Evaluating the Successes, Challenges of Healthy Marriage Programs
Since 2005, the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has administered grants to provide healthy marriage (HM) and responsible fatherhood services. These grant programs work to support couples and fathers in their efforts to improve adult and parent-child relationships and build stronger families.
In an effort to learn about the challenges and successes of service implementation, the needs and experiences of participants, and the effectiveness of the services that are provided, ACF awarded a contract in 2011 to Mathematica Policy Research to conduct the Parents and Children Together (PACT) evaluation. In October 2016, the publication Parents and Children Together: Design and Implementation of Two Healthy Marriage Programs reported on two HM grantees that participated in PACT—the Healthy Opportunities for Marriage Enrichment (HOME) program from the El Paso Center for Children in El Paso, TX, and the Supporting Healthy Relationships program from University Behavioral Associates in Bronx, NY.