# Presentation: 161838

## IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PARTNERS FOR FRAGILE FAMILIES DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS

**Presentation for the **
**ACF 10****th**** Annual Welfare Research and Evaluation Conference **
**Pamela Holcomb **
**The Urban Institute**
**June 2007**

## Participant Voices...

*Fatherhood is a big responsibility. Because now you got this little boy or little girl who’s going to be looking up to you, and some things you might do and they pick up, like boom! You know what I’m saying? So you got to watch pretty much everything that you do, everybody that’s around your child. You just got to be on your square because it’s a very big responsibility...A good father, a father that listens, a father that’s there, and a father that’s consistent...It’s hard work, man. It’s hard.*
*                                  “**Maurice” (a PFF participant)*

- The Urban Institute

- 6/5/2006

## Origins of PFF Project

- Developed through a collaboration between DHHS and the Ford Foundation
- Demo funded by DHHS OCSE and Ford Foundation; evaluation funded by DHHS ASPE and OCSE
- 13 programs in 9 states; operated from 2000 to 2003
- Innovative features: voluntary program; focus on expecting or young fathers (<age 25) with no prior involvement with the CSE system.

- The Urban Institute

- 6/5/2006

## Goals of PFF Demonstration 

- Improve outcomes for children and their parents:
- Strengthen the role of non-custodial parents in their families through promoting voluntary paternity establishment, improving employment outcomes and payment of child support, and increasing father involvement
- Improve family functioning through strengthened ties and commitments between young, unmarried parents (optimally parents still are in a relationship)
- Create systems change:
- Make lasting changes in the way child support and other public agencies and community organizations work with and serve non-custodial parents
- Help community and faith-based organizations work together more productively to better serve fragile families

- The Urban Institute

- 6/5/2006

## PFF Demonstration Sites

- Center for Fathers, Families and Workforce Development, Baltimore, MD
- Baltimore City Department of Social Services, Baltimore, MD
- Family Services of Greater Boston, Boston, MA
- Boston Public Health Commission, Boston, MA
- Human Services, Inc, Denver, CO
- Father and Families Resource/Research Center, Indianapolis, IN
- Bienvenidos Family Services, Los Angeles, CA

- City of Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services, Los Angeles, CA
- Truevine Community Outreach, Los Angeles, CA
- The FATHER Project, Minneapolis, MN
- STRIVE East Harlem Employment Services, New York, NY
- Goodwill’s Children Upfront, Racine, WI
- Chester County Housing Development Corporation, West Chester, PA

- The Urban Institute

- 6/5/2006

## Evaluation Design

- Descriptive ***implementation study*** conducted in 2003 of the PFF demos based on site visits to each program (administrative interviews and participant focus groups) and site-specific MIS data
***Ethnographic case studies*** of 8 PFF participants in two sites conducted between 2003-2004
- Examination of pre- and post-***employment, earnings and child support outcomes*** for PFF program participants

- The Urban Institute

- 6/5/2006

## Program Design Features

- Typically operated by community-based organizations, but also housing, health, social service agencies
- Most developed collaborations to serve young fathers, including workforce development, health, and social service organizations
- Several used funding to leverage other resources
- CSE was a partner in all programs
- Programs small by design, but most also enrolled fewer participants than they had planned

- The Urban Institute

- 6/5/2006

## PFF Participant Characteristics

- Average age: 21 years
- Marital Status:  94% never married
- Race/Ethnicity:
- African-American(67%)
- Hispanic(19%)
- White (8%) and Other (6%)
- Education: 55% lacked high school diploma/GED
- Number of Children:
- 64% with 1 child
- 18% with 2 children

- The Urban Institute

- 6/5/2006

## PFF Program Services

**Fatherhood Curriculum-based Workshop Series**: (topics included personal development, life skills, responsible fatherhood, relationships, & health)
**Peer Support and Case Management **
**Employment and Parenting Services** (on-site or through referrals)
**Child Support Linkages** (typically focused on providing assistance with understanding and navigating child support system through designated  CSE staff person—sometimes on-site)

- The Urban Institute

- 6/5/2006

## What the Participants Valued

- Program specifically designed for and responsive to young fathers
- Comprehensive service design and “one-stop” services—not just about “fatherhood” per se
- Development of a personal and trusted relationship with the case manager and other agency staff
- Peer support—a safe space to share with peers a wide range of  concerns and confusions about fatherhood & life
- Receiving help on learning how to avoid conflict and engage in positive interactions with the mother(s) of their children; and to exercise good parenting skills with their children

- The Urban Institute

- 6/5/2006

## Participant Voices...

*There ain’t too many people out there trying to help us out. They’re trying to hurt us, really. They were trying to lock us up or just...it’s hard for us, man.  Man, it’s hard for real [laughs] because we got so many temp—temptations and stuff and you get somebody like this who trying to keep you away from it, and help you out...people ain’t really taking advantage of it like they should.    *
*	**	**	**	**“**Brian” (a PFF participant)*

- The Urban Institute

- 6/5/2006

## Participant Voices...

*The one-on-one counseling too...that they give is a tremendous help too. And, like I said, just other things that they do as far as, you know, housing placement, and on jobs and stuff like that....it’s like the stronger you are as a man, the better you are as a father, you know...[They] help strengthen you and like, like your self-esteem.  *
*	**	**	**	**“**Darnell” (a PFF participant)*

- The Urban Institute

- 6/5/2006

## Primary Operational Challenges

**Recruitment Challenges and Low Enrollment **
- PFF experience is similar to other programs trying to reach and engage men—fatherhood programs, marriage programs, and other programs suggest men can be a very difficult population to recruit
- Additional recruitment challenges:  General lack of interest or sustained attention on part of fathers—in part because of age/maturity; competing distractions and demands on time; lack of knowledge, general fear or reservations about child support system
- PFF successes in overcoming recruitment challenges undermined by very strict eligibility criteria; some sites eventually relaxed child support eligibility criteria

- The Urban Institute

- 6/5/2006

## Primary Operational Challenges (cont.) 

**Retention challenges—high attrition rate**
- Young age of participants made them especially prone to being easily distracted by friends, work, school, the streets
- Personal problems and behaviors (e.g., arrests, parole violations, substance abuse relapse)
- Even best case scenario—father finds job and gets more involved with children—makes ongoing program participation difficult because now have less time available

- The Urban Institute

- 6/5/2006

## Preliminary Lessons from the PFF Demonstration

- Consider the high degree of difficulty associated with recruiting and sustaining participation for this population when developing eligibility criteria.
- Use a variety of targeted recruitment techniques, including referral arrangements with other agencies.

- The Urban Institute

- 6/5/2006

## Preliminary Lessons from the PFF Demonstration (cont.)

- To appeal to fathers, providing a comprehensive range of services that can then be tailored to the individual needs of each participant is an important appeal to fathers.
- Services to help fathers understand the CSE system in the context of responsible fatherhood are important; on-site CSE staff particularly may be particularly useful.
- In addition to child support, help with visitation and legal issues can help attract and retain young fathers in the program.

- The Urban Institute

- 6/5/2006

## Preliminary Lessons from the PFF Demonstration (cont.)

- MIS capacity must be developed and sustained through substantial early and ongoing technical assistance and monitoring—many CBOs lack this capacity.
- Ethnographic case studies and focus groups suggest that the “relationship” piece is very complex. Working with both parents presents difficult challenges—PFF programs typically focused on actively working only with the fathers.

- The Urban Institute

- 6/5/2006

## Preliminary Lessons from the PFF Demonstration (cont.)

- Relationships between mothers and fathers often unstable from the start and remaining “together” not viewed as desirable or possible.
- But, these fathers can be interested in and receptive to learning how to develop better interactions and communication with the mothers of their children and to learn skills that enable them to have better relationships with current/future partners.

- The Urban Institute

- 6/5/2006

## PFF Participant Voices

*Actually, [coming to PFF] just made me more stable...I’m with her (mother of his second child) real stable now...I’m providing...for both of my kids, but I’m pretty stable with, with the mother of the youngest one of them...And, um, and it feels good to be like a father....Like before if I would have worked, then I wouldn’t even think of just saving, I would just go...go to the club or whatever...And I wouldn’t think of the future...You know, like I’m thinking more in tomorrow.*
- 			*“**Samuel”  (a PFF participant)*

- The Urban Institute

- 6/5/2006