2019 - 2023
What is the focus of this study?
Strong, supportive families are critical to the health and well-being of children. Since 2005, Congress has authorized federal funding for healthy marriage and relationship education (HMRE) programs to support healthy relationships and families. Administered by the Office of Family Assistance (OFA) within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), the grants fund programs that offer HMRE programming to couples, adult individuals, and youth.
Research has shown that HMRE programs often face implementation challenges in areas such as recruitment, participation, and program completion. In 2019, ACF’s Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) contracted with Mathematica and Public Strategies to conduct the SIMR project to develop and test promising implementation solutions to these challenges.
What activities did the study pursue?
SIMR used rapid-cycle learning to pilot and refine promising solutions. Rapid-cycle learning involves testing and refining solutions in a series of short cycles to pilot the solution, collect and analyze data on the pilot, refine the solution, and try it again. By helping HMRE grantees address implementation challenges, SIMR focused on building their readiness for evaluation of program effects. Specifically, the SIMR team:
- Identified implementation challenges and solutions that are supported by evidence
- Identified and partnered with HMRE programs to participate in rapid-cycle learning
- Worked closely with program partners to pilot test and refine the solutions
- Recommended program partners for participation in a possible future evaluation
- Obtained input from research and programmatic experts and stakeholders to ensure the study includes diverse perspectives
What did the study produce?
The SIMR team shared findings through various products linked below, including:
- A synthesis of common implementation challenges in HMRE programs and promising solutions
- A description of program partners and plans for piloting solutions to common implementation challenges
- Rapid-cycle learning findings about the feasibility of using specific solutions, and how well they worked
Local Evaluation Technical Assistance
In addition, the SIMR team provided evaluation training and technical assistance to support HMRE grantees and their independent evaluators as they conducted grantee-specific impact or descriptive evaluations of their programs (“local evaluations”). The goal of this local evaluation training and technical assistance was to grow the evidence base for HMRE programming by strengthening local evaluations and building the capacity of evaluators working in the HMRE field.
Point(s) of contact: Samantha Illangasekare and Rebecca Hjelm.
Information collections related to this project have been reviewed and approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs under ACF’s Generic Clearance for Formative Data Collections for ACF Research (OMB #0970-0356). Related materials are available at the following pages on RegInfo.gov: