Projects

Project Overview

Since 2006, the Administration for Children and Families has funded Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood (HMRF) grants to promote healthy marriage and relationship education, youth-focused relationship education, and multifaceted responsible fatherhood programs. About one quarter of individuals served by HMRF grantees are Black. While HMRF programs have made important efforts to consider race and culture in program design and operations, this project will advance this work through recommendations rooted in understanding the complexity of interpersonal, historical, and systemic inequities apparent in the lives of Black individuals and families.

The goal of this project is to bring an equity focus to HMRF programs to better support well-being in Black families. The project team will build on a growing understanding of structural racism and resultant inequities and develop best practices and recommendations for HMRF programs to address systemic issues of racism and further strengthen the resilience of Black families and family members. Specifically, the overall goals of this work are to —

• Help identify and document assets, needs, and experiences of Black fathers, families, couples, and youth served by HMRF programs.
• Explore how HMRF grantees can address needs and promote equitable and culturally considerate service delivery for Black families.
• Develop resources for HMRF grantees to help address race inequity and the impacts of historic, systemic, and institutional racism.
• Help the Administration for Children and Families improve how Black families are served within HMRF programs and make use of strengths and resilience.

The resources will be informed by expert consultations, stakeholder feedback, community advice, guidance from individuals with lived expertise, HMRF practitioners funded by Administration for Children and Families grants, and published studies. Final products will include a report on how HMRF programs can address and respond to racial inequities; a literature synthesis documenting the resilience of Black families and strengths-based practices for HMRF programs serving Black communities; a report providing recommendations to HMRF practitioners to apply equity principles and practices in their work; and a series of HMRF practice resources to support program efforts to promote equity for Black families.

Products

Reports, literature synthesis