provided through in-house activities and by collaborating with local agencies and businesses. FEN also provides ESL classes and college prep for those interested.
Family Enrichment Network, Inc.
24 Cherry Street Box 997
Johnson City, NY 13790
607-723-8313
dlesch@familyenrichment.org
http://www.familyenrichment.org
Structured Employment Economic Development Corporation - SEEDCO, located in New York City, is a national workforce development organization that partners with two communitybased organizations, BronxWorks and STRIVE International. SEEDCO administers the Strong Fathers, Stronger Families (SFSF) Responsible Fatherhood Program. SFSF is a client-driven program that empowers participants to build greater economic self-sufficiency and engagement in their children’s lives. SEEDCO provides client assessments, case management services, career planning, economic stability and mobility training, parenting and relationship education, child support assistance, financial education, job placement and retention skills, career advancement, and other support services. The target population includes young, biological, expectant, adoptive, stepfathers, and other acknowledged father figures; with a particular focus on at-risk young fathers, TANFeligible and past or present TANF recipients, active duty military, and veteran fathers. SFSF has program sites in the communities of the South Bronx and East Harlem, which are among the poorest neighborhoods in New York City. These neighborhoods are home to one-third of the city’s TANF recipients, and in the South Bronx, nearly 50% of the families have children under 18-years-old and incomes below the federal poverty level. SFSF participants face a challenging economic climate and many societal and emotional barriers, including multiple-partner fertility or hostility between former romantic partners who may have a child together, as well as individual barriers such as past involvement with the criminal justice system. SFSF builds on community-based partners’ many years of combined experience serving low-income, at-risk individuals. Shortterm outcomes for participant fathers include improved relationship and marriage skills, better parenting/co-parenting, increased father child engagement, greater financial responsibility, and attainment of new skills and employment. Long-term outcomes include improved family functioning, adult and child well-being, and economic stability and mobility.
SEEDCO
22 Cortlandt Street, Floor 33
New York, NY 10007-3131
646-843-6515
rdavis@seedco.org
http://www.seedco.org/
The Retreat, Inc. - The Retreat, Inc., located in Riverhead, New York, offers the Suffolk County Fatherhood Initiative, which is a community collaboration that addresses the needs of young, lowincome, and/or veteran at-risk fathers in Southeast New York by providing case management, economic stability interventions, and a series of skill-building, group-based and individual activities. These activities are designed to leverage and activate fathers’ respective strengths. The program does this by addressing three specific needs experienced by local fathers: 1) a need for information, skills, and practice related to successful parenting; 2) skills related to building and maintaining healthy personal relationships especially with their children, spouses, or romantic partners; and 3) information, skills, access, and planning to obtain and maintain employment, self-sufficiency, and economic stability. The target populations includes fathers (16-years and older); active military/veterans; those who are on probation or parole; and fathers who are at-risk for committing domestic violence. Services provided to program participants include: comprehensive assessments of all participants, case management services, successful fathering/parenting education and activities, education and skill building activities to promote healthy marriages and relationships, peer mentoring by specialists who have successfully graduated from a responsible fatherhood program, job readiness coaching, economic stability/mobility services, domestic violence prevention education; and program support services (e.g., transportation, on-site child care, and participant support for employment related needs). All activities are designed to also support reducing the risks of family violence.
The Retreat, Inc.
877 East Main Street, Suite 107
Riverhead, NY 11901
631-761-8518
rmccue@theretreatinc.org
http://theretreatinc.org
http://greatfathers.org
The Osborne Association, Inc. - The Osborne Association’s (Osborne) Prepare (Pathways for Reentry, Employment, and Parenting) Program, located in the South Bronx neighborhood of New York City, is a comprehensive responsible parenting, economic stability and mobility, and healthy marriage and relationship education program for fathers involved in the criminal justice system and their families. This includes custodial and noncustodial, biological, adoptive, expectant fathers, stepfathers, and others who are acknowledged as father figures by a child or young adult. Justice involvement includes formerly incarcerated men and those under probation or parole supervision who have been released from incarceration (either sentenced or detained) within the past six months. To strengthen children’s support networks and improve family functioning, Osborne provides family mediation and other supportive services to address the needs of co-parents and children. The Prepare Program uses evidence-based parenting education (24/7 Dad curriculum and Osborne’s own FamilyWorks curriculum), individual and family counseling, and educational and recreational activities. Core services also include evidence-based job readiness training (utilizing the Ready, Set, Work! curriculum), career coaching, financial literacy, child support workshops, industry-recognized credentialing, job placement and retention support, paid internships, and subsidized employment. The Prepare Program provides meaningful incentives to fathers and their families to promote both program engagement and the families’ financial stability.
The Osborne Association, Inc.
809 Westchester Avenue
Bronx, NY 10455-1704
718.707.2600
gheaden@osborneny.org
http://www.osborneny.org/
HMRF Grantee in North Carolina
Family Resource Center of Raleigh - Located in Raleigh, North Carolina, the Family Resource Center South Atlantic (FRCSA) is a community-based, non-profit organization that implements the Day 2 Day Dads Fatherhood Program in Durham, Wake, Nash, and Edgecombe counties. The goals of the program are to strengthen positive father/child engagement, improve economic mobility opportunities, and promote healthy relationships and marriages. FRCSA’s target population is primarily young (16-24-years-old), non-residential fathers. The program’s curricula and services are designed to address high risk factors identified among this population including: 80% of the target population are not in school and unemployed; 30% are incarcerated; about 80% of participants are African American; and 10% are Hispanic. FRCSA’s Day 2 Day Dad’s Program employs a comprehensive and collaborative approach using multiple partnerships to reach and serve participants grouped around responsible parenting, economic stability, and healthy relationships and marriages. The program’s design for helping participants starts with multiple strategies for outreach and recruitment with the goal being to increase participation numbers. FRCSA provides comprehensive case management and program support services, and healthy relationship activities that incorporate the evidence-based curricula. Also, family engagement activities and employment training are provided to participants to address their individual needs. FRCSA partners with community experts to address domestic violence and child maltreatment issues, and establish protocols tailored to the program. By offering a comprehensive program with community-based partners, FRCSA is able to customize services to meet participants’ needs.
Family Resource Center South Atlantic
3825 Barrett Drive, Suite 104
Raleigh, NC 27609-7221
vgriffith@frcsa.org
http://www.frcsa.org/
HMRF Grantee in North Dakota
Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians - The Turtle Mountain (TM) Band of Chippewa Indians, in Belcourt, North Dakota, is a federally recognized Tribe located on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in North Central North Dakota, ten miles south of the Manitoba, Canada border. TM’s program, Turtle Mountain Miikanaake (Pathways for Fathers) Program, strengthens responsible father and child engagement, improves employment and economic mobility opportunities, and promotes healthy relationships. The program has an innovative design, which is culturally appropriate. It uses evidence-based curricula coupled with a comprehensive continuum of care that connects fathers with knowledge, skills enhancement, training, and other opportunities to become responsible, stable supports for their children. TM engages Native fathers at a level that affirms and celebrates who they are as men and fathers while building their self-esteem and self-sufficiency. Participants are enrolled, screened, and assisted with developing an individualized plan that guides their case management and wraparound referral services. TM provides: 1) responsible fatherhood core services and skills (e.g., communication, character-building, parenting) using culturally-appropriate evidence-based curricula; 2) economic stability activities (e.g., GED, education, job skills development, job training, and employment); and 3) healthy relationship training and strengthening activities. TM specifically utilizes carefully selected curricula to best serve their clients’ needs to ensure positive program outcomes. Based on identified needs described in a written, independent plan facilitated by the TM Coach, but directed by each client (client-based goal setting, etc.), each participant is monitored through ongoing case management and provided the full utilization of a broad array of support services.
Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians
4180 Highway 281 West
Belcourt, ND 58316-0900
701-477-6801
gtmonette.2017@gmail.com
https://tmchippewa.com/
HMRF Grantees in Ohio
Pathway, Inc. - Pathway Inc.’s Brothers United project is a New Pathways for Fathers and Families program located in Toledo, Ohio. The program provides comprehensive services to low-income young fathers, 16-24-years old, and older fathers with children up to 21-years-old, to assist them in strengthening positive father and child engagement, improving their economic stability and mobility opportunities, as well as enhancing healthy relationships. The youth program focuses on at-risk fathers who are not in school, unemployed, have a history with the criminal justice system, and those who have behavioral health conditions. Brothers United offers responsible fatherhood education, individualized financial planning, job and career advancement training, and related activities to increase economic stability and self-sufficiency. The program offers services throughout Lucas County, where a heavy concentration of those living in poverty reside. Brothers United is a six-week program that consists of weekly group-based sessions using evidence-based curricula and robust case management. To reinforce and support retention of new skills and training received, each participant is assigned to a mentor who has successfully completed the program along with a case manager to provide a myriad of social, educational, cultural, economic, and recreational activities. Participants are also provided with individualized financial planning and job and career advancement training as well as related activities designed to increase their economic stability. The goal of the program is to assist participants to change attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors by eliminating barriers to allow them to become better fathers for their children.
Pathway, Inc.
505 Hamilton
Toledo, OH 43604
419-242-7304
afiles@pathwaytoledo.org
http://www.pathwaytoledo.org
The RIDGE Project, Inc. - The RIDGE Project, Inc. (TRP), headquartered in McClure, Ohio, provides services for incarcerated fathers in prisons, jails and correctional facilities, and those re-entering society after release in a six-city metropolitan area covering seven counties. The project integrates a comprehensive array of programs and services for reentering fathers and their families. The program begins serving the majority of their clients while they are in prison. TRP conducts an initial needs assessment with eligible clients, refers them to other agencies for needed services, and provides supportive services to reduce barriers to program participation. Where internet access is available, TRP uses the TYRO365 Digital Platform application to engage, track, and retain clients, beginning at intake and continuing through the duration of services. After intake, clients take TYRO Dads, which is the foundational New Pathways for Fathers and Families Program. This curriculum helps participants develop parenting skills and also targets the root causes of incarceration. Upon completion of TYRO Dads, participants are encouraged to participate in our Couple Communication 1 and 2 courses to build healthy marriage and relationship skills in communication and conflict resolution with their spouses or partners or they may take the Core Communication curriculum to build communication skills for a variety of relationships. Basic Parenting and relationship seminars are also provided as well as family engagement events to connect incarcerated fathers to their children using structured activities. The TYRO Alumni Community helps to build and strengthen positive social support systems. Family engagement events are held to connect incarcerated fathers with their children through structured, skill-building activities. To prepare clients for employment, TRP provides economic stability and mobility activities, including TYRO Job Ethics training; entrepreneurial business training; a work readiness assessment that pinpoints clients’ strengths, barriers, and needs; and they complete a TYRO Goal Achievement Plan that identifies clients’ goals, action steps, case management, and support services to be provided.
The RIDGE Project, Inc.
J169 State Route 65
McClure, OH 43534-6504
419-278-0092
japhet@theridgeproject.com
http://www.theridgeproject.com
HMRF Grantees in Oklahoma
It's My Community Initiative, Inc - TRUE Dads is a Responsible Fatherhood Program implemented by It’s My Community Initiative (IMCI) and Work Ready Oklahoma (WRO) in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. It is an integrated fatherhood approach that offers fathers the opportunity to attend six core workshop sessions (18 hours) with a co-parent where, together, they learn important information and skills related to fatherhood. TRUE Dads prioritizes low-income fathers, particularly men of color, who are: 1) associated with complex and low-income family situations; 2) expecting or have a child 0-12-years-old; 3) 18-24 years and older; 4) previsoulsy incarcerated; and 5) residing in, or associated with, northeast Oklahoma City. Northeast Oklahoma City is an area comprised of several neighborhoods that are collectively part of Whatever It Takes, IMCI’s place-based strategy that focuses on an African American community beset by multi-generational poverty and family fragmentation. The program teaches co-parenting, Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education (HMRE), and employment. The core content is followed by an additional 18 hours of educational content in one focus area (parenting, HMRE, or employment) selected by each dad during intake. Additionally, participants are offered one-on-one or small group sessions where concepts and skills are applied to everyday life. Fathers seeking employment services find support, but are also provided access to a broad range of employment services through IMCI and WRO’s other workforce programs (upon meeting the eligibility requirements). Fatherhood employment coaches provide case management services for dads, guiding them through various program components and providing linkages to resources in the community. Fathers are also offered a customized TRUE Dads curriculum provided by the evidence-based PREP 8.0 and On My Shoulders
It’s My Community Initiative, Inc.
3 East Main Street
Oklahoma City, OK 73104-2405
405-418-3863
marc.taylor@truedads.com
http://truedads.com
Public Strategies - Public Strategies (PS) located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, provides innovative solutions to meet the complex needs of both married and unmarried expectant and newly parenting couples through Family Expectations (FE), a comprehensive, sitebased program in Oklahoma County. FE offers Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education (HMRE) primarily to financially vulnerable couples with income levels that match the eligibility requirements for federal and state safety net services (i.e., Medicaid for prenatal care and childbirth). The program has been proven to have a consistent pattern of positive effects for couples through two rigorous federal research studies. PS continues to build on this success by implementing the next generation of the program in an effort to achieve even stronger program results and to increase the potential for future replication of FE in other communities. At the program’s core are FE workshops, including 36 hours of HMRE, parenting and economic stability content, primarily the evidence-based Becoming Parents curriculum. These skills-based and interactive sessions are delivered during a 12-week period by FE Educators trained to build a working alliance with families to achieve positive outcomes. The workshop sessions are supplement by wellintegrated access to both employment, mental health, and substance abuse services, while group-based case management and Family Support Coaches combine to connect couples to other resources. PS offers a full-service marketing and communications team, which supports program outreach, recruitment, and retention by deploying a public advertising campaign, and customizing messages for expectant and newly parenting couples, including fathers. Public Strategies partners with faith-based and community-based organizations, state and local government agencies, and TANF workforce agencies. Family Expectations provides co-parenting education, financial literacy and job training, as well as program supports such as transportation, child care, and incentives for workshop completion. Case management/coaching employment services, such as work readiness assessments, career training, and job placement assistance are also provided to participants.
Public Strategies
3 East Main Street
Oklahoma City, OK 73104
405-418-3896
Julie.Shannon-Phelan@publicstrategies.com
http://www.familyexpectations.com
HMRF Grantees in Pennsylvania
Children's Aid Society - Children’s Aid Society in Clearfield County (CASCC), Pennsylvania provides the Real Relationships project to offer comprehensive marriage and relationship education and skills training to residents of Clearfield County and eight adjacent counties. Through intensive case management, the program addresses participation barriers, parenting concerns, and economic and employment needs of participants. Real Relationships’ target population is low-income, at-risk families, couples, individuals, and youth in rural central Pennsylvania. The ultimate goals of the Real Relationships project include improving family functioning and well-being, increasing economic stability and mobility, reducing poverty, and helping young people make a successful transition to adulthood. CASCC provides services for four main program areas: 1) education in high schools about the value of marriage, relationship skills, and budgeting; 2) providing marriage and relationship education/skills through weekly classes for at-risk youth ages 18-24-years-old; 3) offering pre-marital education and marriage skills training for engaged couples and couples interested in marriage; and 4) providing marriage enhancement and marriage skills training for married couples.
Children’s Aid Society in Clearfield County
1008 South Second Street
Clearfield, PA 16830
(814) 765-2686 x 236
danielleb@childaid.org
http://www.childaid.org/
Health Promotion Council of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Inc. - Health Promotion Council (HPC) of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Inc., located in Philadelphia, provides the Focus on Fathers (FOF) program, which helps Philadelphia’s fathers overcome barriers to positive father/child engagement. FOF is a coordinated parenting, healthy marriage/ relationship, and economic stability education program. Its goals are to: 1) enhance positive father/child engagement; 2) foster healthy co-parenting and romantic relationships; and 3) improve economic stability and mobility opportunities among the target population of low-income custodial and noncustodial fathers 16-years-old and older in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. FOF delivers direct services through three distinct educational areas: parenting and fatherhood, healthy relationships, and job readiness. All the education is coupled with intensive case management services that include direct linkages to financial management services, mental health and substance abuse treatment, trauma counseling, legal services, housing, and a host of other supports available through the FOF partnership network. HPC’s media campaign promotes the unique and vital role of fathers in creating positive outcomes for their children. FOF’s objectives are to: 1) reduce barriers to positive parenting, healthy relationships, and economic stability; 2) increase participants’ knowledge of positive parenting behaviors; 3) enhance education about healthy relationships and coparenting behaviors; 4) expand the fathers’ job readiness; and 5) build community capacity to support father-child relationships. Projected longterm outcomes of the program are to improve family functioning and adult and child well-being, while increasing economic stability and mobility, and reducing poverty.
Health Promotion Council of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Inc.
1500 Market Street Philadelphia, PA 19102-2100
215-985-2582
nkang@phmc.org
http://hpcpa.org
People for People, Inc. - People for People, Inc. (PFP) offers the Project D.A.D. (Developing Active Dads) program, which is a new pathways for fathers and families program in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The target population is low-income, minority fathers ages 18-years and older who have children under 16-years-old. Fathers are recruited through Philadelphia Family Courts and PFP’s network of community partners in the Philadelphia area. Each cohort consists of approximately 70 fathers. The Project D.A.D. intervention model includes an intensive case management approach that centers on fatherhood development education designed to offer the best opportunities for low-income fathers. Project D.A.D. has a commitment to developing responsible fathers who are gainfully employed and contributing to the quality of their children’s lives. The program works with fathers and teaches them to be responsible parents by providing programming that improves participants’ relationships with their children and helps them achieve increased economic stability through intensive employment services and case management. Project D.A.D. team members help fathers create individual development plans to address barriers to becoming better fathers. Individual development plans include: responsible fatherhood classes; economic stability services, including a cluster of vocational and certification programs; and healthy marriage and relationship classes. Project D.A.D. focuses on equipping and empowering fathers with essential knowledge about their prominent roles in their children’s development. The curricula and training provided is designed to enhance individual traits such as selfdiscipline and self-respect that create a pathway for better decision making, financial stability, and personal responsibility.
People for People, Inc.
800 North Broad Street
Philadelphia, PA 19130
215-235-2340
kberry@peopleforpeople.org
http://peopleforpeople.org
Private Industry Council of Westmoreland/Fayette, Inc -Private Industry Council (PIC) of Westmoreland/Fayette, Inc. is a Responsible Fatherhood Program in Westmoreland, Washington, and Fayette Counties in southwestern Pennsylvania. It supports fathers in addressing barriers that affect their abilities to be actively involved with their children. The target population is minority, low-income fathers, ages 18-years and older, and families with children receiving TANF. The goals of the program include improved family functioning, adult and child well-being, increased economic stability and mobility, reduced poverty, and decreased recidivism. The program uses evidence-based curricula and activities to encourage responsible fatherhood, economic stability, and healthy relationship improvement. It also provides customized training for workers that increases their life skills; earning capacities; and training for fathers interested in improving employability skills and obtaining employment skills certifications; unsubsidized employment for new hires; economic and financial literacy training; and other services targeted toward the needs of fathers who are reentering the community after incarceration. The project addresses challenges including inability to access public benefits, lack of information about community resources, and the need for supportive services. All services are participant-driven and fathers choose from a variety of activities and attend trainings aligned with the goals in their Individualized Education and Employment Plans. PIC’s approach also includes connecting fathers to services and activities that will produce direct benefits to their children, improving their status both economically and socially. Finally, fathers are offered assistance with supportive service referrals including substance abuse treatment, mental health counseling, and other additional supports. This approach capitalizes on keeping fathers engaged and motivated.
Private Industry Council of Westmoreland/Fayette, Inc.
219 Donohoe Road
Greensburg, PA 15601
724-836-2600
ssypolt@privateindustrycouncil.com
http://www.privateindustrycouncil.com/
HMRF Grantees in South Carolina
Pee Dee Healthy Start, Inc. - The Pee Dee Healthy Start Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education Initiative (PDHS) provides services to strengthen relationships and marriages of African American families in the rural Pee Dee counties of Chesterfield, Darlington, Marion, and Williamsburg, South Carolina. The program’s target population includes African American women (16-45-years-old), at-risk youth, and their families who live in the counties’ rural areas. PDHS enhances the well-being of children, promotes the development of positive relationships among custodial and noncustodial fathers and their children, and provides parenting skills for both mothers and fathers to responsibly share parenting responsibilities. The program also provides additional information and training about healthy relationships and marriages through its case management services and outreach to connect with participants. Case management services are provided for single, married, engaged women, men, and at-risk youth with one case manager dedicated to each of the four targeted counties. PDHS works with various partners such as faith-based groups, state agencies, workforce, civic, and other non-profit organizations to bring about positive changes for those served. Despite the large disparities that exist for families who need services to help improve their lives, the focus of the program includes parenting, relationship and premarital education skills; financial management; conflict resolution; job and career advancement for non-married pregnant women and non-married expectant fathers; marriage enhancement and skills training for married couples.
Pee Dee Healthy Start, Inc.
314 West Pine Street
Florence, SC 29501
843-662-1482
madie@pdhs.org
https://www.pdhs.org/
South Carolina Center for Fathers and Families - The South Carolina Center for Fathers and Families’ (Center) program, Destination Fatherhood (DF), is located in Columbia, South Carolina. DF serves lowincome and noncustodial fathers ages 18-years and older. Services include: comprehensive and culturally appropriate parenting, economic stability and mobility, and healthy marriage and healthy relationship education and services. The program is designed to improve children’s well-being. The project has a special focus on recruiting and serving fathers between the ages of 18-24-years-old who were formerly incarcerated, aging out of foster care, and/or dropped out of high school. Led by the Center, DF’s services are provided by the Center and its six local affiliated fatherhood programs serving 12 communities across South Carolina. DF responds to children’s needs by helping low-income fathers build capacity to support their children emotionally and financially. Helping participants build their skills and connecting them to employment in growth areas in their communities is one way DF helps participants. They are also provided education and activities to improve their communication and anger management skills to facilitate improved relationships with co-parents. Participants also learn financial management skills as well as increase their knowledge about how to effectively parent. The program delivers integrated services using evidence-based curricula delivered in weekly peer group sessions. DF staff address individual participant needs through the development of a One Man Plan, which identifies an individual’s relationships, parenting and employment goals. The program also provides on-going case management and links to support services to help participants overcome barriers. All of these services are coordinated by DF staff and enhanced through a network of local partners.
South Carolina Center for Fathers and Families
2711 Middleburg Drive, Suite 111
Columbia, SC 29204-2413
803-227-8800
rbarr@scfathersandfamilies.com
http://www.scfathersandfamilies.com/
HMRF Grantees in South Dakota
Volunteers of America Dakotas - The Volunteers of America Dakotas (VOAD), located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, incorporates Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education (HMRE) and economic stability and mobility activities into its existing services to help families and individuals improve their relationships, marriages, parenting, and financial security. VOAD’s ultimate goals are to improve family functioning, adult and child well-being, reduce poverty, and assist in the successful transition of youth to adulthood. The target population includes residents with the highest risks and greatest needs in the Sioux Falls metro area, which includes Minnehaha, Lincoln, Turner and McCook Counties. This population includes TANF recipients, single parents, veterans, individuals with physical/mental disabilities, substanceabuse and victims of domestic violence and child maltreatment, at-risk youth, ex-offenders, Native Americans, refugees, immigrants, and families with other special needs. The high number of Native American families in the area face additional and unique culturally-driven risks for unhealthy relationships, marriages, and parenting. The VOAD program uses evidence-based curricula and provides case management and supportive services, financial literacy, and economic stability and mobility skills. VOAD has a campaign to educate the public about the nature and effects of unhealthy marriages and relationships, and to help reduce the stigma attached to high-risk families that might prevent them from seeking marriage and relationship education and skills development. VOAD’s goal is to facilitate dialogues with different groups to work together to promote better parenting, and healthier marriages and relationships.
Volunteers of America, Dakotas
1310 W 51st Street
Sioux Falls, SD 57105
605-444-6356
c.dunn@voa-dakotas.org
http://www.voa-dakotas.org
Youth & Family Services, Inc. - Youth & Family Services, Inc. (YFS) provides a Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education (HMRE) program in the Rapid City, South Dakota metropolitan area. The target population is high school age students, low-income adults and families, and military personnel. About 14% of participants are Hispanic, 19% are Native Americans, and 76% are Caucasian. The needs to be addressed among participants include: a lack of peers who model healthy relationships; racial distrust; gender stereotypes; language barriers; high rates of domestic violence; poverty; and multiple barriers to full-time employment including lack of child care, inflexible work schedules, multiple jobs, seasonal employment, and few opportunities in rural areas. The overall goals of the HMRE project are to support healthy marriage and families as well as to develop participants’ skills necessary for strong relationships and to also increase their trajectory toward economic stability, mobility, and employability. Short-term outcomes for the program include: 1) improved healthy relationship and marriage skills; 2) improved parenting and co-parenting skills; 3) progress toward greater economic stability, including increased skill attainment and employment; 4) increased frequency of meaningful parent/child communication; 5) increased skill level in use of economic tools, including budgeting, saving, and spending plans; 6) increased proportion of participants who are satisfied with the way they handle conflict in their relationships; 7) improved skills in family conflict resolution; and 8) increased awareness and understanding of aspects of a healthy relationships (e.g., peers and family) with high school students. Long-term outcomes for the program include: 1) improved family functioning; 2) improved adult and child well-being; 3) increased economic stability and mobility; 4) reduced poverty; and 5) improved stability of family relationships.
Youth & Family Services, Inc.
1920 Plaza Boulevard
Rapid City, SD 57702
605-791-5025 ext. 2455
clauinger@youthandfamilyservices.org
https://www.youthandfamilyservices.org
HMRF Grantees in Texas
Anthem Strong Families - Anthem Strong Families (ASF), is a Responsible Fatherhood program in Dallas, Texas that focuses on the importance of four interrelated factors impacting the well-being of a child: 1) the presence and involvement of the father; 2) the health of the parents’ relationship; 3) the quality of parenting; and 4) the family’s economic stability. Approximately half of ASF’s participants have previously been incarcerated and the other half are under-resourced young fathers. ASF predominantly serves low-income, minority fathers and their families. The program is offered in both English and Spanish, since many participants are Spanish-speaking immigrants. ASF partners with county and state criminal justice systems, a statewide child welfare system, Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and a major hospital in Tarrant County. With partnerships with the Texas Workforce Commission, Construction Education Foundation’s employment connections, and Express Pro’s focused job placements for low and middle-skilled laborers, participants have opportunities to find employment on a career path. A risk-needs assessment guides the participant and Fatherhood Advocate (i.e., case manager) to create an individual development plan. ASF offers the TYRO Champion Dad program and implements healthy marriage, responsible parenting, economic stability and mobility activities through an integrated program model that enables participants to simultaneously work on these objectives. Twelve months of employment-focused case management is provided, as well as a broad array of health, human services, housing, behavioral health, and support services to provide evidence-based care. Anger management, financial literacy and parenting skills are taught throughout the year with opportunities for parent and child bonding activities, and an ongoing accountability group offers continued support to all graduates.
Anthem Strong Families
12800 Hillcrest Road #A101
Dallas, TX 75230-1524
972-296-9258
charlesd@anthemstrongfamilies.org
https://anthemstrongfamilies.org
AVANCE-Houston, Inc. - AVANCE-Houston, Inc. (AHI), located in Houston, Texas, offers parenting education, healthy relationship and marriage skills, and family support services. AHI provides comprehensive services designed to strengthen the family unit with education and activities for at-risk youth, young adult premarital couples, and married couples. These support services include financial literacy and job and career advancement skills to enhance the economic mobility of participants. By providing relationship and marriage education, career and workforce development training, tools, and resources, AHI improves the collective well-being of children and families in the Houston area. The service tracks for adults consist of six cohorts per year (three for Spanish-speaking and three for English-speaking participants), enrolled for seven weeks (14 hours total) of healthy marriage relationship skills education, financial management, conflict resolution, and job and career advancement. Adults assessed for career coaching continue to meet for two additional weeks, eight hours per week; for a total of 16 hours of job readiness and career training. Youth participants complete 14 hours of education and activities covering healthy marriage and relationship skills, financial management, career coaching, trauma and mental health, domestic violence, bullying, and peer awareness.
AVANCE-Houston, Inc.
4821 Dacoma Street
Houston, TX 77092
713-812-0033
wjackson@avancehouston.org
http://www.avancehouston.org/
Horizon Outreach - Horizon Outreach is a Responsible Fatherhood Program located in Houston, Texas serving the greater Houston metropolitan area. The target population is community fathers (16-24-years-old) and military fathers (18-45-years-old). Additional eligibility criteria for both groups include participants who: 1) are low-income; 2) have experienced a traumatic event or have one or more disabling conditions; and 3) have at least one child between pregnancy and 24-years-old. Fathers participate in 12-week group-based workshops with a maximum of 30 participants. The workshops use curriculum and activities to reduce trauma, increase father/child involvement, improve relationships, and create career pathways to long-term economic mobility. The program’s design delivers curriculum-based activities throughout the year at various venues and times. Fathers proceed through the program as a cohort to foster camaraderie and support. Each cohort consists of no more than 30 fathers. Fathers participate in skills-based activities in the areas of healthy marriage, healthy parenting, and economic stability. The healthy marriage component of the program utilizes the Active Relationships Center curriculum (for Active Military Families or Active Adults) and Love Notes (for at-risk young fathers). The Triple P Parenting Program teaches positive interaction between the parent and child and other key skills. Fathers are screened for domestic violence issues and, if needed, fathers and their spouses are referred to other agencies for additional counseling services. Fathers attend Employment Training Boot Camp workshops to increase their life skills, job search strategies, and employment and training opportunities. Through collaborative partnerships, fathers receive workforce training and credentials that lead to jobs in career sectors where there are demands for new employees. Case management services include: housing, food, clothing assistance, TANF child support, legal, and veteran services.
Horizon Outreach
256 North Sam Houston Parkway
East, Suite 115
Houston, TX 77060
832-288-4213
kjohnson@horizonoutreach.org
http://www.horizonoutreach.org
MET Inc., (Motivation, Education & Training, Inc.) - Motivation, Education and Training (MET), Inc., is a responsible fatherhood program located in New Caney, Texas. The project serves fathers in the Texas counties of Austin, Chambers, Hardin, Liberty, Montgomery, Waller, and the city of Humble in northeast Harris County. MET’s program is structured to work with fathers who face barriers that affect their abilities to support their children emotionally and financially. The MET New Pathways for Fathers and Families program provides access to employment education and training, case management, and an individualized approach to services for fathers and families to achieve economic stability. The program design includes contributions from experienced regional partners working in programs that have effectively moved families out of poverty using best practice strategies and research-based curricula. The initiative targets fathers who are: incarcerated, single parents, low-income, living in or at-risk for poverty, unemployed, receiving social services, young fathers 16-24-years-old, active military and veterans, without a high school degree, and fathers involved with the child welfare system. MET assists fathers in building healthy parent and child relationships by supporting them in their efforts to improve their economic stability. New Pathways’ participants can choose from a variety of services and attend training activities that foster responsible parenting, promote or sustain marriages and significant relationships, increase economic stability and social and emotional involvement with their children and families, and assist them with individual personal growth. MET’s goals include increasing the frequency of father/child engagement, improving the financial responsibility of fathers, increasing employment opportunities, and reducing recidivism rates.
Motivation, Education and Training, Inc.
PO Box 1838
New Caney, TX 77357-1838
281-689-5544
sears@metinc.org
http://www.metinc.org
Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service - Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, located in College Station, Texas, offers the Strengthening Families of the Brazos Valley (SFBV) program. SFBV seeks to give couples and individuals the tools they need to create and maintain healthy families by providing programs in healthy relationships, parenting, and financial literacy. The program aims to improve family functioning, adult and child well-being, and to increase economic stability for the families in Burleson, Brazos, Grimes, Madison, and Robertson Counties in Texas. SFBV employs a multi-level intervention system (universal, selected, indicated) that includes a public advertising campaign along with a complement of marriage, parenting, and family literacy education as well as support services for families and children. Face-toface and media/online delivery of the educational offerings using evidence-based curricula are available for participants in each of the content areas. The overall long-term goals of the SFBV project are to: 1) develop and implement an integrated education and services delivery program that improves marriage, relationship and parenting knowledge and skills, enhances financial literacy, and advances long-term family functioning and well-being for families and children; and 2) create community buy-in and achieve long-term sustainability.
Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service
578 John Kimbrough Blvd
College Station, TX 77843
979-845-1877
rlpeterson@ag.tamu.edu
http://families.tamu.edu/
Texas State University - The School of Family and Consumer Sciences at Texas State University, in San Marcos, Texas administers the Strengthening Relationships/ Strengthening Families (SR/SF) program. The program provides pregnant and parenting adolescents with healthy relationship and co-parenting skills to improve their well-being and family functioning. SR/SF utilizes Love Notes, a skills-based relationship education program designed specifically for young parents, and an adaptive version of Family Foundations, a co-parenting education program. This approach enhances adolescent parents’ relationship skills and coparenting relationships, including identifying and agreeing on childrearing strategies, negotiating parenting duties, and supporting the noncustodial parent’s involvement in the infant’s life. The goal of the SR/SF program is to provide adolescent parents with a comprehensive relationship education program that strengthens the multiple relationships they must manage as new parents, with the ultimate goal of enhancing their well-being and strengthening their families. Facilitators implement the program during the school day with the assistance of interns. The program is delivered to adolescents enrolled in Pregnancy, Education, and Parenting (PEP) programs located in Central Texas with concurrent sessions at eight PEP programs each semester. Groups of 10-20 pregnant and parenting adolescents meet each week to participate in sessions focusing on healthy relationships, co-parenting, or life skills. These sessions cover topics such as how to identify healthy and unhealthy relationships, communication skills, conflict resolution strategies, negotiating childrearing strategies, and managing and sharing parenting duties. This approach incorporates promising practices for relationship education programs serving low-income and ethnically diverse populations. This is accomplished by providing opportunities for youth to practice interpersonal skills, employing interactive teaching methods, providing case management services, reducing barriers to participation, partnering with organizations that are well-established in the community, and incorporating materials that are age and culturally appropriate.
Texas State University
601 University Drive
San Marcos, TX 78666
512-245-2414
norma.perez-brena@txstate.edu
fcs.txstate.edu/srsfprogram.html
The Parenting Center - The Parenting Center’s (TPC) Empowering Families Project (EFP) is a Healthy Marriage Program in Fort Worth, Texas (Tarrant County).With extensive knowledge and experience in providing an array of family strengthening services, the program has been conducting successful marriage and relationship skills training for more than a decade. The purpose of the EFP is to promote healthy marriage and relationship education, including the activity elements of Marriage and Relationship and premarital Education/Skills in high schools. The target population to be served includes Tarrant County low income couples both married and unmarried with children and at risk youth in Tarrant County high schools. TPC partners with other community agencies to provide streamlined, well-integrated services to participants. While TPC serves as the primary provider of education and case management, it partners with an employment services expert to provide economic mobility and stability services. TPC also partners with a financial literacy and capability expert to provide financial literacy services as well as intimate partner violence professionals to provide domestic violence intervention. All activities are designed to be culturally appropriate, address the barriers of the target population, and successfully achieve program outcomes.
The Parenting Center
2928 West 5th Street
Fort Worth, TX 76107
817-632-5528
swarren@theparentingcenter.org
http://www.theparentingcenter.org
HMRF Grantee in Utah
Utah State University - Utah State University Extension (USU) in Logan, Utah, has a long history of successful healthy relationship programs and partnerships. The activities in this project support a diverse array of services, including partnerships with Utah Correctional Facilities, Family Support Centers, and the Department of Workforce Services, as part of an overall strategy to promote healthier fatherhood in Utah. With a state divorce rate that is higher than the national average and adults marrying and remarrying much younger than the national averages, this project engages fathers in several contexts. First, in partnership with Utah Correctional Facilities, USU implements fatherhood programs with incarcerated fathers. These programs help incarcerated fathers learn parenting and relationship skills with the goal being to have them stay connected with their children. Second, in partnership with Family Support Centers, USU implements Smart Steps, a program that teaches fathers (biological and step-fathers) in stepfamilies about parenting, finances, and relationship topics in the context of blended families. Third, collaborating with community and governmental organizations, USU provides fatherhood programs and resources in communities throughout the state.
Utah State University
1415 Old Main Hill, Room 64
Logan, UT 84322-1415
435-232-1572
pamela.morrill@usu.edu
http://www.healthyrelationshipsutah.org
HMRF Grantees in Virginia
Child Development Resources, Inc. - Child Development Resources, Inc. (CDR), located in Williamsburg, Virginia, implements a New Pathways for Fathers and Families program called Investing in Fatherhood: New Pathways. This program promotes positive father-child engagement, improves social and economic outcomes for fathers and their families, and supports healthy relationships and family formation through education and comprehensive services. The target population includes at-risk fathers because of low-income, low education levels, unemployment, incarceration, teen parenting, and exposure to adverse childhood experiences, which are all factors that could negatively affect their children’s development and family relationships. Working with community partners, CDR uses a three-level approach to provide participants and their families with case management, coaching, and mentoring services. Investing in Fatherhood’s curriculum educates fathers and community partner agencies about responsible fatherhood, increases engagement of fathers with their children and other family members, and helps fathers address the challenges to achieving economic stability. Level I consists of group classes and referrals for community services. Level II includes home visits and group activities to address child and family relationships. Level III provides participants with individualized coaching, mentoring, and training to address identified needs. Investing in Fatherhood uses an individualized case management and coaching approach to offer services in homes, neighborhood settings, partner agencies, and other community locations (e.g., early childhood and adult education sites, health settings, regional jails, and so forth). An initial assessment establishes a baseline of needs and levels of participation by fathers. To identify individual needs, each father sets goals based on his family’s situation, and in conjunction with the mother when appropriate. To maximize the positive effect of the father’s involvement in their children’s cognitive, social, and emotional development and health, priority is given to fathers of young children, prenatal to eight-years-old. As a result of these services, fathers gain knowledge about responsible fatherhood, increase their parenting skills and involvement in their children’s lives, experience healthier family relationships, and develop skills to improve economic stability.
Child Development Resources, Inc.
150 Point O’Woods Road
Williamsburg, VA 23188
757-78-3169
amyb@cdr.org
http://cdr.org/fatherhood
Korean Community Service Center of Greater Washington, Inc. - Korean Community Service Center of Greater Washington, Inc.’s (KCSC) Home Sweet Home (HSH) program is located in Annandale, Virginia. The program serves the Korean, Chinese, and Vietnamese communities in Fairfax and Arlington Counties in Virginia; Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties in Maryland; and the Korean communities of Bergen County, New Jersey, and Queens County, New York. The HSH Program is a healthy marriage and relationship education project with five specific program elements: 1) a public advertising campaign using news articles, radio, HSH brochures, and community outreach through local community-based and faith-based partners; 2) premarital counseling for engaged couples; 3) a marriage enhancement program for married individuals that includes workshops, marriage mentoring, and counseling; 4) a summer family camp to develop family cohesion and parenting skills; and 5) coordination of quarterly coalition meetings among healthy marriage providers to develop and build strong partnerships among organizations providing this type of education to Asian communities. Participants benefit from this program because it helps Asian Americans and immigrants learn how to prepare for, enhance, and maintain healthy marriages through workshops, support groups, and couples mentoring. The overarching long-term goal of HSH is to increase marital stability and family cohesion in the Asian Community.
Korean Community Service Center of Greater Washington, Inc.
7700 Little River Turnpike #406
Annandale, VA 22003
703-354-6345
phan@kcscgw.org
www.kcscgw.org
U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants - The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) serves refugee and immigrant populations, regardless of their nationality, race, ideology, or social group, at 11 sites across the United States. USCRI’s Refugee Family Strengthening Program (RFSP) gives tools and opportunities for self-sufficiency to refugees and immigrants nationwide through a large network of partner agencies. RFSP provides participants with relationship enhancement education, comprehensive case management, and support services that bolster long-term marital success and economic self-sufficiency. The USCRI’s program serves individuals who were legally admitted to the U.S. as refugees, asylees, Cuban and Haitian entrants, holders of Special Immigrant Visas, and other displaced individuals. Participants who complete the RFSP are able to: 1) identify and utilize healthy marriage and relationship skills; 2) increase their awareness of negative behavioral patterns; 3) increase their awareness of parental roles and responsibilities; 4) increase the quality and time spent with their children; 5) report a decreased frequency of conflicts; 6) receive employment through participation in vocational training and job placement programs; 7) report enhanced co-parenting relationships; and 8) demonstrate a decrease in the occurrence of domestic violence. Local programs support individuals, couples, and families as they transition from traumatic experiences to their new lives in the United States.
U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants
2231 Crystal Drive, Suite 350
Arlington, VA 22202-3711
703-310-1130
mbracy@uscridc.org
https://www.refugees.org
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University - Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, located in the Northern Virginia Center in Falls Church, Virginia, in partnership with the University of Maryland, College Park, provides healthy couple relationship and economic stability education. Low-income families tend to experience chronic financial stress and as a result, they are at higher risk for individual psychological and physical distress, relationship problems and dissolution, as well as parenting challenges. These factors contribute to financial stress and economic instability. To break this negative cycle, low-income couples receive education and skills to improve their relationships, financial management, and employability. The target population for the program is low-income couples living in northern Virginia, and Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties in Maryland. The program’s goals are to improve: 1) individual well-being; 2) couples’ relationships; 3) parenting and coparenting; 4) financial literacy and capability; and 5) employability and job placement and retention. The approach integrates three components: 1) a 20-hour evidenceinformed couple group curriculum called TOGETHER that integrates relationship education and financial literacy skills; 2) case management, including assessment of participants’ needs, development of individual and couple plans, and referrals for social and mental health services; and 3) employment and career enhancement services, as needed. The TOGETHER curriculum focuses on helping couples understand the effects of financial stress on their individual well-being as well as their relationships.
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
7054 Haycock Road, Suite 202
Falls Church, VA 22043
703-538-8461
marianak@vt.edu
http://togetherprogram.org
HMRF Grantee in Washington
Washington State Department of Corrections - The Washington State Department of Corrections (DOC), in Tumwater, Washington, serves parents released from four DOC facilities in five counties in Southwest Washington. These counties and facilities were selected because they provide opportunities to focus on geographic areas and families disproportionately affected by poverty and incarceration. The close proximity of the targeted areas reduce travel requirements and allow sufficient time for the delivery of intensive, high quality programming and services. Individuals incarcerated in DOC facilities enter with a range of long-term challenges, including unstable housing or homelessness, poverty, unemployment, mental illness, limited educational attainment, chemical dependency, eroded family and social networks, and physical health needs. The majority of inmates are also parents. Strength in Families’ (SIF) target population is eligible fathers who are being released from the four DOC facilities served. As this group of individuals prepares to reenter their communities, there are several areas addressed by SIF: 1) skills to successfully engage in healthy parental and partner-based relationships; 2) opportunities for living wage employment (or education as a means to this end); and 3) access to resources that meet essential day-to-day needs such as housing, food, transportation, and access to medical care. The primary objective of this program is to align an integrated set of interventions that identify and measurably address the central needs of incarcerated fathers and their families for the benefit of the participants and their children, partners, and communities. Each intervention is supported by evidence-based programming and ongoing case management across the reentry continuum. Opportunities to learn, develop, and practice parenting, healthy relationship, and workplace readiness skills start up to nine months pre-release and last up to six months or longer post-release. In addition to providing direct support to program participants and to ensure comprehensive service delivery, the staff work to expand and strengthen partnerships with key local service providers and stakeholders.
Washington State Department of Corrections Strength in Families (SIF)
7345 Linderson Way SW
Tumwater, WA 98501
360-725-8675
chouse-higgins@doc1.wa.gov
http://doc.wa.gov/
HMRF Grantee in West Virginia
Kanawha Institute for Social Research & Action, Inc. (KISRA) - Kanawha Institute for Social Research & Action, Inc. (KISRA), located in Dunbar, West Virginia, serves fathers in Kanawha, Putnam, Cabell, Raleigh, Mercer, Wood, Randolph, and Berkeley Counties in West Virginia. KISRA’s program is called the West Virginia ReFORM Initiative (WVRFI). The target audience includes current and previously incarcerated fathers who are 25-years-old and older who also meet the following criteria: 1) low-income; 2) tried and convicted of a non-violent, non-sexual crime as an adult; 3) the father of a dependent child 24-years-old or younger; 4) within nine months of release (if incarcerated); and 5) if previously incarcerated, back in the community for six months or less. The participants receive healthy marriage and relationship skills training, parenting education, parent/ child relationship enhancement, and economic stability as well as cognitive behavioral interventions. Services are offered at various jails, prisons, work release centers, day report centers, One-Stop Career Centers, and community-based sites. WVRFI’s services are offered on flexible schedules including day and evening options. Participants receive skills-building, hands-on training; and job development, placement, and post-placement services. KISRA also offers a transitional employment element, which provides participants with paid work experiences that lead to stable employment opportunities in high demand occupations. This includes assignment to KISRA’s social enterprises, which are in the urban agriculture, food aggregation, catering, and garment printing sectors. Additionally, GED/TASC preparation assistance, entrepreneurship education, access to business start-up capital, mentoring, and leadership development are supplemental engagement options for participants. Case management services and an array of other support services are also available. These services include mentoring, transportation assistance, housing, child care assistance, substance abuse treatment, mental health services, and legal assistance referrals.
Kanawha Institute for Social Research & Action, Inc. (KISRA)
131 Perkins Avenue
Dunbar, WV 25064
304-768-8924
michaelj@kisra.org
http://www.kisra.org/
HMRF Grantee in Wisconsin
Milwaukee County Department of Child Support Services - The Milwaukee County New Pathways for Families and Fathers (MNPFF) project is a New Pathways for Fathers and Families Program administered by the Milwaukee County Department of Child Support Services (MCDCSS) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This program provides Milwaukee County fathers with educational opportunities, support, and the necessary resources to fulfill their responsibilities as parents. The program’s goals are to strengthen positive father and child engagement, improve employment and economic mobility opportunities, and promote healthy relationships and marriages. MCDCSS partners with experienced agencies to deliver an integrated program using a cohort model, in which a group of fathers, who know each other through attending the same core workshops, proceed through the program together. The primary target population includes: 1) low-income fathers from the general population; 2) young fathers 16-24-years-old; and 3) incarcerated fathers. MNPFF’s partners deliver curricula and activities in the three New Pathways for Fathers and Families areas: responsible parenting, economic stability, and healthy relationships. Responsible parenting education uses an evidence-based parenting curriculum and includes instruction from the MCDCSS, which has a mediation-like Alternative Dispute Resolution process. Economic stability activities are offered within the context of the Compete Milwaukee Initiative of the City of Milwaukee, which optimizes best practices in workforce development and moves the workforce system toward a demand and supply model that identifies and connects employers’ needs with effective systems and partners to screen, match, train, and secure workers for those positions. To further assist participants, MCDCSS funds two positions for the Milwaukee Area Workforce Investment Board: a Career Pathways Coordinator and a Business Services Coordinator. Interested couples also have opportunities for agency referrals for couples and family therapy. Case management is integrated into the comprehensive program for all participants.
Milwaukee County Department of Child Support Services
901 North 9th Street, Room 101
Milwaukee, WI 53233-1425
414-278-3912
jetaunne.richardson@milwaukeecountywi.gov
http://county.milwaukee.gov/ChildSupportEnforcem7706.html
HMRF Grantee in Wyoming
Strong Families Strong Wyoming - Strong Families Strong Wyoming (SFSW), located in Cheyenne, Wyoming, serves traditional high school students, at-risk teen parents, TANF recipients, noncustodial and custodial single teen parents, teens aging out of foster care, and those in danger of dropping out of high school. The goal of the program is to decrease the divorce rate in Wyoming, which is one of the highest in the nation, ranking sixth with 4.4 per 1,000 population. This high divorce rate results in a greater number of children being raised in single family or stepfamily homes. The program’s objectives are to help traditional high school students and at-risk youth increase their knowledge and skills to improve their likelihood of forming and sustaining healthy relationships, effective co-parenting, and to develop self-sufficiency as they transition into adulthood. SFSW’s long-term goals are to: 1) improve current and future family functioning; 2) reduce domestic violence and teen dating violence; 3) provide education and skills for successful transition into adulthood; 4) improve child well-being; and 5) increase economic stability and mobility for at-risk students. To accomplish these goals, the program provides healthy relationship education in local high schools through a partnership with the Wyoming Health Educators Association of Teachers of Family and Consumer Sciences. In addition, SFSW provides marriage and relationship education, parenting, financial literacy and economic self-sufficiency for at-risk youth through partnerships with the Laramie, Natrona, and Campbell County School Districts as well as a variety of community-based programs.
Strong Families Strong Wyoming
1950 Bluegrass Circle
Cheyenne, Wyoming 82009
307-514-4450
jackie@sfsw.org
https://www.sfsw.org
HMRF Grantee in Guam
Westcare Pacific Islands, Inc. - Spark, administered by WestCare Pacific Islands, Inc., is a culturally responsive program on the island of Guam that promotes responsible parenting and healthy relationships and marriages. It also helps families move toward selfsufficiency and economic stability. Spark primarily serves couples ages 18-35-years-old who are: 1) low-income; 2) lacking a high school degree; 3) homeless or formerly homeless; 4) former participants in the foster care system; 5) Veterans; and/or 6) ex-offenders. Spark strives to provide activities to support healthy marriages, strengthen families, and to improve outcomes for high-risk adults and their children who have significant social and/or economic challenges that affects their quality of life. Services are delivered to help couples develop skills in communication, conflict resolution, and supportiveness with the goal of improving relationship quality and increasing the likelihood that children grow up with both parents. Spark’s ultimate goals are to: 1) improve family functioning by promoting healthy relationships, marriages, and parenting skills through education; and 2) increase participants’ economic stability and capacity using culturally competent strategies that meet the needs of the island community.
WestCare Pacific Islands, Inc.
222 Chalan Santo Papa Reflection
Center, Suite 102
Hagatna, GU 96910
671-472-0218
juan.flores@westcare.com
http://www.ghrep.org/