Resource Library

Healthy families help children thrive, but many families experience instability and parental absence. Since 2005, Congress has funded $150 million each year in healthy marriage (HM) and responsible fatherhood (RF) grants to support the long-term success of children and families. The Office of Family Assistance (OFA) within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has awarded...

Several ACF programs interact with justice-involved parents and youth in an effort to promote economic self-sufficiency and social well-being for the individuals and their families. Across ACF, we are implementing rigorous research and evaluation projects to better understand how to serve this population.

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This report represents the final synthesis of the Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency project. Overall, the project’s findings demonstrated that applying behavioral insights to challenges facing human services programs can improve program efficiency, operations, and outcomes at a relatively low cost.

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This brief explores fathers’ social support networks to learn about the size and composition of their family and friendship ties, the types of support they get through these connections, and the types of organizations from which the fathers receive services.

Findings indicate that fathers...

Administrative data have the potential to help us answer pressing social policy questions. Government stakeholders and researchers are exploring the promises of using administrative data for research purposes.

This brief summarizes an Innovative Methods Meeting that was organized by OPRE in the fall of 2015 that considered the potential benefits and pitfalls of using administrative data for research purposes...

In the fall of 2014, OPRE organized an Innovative Methods meeting to explore cutting-edge applications of methods and analytic techniques that can inform social program practice and policy. This brief summarizes the meeting and includes..

Historically, tribal communities have used storytelling to share language, traditions, and beliefs from one generation to another. Tribal social service programs and other human service programs can build on this rich tradition by using stories within a qualitative research framework. This report explores opportunities, considerations, and methods for using storytelling to understand and communicate information about social service programs in tribal communities...

This report presents findings from an intervention designed to increase the number of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families recipients who “reengaged” in Los Angeles County’s welfare-to-work program...