In addressing the pressing issues facing our families and children, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and the Office of Family Assistance (OFA) has taken the President’s call for flexibility and collaboration to heart. Using $6 million of funding for responsible fatherhood programming, ACF has partnered with the Housing and Urban Development Agency (HUD) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to conduct four pilot/demonstration projects targeting the re-entry population.
The goal of this collaborative effort: to change the outcomes of individuals coming out of our correctional institutions moving them toward self-sufficiency and greater family and community integration.
The most recent data available is compelling. Nearly 730,000 individuals were released from our correctional facilities in 2009. 809,800 of the 1, 518,535 held in the nation’s prison system in 2007 have families and children that they have left behind as they serve their sentences. What we have learned from this data is that no one is better off from the experience. After having been “inside” for days, months, or years, they are faced with life on the “outside” with no clear path back into their homes, communities, or workplace. From the research, we know that transition is difficult because nearly 68 percent of all formerly incarcerated individuals will return to prison or jail within the first three years of release.
Our Federal partnership is committed to changing these outcomes by leveraging or collective resources and knowledge. ACF has blended evidence-based promising practices gleaned from DOJ’s Second Chance programs and HUD’s Project Reunite in this new $6 million pilot program. HUD and DOJ have committed to work with the four grantee sites to creating environments that support and guide the transition of the formerly incarcerated back into their communities.
- In preparation for re-entry, and with the assistance of DOJ, these pilot programs will reach into correctional facilities prior to individuals’ release and provide them with case management, and soft- and hard-skills development and enhancement strategies. While no partner or spouse will be forced or coerced to participate in the housing or relationship development activities, this partnership will incorporate a plan on how to re-enter their families’ lives if and when safe to do. This effort will also begin to prepare them for entry into a competitive labor market.
- HUD will work with the programs to support the housing needs of these individuals upon their release. This will mean either that a person will be getting a place to live on their own or will work with a partner or spouse to overcome barriers, so that they may re-unite with their families who might live in public housing or have Section 8 housing assistance.
The partnership is focused on success. It is based on the principle that our positive actions will lead to stronger and healthier results for the community as a whole.
Earl Johnson is the Director of the Office of Family Assistance within the Administration for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Last Week, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) awarded just over $119 million in funding to programs that promote healthy marriages and relationships and that help fathers succeed as parents, as family members, and as providers for their children. Given the challenges facing kids today, local efforts to promote father involvement and healthy family relationships are essential to helping families thrive and children realize their dreams.
The funds were awarded through a competitive process designed to support a broad range of strategies to fostering healthy relationships and responsible fatherhood. Of the $119,393,729 million awarded about half of the funding is directed toward responsible fatherhood programs and about half toward programs focused on healthy marriage. This funding will be administered by the Office of Family Assistance at ACF which will require that programs have procedures in place to address issues of domestic violence, child abuse and neglect. Participation in these programs must be voluntary.
Grant funds will be used to support local efforts including:
- Comprehensive efforts that combine a focus on building stronger family relationships with job training and career counseling efforts to help individuals and parents find employment that can help families make ends meet. This focus on fostering employment success recognizes that financially secure families are more likely to provide stable and enriching environments for children.
- Marriage and relationship building, divorce reduction, and programs that may include parenting skill building, financial management, and conflict resolution;
- Responsible fatherhood promotion through counseling, mentoring, enhancing marriage and relationship skills, parenting and activities to foster economic stability; and
- Initiatives aimed at assisting fathers who are former prisoners reentering communities - and families – to rebuild family relationships and improve their employment prospects.
George Sheldon, Acting Assistant Secretary for Children and Families at HHS, recognized the impact this funding will have saying, “A strong and stable family can help propel children toward success. These grants support programs that promote responsible parenting, encourage healthy relationships and marriage, and help families move toward self-sufficiency and economic stability.”
This funding is going to a broad spectrum of organizations who understand the importance of engaged fathers and healthy family relationships. These grants offer support to communities and families across the country looking to strengthen our next generation by building strong families in which parents can meet the emotional and financial needs of their children.
For more information on these grants and a list of grantees, please read HHS PRESS RELEASE this week and follow the attached links. For more information on federal fatherhood programs, including information on President Obama’s commitment to these issues, visit Fatherhood.gov.
This week, HHS announced funding announcements for fatherhood and marriage grants. This funding provides organizations in underserved communities with the tools they need to promote responsible parenting, to encourage healthy marriage and relationships, and to help fathers and their families succeed.
In addition to a piece on Huffington Post on Supporting Fathers and our Families, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius recorded a message to talk about how HHS is renewing its commitment to ensuring that all fathers and families have the resources they need to reach their full potential.
Please see information below for grant announcements discussed above.
Title: Pathways to Responsible Fatherhood Grants
Estimate of Awards: $52,500,000 through a estimate of 37 awards ranging from $300,000 to $2,500,000 per award
Purpose: Supports organizations that demonstrate the ability to successfully promote responsible fatherhood, including economic stability, responsible parenting, and healthy marriage and relationship skills.
Applications are due by 07/28/2011
Link to Full Grant Announcement – Website and to download the PDF
Title: Community-Centered Responsible Fatherhood Ex-Prisoner Reentry Pilot Project
Estimate of Awards: $6 million through a estimate of four awards ranging from $1 million to $1.5 million per award
Purpose:Supports re-entry programs that provide Responsible Fatherhood pre- and post-release case management services to recently released or re-entering fathers and mothers.
Applications are due by 07/28/2011
Link to Full Grant Announcement – Website and to download the PDF
Title: Community-Centered Healthy Marriage and Relationship Grants
Estimate of Awards: $57 million through a estimate of 40 awards ranging from $300,000 to $2.5 million per award
Purpose:Supports programs that have the capacity and proven track record of providing a broad range of healthy marriage and relationship skills training.
Applications are due by 07/28/2011
Link to Full Grant Announcement – Website and to download the PDF
Title: National Resource Center for Strategies to Promote Healthy Marriage
Estimate of Awards: $1.5 million through one award
Purpose: Supports the development, implementation and management of a resource center to gather, develop, and disseminate information and research related to promoting healthy marriage.
Applications are due by 07/28/2011
Link to Full Grant Announcement – Website and to download the PDF
Last week, Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis announced seven new grant awards totaling $39.7 million, an investment focused on helping non-custodial parents become better fathers by connecting them to job opportunities and teaching them the skills they need to keep these jobs and support their families financially. In my role within the Department of Labor and as a participant in the White House's Interagency Working Group on Fatherhood, I help promote strategies just like this that encourage support for fathers and families. Through research, discussions and planning, the Department determined that a model known as the transitional jobs model is especially useful for non-custodial parents struggling to enter the workforce and earn a living wage paycheck. These transitional jobs programs place dads with open child support orders on a career pathway that will enable them to financially provide for their children. The new Enhanced Transitional Jobs Demonstration will test the effectiveness of the transitional jobs model when mixed with activities such as occupational skills training, counseling and mentoring, and extended internship and work experience opportunities. Grantees are located in Atlanta, Ft. Worth, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, New York, San Francisco, and Syracuse. The seven grant awards will fund partnerships between nonprofit organizations, employers, the public workforce investment system and local child support and criminal justice agencies. In addition, the structure of this grant funding will identify strategies that best promote success in the workplace and maintenance of child support payments. Each grantee will serve at least 500 individuals over the course of a four-year period, many of whom who will be non-custodial parents with an active child support order. To provide a robust evaluation for this activity, each grantee is additionally required to track another 500 individuals over the same period. This e set of individuals, known as the control group, will not receive services through the program but their progress will be evaluated against the progress of those individuals in the program receiving services. Having this structure implemented through the grantees with assistance from the research group, MDRC, will test the effectiveness of this model. To mark the announcement of these innovative grants, Joshua DuBois, Director of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, hosted a conference call on Friday with stakeholders from across the country to discuss the new grants with practitioners and others from the responsible fatherhood field. On the call, Joshua encouraged local faith-based and community groups in the cities that received awards to reach out and develop partnerships with the newly funded consortia. Staff from several of the grantee organizations and their partners also participated on the call, including the Doe Fund in New York City, Goodwill of North Georgia and the Center for Working Families in Atlanta, Workforce Inc. in Indianapolis, and Center for Community Alternative in Syracuse. Stay tuned to the DadTalk blog for stories and updates from each of the seven individual programs. Ben Siegel is the Deputy Director for the Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the U.S. Department of Labor.
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