Learn, Do, Reflect: A Summary of Findings from the Strengthening the Implementation of Responsible Fatherhood Programs Study

From mid-2021 to mid- 2022, 10 fatherhood programs participating in SIRF iteratively implemented and assessed promising approaches to addressing enrollment and participation challenges, with the support of and in partnership with the SIRF research team. At the end of the cycles, the SIRF research team examined the effects of the tested approaches on fathers’ participation in program activities. This brief summarizes how the cycles were designed and implemented, and provides an overview of the study’s overall findings.

• Reducing burdens on fathers may improve initial engagement. Among programs trying new approaches to outreach, more fathers who experienced the ease-of-intake approach participated in workshops than did fathers who experienced the case management approach. Among programs trying approaches to peer mentoring, more fathers in the father-initiated group participated in workshops than did fathers in the mentor-initiated group. Both fathers and staff members said they thought the approaches that led to greater participation were those that were less burdensome to the fathers.

The SIRF research team had early conversations with program practitioners, administrators, and policymakers to assess challenges that fathers face when seeking to engage in fatherhood programs, as well as potential promising approaches to addressing those challenges. They then engaged in a customer journey mapping process to identify real-world challenges experienced by participating programs, and to identify possible solutions. Finally, SIRF studied the effects of the approaches on program participation over several learning cycles, using a process called Learn Do Reflect, where the programs implemented the approach and modified it based on data collected during the cycle. The approaches tested by programs fell into three categories:

• Outreach. Programs used new techniques in an effort to recruit a bigger pool of potential program participants. Fathers were then assigned to either an ease-of-intake approach or a case management intake approach. The ease-of-intake approach was intended to encourage fathers to attend workshops by stressing the value of the workshop. The case management intake approach was intended to help identify and meet other needs fathers might have.
• Peer mentoring. Fathers were assigned to either a mentor-initiated group or a father-initiated group. Fathers in either group could initiate contact with their mentors, but mentors only initiated contact with fathers in the mentor-initiated group.
• Coaching. The effects of coaching were assessed by comparing program retention for fathers in these programs to participation outcomes for fathers in other programs

• Support in understanding and responding to program data is helpful to programs. According to the participating programs, SIRF’s emphasis on reviewing data and using it to guide decisions also helped to strengthen the programs’ existing processes for improving their practices and helped establish a culture of using data for learning and innovating. Learning cycle managers funded through SIRF were especially helpful in ensuring data were available for analysis and that the cyclical analytic process was followed.
• It may be important to ensure that information is flowing to the staff members who actually implement program approaches. To ensure staff support at all levels, future rapid learning efforts should make sure a broader base of staff members is included in learning and decision-making.
• Timing and time matter. Given the complexity of program operations, programs might need more cycles, or more time per cycle, to tailor their approaches and procedures.

Michalopoulos, Charles, and Rebecca Behrmann. 2023. “Learn, Do, Reflect: A Summary of Findings from the Strengthening the Implementation of Responsible Fatherhood Programs Study.” OPRE Report 2023-72. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.