Brief
Low-skilled men, especially minorities, typically work at low levels and provide little support for their children. Conservatives blame this on government willingness to support families, which frees the fathers from responsibility, while liberals say that men are denied work by racial bias or the economy--either a lack of jobs or low wages, which depress the incentive to work. The evidence for all these theories is weak. Thus, changing program benefits or incentives is unlikely to solve the men's work problem. More promising is the idea of linking assistance with administrative requirements…
This fact sheet profiles the Parents as Teachers program, an evidence-based home visiting approach that builds strong families and promotes positive parent-child interaction so children are healthy, safe, and ready to learn. Findings from a 2004 study on the benefits and costs of prevention and early intervention programs are shared and indicate Parents as Teachers had the largest benefit per dollar of cost ($1.23) of all reviewed pre-kindergarten education programs for children up to age 3. Goals of the Parent as Teachers program are explained and include: enhance parent knowledge of child…
This report makes recommendations for improving the evaluation of social programs and fostering partnerships between practitioners and evaluators. It calls for the field to have clearer guidelines on how evaluation can meet the particular needs and contexts of different kinds of programs, and for individual organizations and fields of practice to have the chance to demonstrate that they will use evaluative information for program improvement if afforded the opportunity to do so. Strategies include: promote a menu of credible evaluation alternatives that can be used when an randomized…
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Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) aims to promote preschoolers' school readiness by supporting parents in providing instruction in the home. The program model is designed for parents who lack confidence in their ability to prepare their children for school, including parents with past negative school experiences or limited financial resources. The HIPPY program model offers weekly activities for 30 weeks of the year, alternating between home visits and group meetings (two one-on-one home visits per month and two group meetings per month). HIPPY sites are encouraged…
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This report discusses conclusions from a two-day meeting of representatives of local, State, and national agencies that focused on the potential benefits and challenges of interagency collaboration between relationship education and pregnancy prevention practitioners. It summarizes key themes from the meeting and strategic actions related to relationship education and teen pregnancy prevention that were highlighted in the meeting. The recommended actions include: launch pilot projects and projects to test promising practices and assess the effectiveness of blended strategies; include youth…
Part of a series of fact sheets that discuss how and why the child support program provides innovative services to families across six interrelated areas to assure that parents have the tools and resources they need to support their children and be positively involved in raising them, this fact sheet focuses on family-centered innovations to improve child support outcomes. The need for family-centered child support services is explained, child support program accomplishments are shared, and the evolving child support program policy agenda is described. The collaboration of the child support…
This newsletter highlights four interrelated investments made by the Annie E. Casey Foundation to support community-based solutions to strengthen families and neighborhoods. The investments include: tapping the strengths of faith-based organizations; removing stumbling blocks to opportunity for people returning from incarceration and their families; providing a foundation for healthy relationships and marriages; and supporting strong and responsible fatherhood. Examples of specific initiatives in each area are described and successful practices are highlighted.
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Journal Article Head Start programs offer a setting to examine support that facilitates father involvement. The Dakota Father Friendly Assessment (DFFA) is designed to evaluate an organization's level of father-friendliness. To establish its psychometric properties, a sample of North and South Dakota early childhood staff (N = 609) completed the DFFA. A number of measures were included as indicators of validity. Factor analysis of the DFFA confirmed the presence of four expected factors and revealed a fifth factor (loadings ranged from .40 to .80). Coefficient alphas for DFFA subscales ranged from .71 to…
This paper is designed to deepen the conversation by identifying the key readiness factors, overall capacities, and practices of both TANF agencies and FBCOs that have led to successful partnerships in eight communities. By examining important elements of these partnerships, we hope to provide guidance to other TANF agencies and FBCOs interested in collaborating to improve outcomes for families and low-income individuals.
Family and child well-being is vital to the health of America's neighborhoods and communities. Recognizing this fact when reauthorizing the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program in 2005, Congress appropriated $150 million to support demonstration programs in the areas of healthy marriage and responsible fatherhood. Managed by the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Administration for Children and Families (ACF), these initiatives were designed to have a broad reach, including marriage and relationship education services for married and engaged couples. Of the 116…
