# Presentation: 443744

## Saint Louis Healthy Marriage Coalition

**Office of Child Support Enforcement Conference**
**Marriott Crystal Gateway, Arlington VA**

***“******My child’s father and I can now begin working on sticking together when making decisions.”***
**– ****Female respondent after participating **
**in St. Louis Healthy Marriage Program**

## Healthy Relationship Skillsfor Fragile Families:A Teaching Demonstration Project

***Special Improvement Project: Priority Three OCSE***

**Bridget Brennan**
**Executive Director, St. Louis Healthy Marriage Coalition**
**Project Officer for SIP Grant Priority Three**

## INTRODUCTION

**INTRODUCTION**

**Personal responsibility is the foundation for any change in behavior**
-  Major focus of project is to expand the base of service providers in our community who will be trained to reach a significant percent of fathers and mothers in designated geographic areas
- Training will equip these parents with solid, practical and effective parenting skills
**Teaching parents personal responsibility**
- Responsibility for their personal lives
- Responsibility for the lives of their children
**Healthy parenting skills can transfer to healthy relationship skills.**

## RATIONALE: NEED FOR ASSISTANCE

**RATIONALE: NEED FOR ASSISTANCE**

**Within underserved ethnic and culturally diverse populations, a significant number of young adults have entered into parenthood without the essential skills necessary to form and sustain a healthy, permanent relationship.**
**Some striking statistics:**
**In 1998, 64% of African-American births were to unmarried women. **
**Over the last 30 years, African-American marriages have dropped 41%.**
**60% of unmarried parents vs. 24% of married parents have children by more than one partner.**
**The poverty rate is 35.2% for children in single-parent homes vs. 8.2% in married parent homes.**
**These statistics illustrate the need for fragile families to be educated in healthy parenting and relationship skills**

## MOTIVATION

**MOTIVATION**

**Effective relationship skills are key for children being able to count on their parents for the financial, medical, and emotional support the children need to be healthy and successful. **
**Children of engaged fathers are less likely to have health, behavioral, and school problems. These children are in turn more likely to grow up as engaged parents themselves.**
**Putting children first and utilizing the Family Wellness program, we hope to ensure that parents make healthy relationship decisions and decide if marriage is appropriate.**

## PROGRAM OBJECTIVES

**PROGRAM OBJECTIVES**

**Improved relationships between parents and their children;**
**Increased parental involvement with their children;**
**Increased financial payments from non-custodial parents for their children;**
**Decreased number of adversarial relationships between parent partners; and**
**Increased progress toward family formation among parent partners.**

## GOALS: YEAR ONE

**GOALS: YEAR ONE**

**Provide child support enforcement education training, **_**including paternity establishment**_**, to any service providers who have not received case education training.**
**Identify and eliminate barriers to seeking child support assistance.**
**Teach men and women to move from an adversarial attitude to one of cooperation with each other for the benefit of the child.**
**Build a collaborative, community effort, which will provide CSEA education, including paternity testing  and family wellness training **_**in order to form and sustain healthy marriages.**_

## SERVICE DELIVERY: NUTS & BOLTS

**SERVICE DELIVERY: NUTS & BOLTS**

**Collaboration between:**
**State of Missouri Division of Social Services**
**Fathers Support Center**
**St. Louis Healthy Marriage Coalition**
**Missouri child support enforcement agency**
**Local St. Louis Family Support Division offices**
**Partnered with:**
**Head Start**
**Lutheran Family Services**
**Women’s Safe House**
**Lemay Family Care Center**
**Our Lady’s Inn**
**Black Leadership Roundtable**
**Family Resource Center**
**La Clinica**
**Manos Unidas**
**Salvation Army**
**Pregnancy Resource Center**
**Local churches**
**Classes meet during days, evenings, and Saturdays, for two 2-hour sessions (both open and closed classes, Year 1)**

## PRINCIPLES OF FAMILY WELLNESS

**PRINCIPLES OF FAMILY WELLNESS**

**Family Wellness curriculum serves as the foundation for program service delivery**
**Research-based, culturally competent program used throughout the United States to address essential parenting skills, personal responsibility skills, and basic relationship skills.**
**Target audience is at-risk urban African American, Bosnian and Hispanic mothers and fathers.**

## RECRUITMENT & MARKETING

**RECRUITMENT & MARKETING**

**To date, we have recruited and marketed our program through a variety of mediums**
**Partner Agencies**
**Support and Referral from Missouri Division of Family Services **
**1-800 Number advertised in community**
**Posters and Brochures                                                                                                                    **
**Speaking at various community meetings to spread the word**
**Phone Book Advertisements**

## CHALLENGES

**CHALLENGES**

**Recruitment is an on-going challenge**
**Providing classes for a gender mixed population rather than just one gender**
**Expanding contact hours**
**Bringing parents of same child together for classes**

## MEASURABLE OUTCOMES

**MEASURABLE OUTCOMES**

**Actual Numbers served: 292 custodial and non-custodial parents have been served.**
**Our goal had been to serve 214 the first year.  **
**We believe we exceeded our goals for the following reasons:**
**Commitment of trained Family Wellness instructors**
**Quality of Family Wellness curriculum**
**Ability of partner agencies to recruit participants**
**Family assistance gift was a perk**

## PARTICIPANT CHARACTERISTICS

**PARTICIPANT CHARACTERISTICS**

**Three-quarters of participants (75%) were female**
**The majority (64%) were African American, followed by 23% who were Hispanic**
**More than three-quarters (77%) of participants were between the ages of 20 and 39 years, for an average age of 32 years**
**The number of children reported by participants ranged from none to nine, for an average of 2.4 children per participant**
**More than half (59%) were employed either on a full-time or part-time basis**
**Services provided at twelve sites**

## CHILD SUPPORT CHARACTERISTICS 

**CHILD SUPPORT CHARACTERISTICS **

|  | I pay cash / get billed | I don’t know | My child’s other parent’s health insurance | My health insurance | Medicaid |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Who provides medical coverage for your child?
(N = 186) | 7% | 6% | 13% | 8% | 67% |

***Medical Coverage:***

|  | Yes | No | I don’t know |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Is your name listed on the birth certificate for your child?
(N = 54 male participants) | 7% | 6% | 13% |

***Birth Certificate Documentation:***

## CHILD SUPPORT CHARACTERISTICS 

**CHILD SUPPORT CHARACTERISTICS **

***Paternity & Child Support Documentation:***

|  | Yes | No |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Do you give your child’s other biological parent money to help for your child’s expenses? (N=38) | 24% | 76% |
| Do you give your child’s other biological parent items such as diapers, clothes, and food? (N=40) | 20% | 80% |

***Monetary & Material Support Given to the Parent Partner:***

|  | Yes | No | I don’t know |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Did you use a paternity test to confirm the biological father of your child? | 20% | 80% | 1% |
| Do you have court ordered child support for your child? ( N = 128) | 30% | 69% | 2% |

## CURRICULUM COMPONENTS

**CURRICULUM COMPONENTS**

**	****	****	****Percent**
- 					(n=171)
- Parents in Healthy Families	81%
- Children in Healthy Families	40%
- Couples in Healthy Families	40%
- Change in Healthy Families	40%
- Solving Family Problems		29%
- Passing on your Values		17%

***Curriculum Components Received by Participants***

## BEST PRACTICES

**BEST PRACTICES**

**Engaging presenters**
**Role plays**
**Gender mixed classes**
**Family Wellness Coordinator who stays in close contact with all instructors and sites to provide sites with necessary support and resources**
**Cohesive professional working team including: Family Wellness Coordinator, Family Wellness Research Team, Business Manager, and Executive Director**

## COMMENTS FROM PARTICIPANTS

**COMMENTS FROM PARTICIPANTS**

**I have learned to listen to what he might have to say.**
**We never talked before and now we do, so I can use this information to get a deeper understanding of where he is coming from.  **
**I’ve learned to calm down and think before I yell.  **
**I usually brush him off, but now I will take more time to listen.**

***Comments about what participants gained from the Family Wellness Program:***

## COMMENTS FROM PARTICIPANTS

**COMMENTS FROM PARTICIPANTS**

**I now realize how difficult it is to take care of the children with me not staying with them.  **
**I really want to sit down with my kids one-on-one and see how they feel about things.**
**It’s teaching me to be a better father and a better man.**

***Specific comments from NON-CUSTODIAL PARENTS about what they gained from the program:***