This annual report for 2008-2009 describes the activities and outcomes of the Parents Too Soon (PTS) programs, intensive home visiting programs in Illinois that aim to maximize the abilities of teen parents to care for their children and continue their own development. All PTS programs provide long-term home visiting services (3 to 5 years) to teen parents and their young children using one of three nationally recognized research based models: Healthy Families America, Parents As Teachers, and Nurse Family Partnership model. In addition, 12 of the 22 programs receive supplemental funding to…
This paper introduces the major themes associated with young disadvantaged men, including low educational achievement, joblessness, out-of-wedlock childbearing, and incarceration. By age 30, between 68 percent and 75 percent of young men with a high school degree or less are fathers (NLSY). Half of them are married when their first child is born and far fewer continue their education post-high school. The paper briefly reviews four major forces that help shape social and economic outcomes for young men who are fathers and for their partners and children: employment and earnings prospects;…
Until communities offer multiple pathways to connect with ladders of opportunity, many young families headed by out-of-school and out-of-work (OSOW) youth will be unable to achieve financial independence. To break the cycle of poverty, many human service organizations use two-generation approaches with "young families" (that is, families with children in which the parent is an OSOW young person ages 15-24 years). One hallmark of these two-generation approaches is the use of strategies that address the developmental needs of the young parents, their children, and the families as a whole. The…
In June 2012, the Family Strategic Partnership convened a group of leading fathers' organisations and academics to highlight the needs and experiences of young fathers aged 16 to 24 in England, and the joint role of statutory and voluntary services in supporting them. This report illustrates six young fathers' journeys through service provision, based on the experiences of the young men that the steering group organisations work with. The journeys reveal the blockages that can occur when insufficient support is available, and the opportunities that arise when services respond to young…
This report examines state efforts to reduce nonmarital births since the passage of PRWORA. In addition to synthesizing existing surveys of related state efforts, the study also includes findings from a series detailed interviews with a sample of nine states. These interviews focused on how states' efforts to reduce nonmarital births had changed since passage of PRWORA, the extent to which efforts focused on teens and/or adults, challenges or barriers states encountered, changes in roles of state agencies and community-based organizations, changes in funding sources, and the potential role of…
The Sure Start Plus pilot program was implemented in England to target support services to teen parents. The initiative was intended to reduce social isolation and improve parenting skills, health care, housing opportunities, and child care. Through a variety of models, Sure Start Plus offered individual advisors, advocacy, group therapy, and parenting classes. This executive summary presents an overview of the program and highlights the findings of an evaluation. The review indicated that crisis services, parenting activities, and health assistance were successful in helping the young women…
This final report discusses the Teen Parent Program, which provided a continuum of services to reduce child abuse and neglect and to strengthen the families of teenage parents. The project addressed a number of problems teen parents face: weak family structure and support; low levels of self-sufficiency and self-esteem; and lack of family planning, medical care, information on parenting, and parent-child interaction. The program consisted of 4 basic components. These components were: a family care specialist, teaching child development and home management, and providing transportation and in-…
This report on the proceedings of a policy seminar on adolescent parenting summarizes the presentations given at the seminar. Presentations summarized current and pending California legislation affecting adolescent parents and offered measures to protect the children of adolescent parents. These measures included extending workfare programs to parents of young children, introducing limited home health visiting for adolescent parents, and providing adolescent mothers with an opportunity to live in residential facilities. Other presentations covered a national perspective on adolescent…
In 1991, P/PV designed the Young Unwed Fathers Pilot Project to see if young, economically disadvantaged fathers would enter a program that provided job training, education, counseling and parenting services for up to 18 months, and if participation would lead to an increased capacity to support their children, both financially and developmentally. This report presents a detailed look at selected aspects of the lives of the young fathers before and during program participation, including their attitudes and relationships with the mothers of their children. It also evaluates employment and…
