Other

National Evaluation of the Responsible Fatherhood, Marriage, and Family Strengthening Grants for Incarcerated and Re-Entering Fathers and their Partners: Program Overview and Evaluation Summary. Endnotes

(1) Sabol, William J., Todd D. Minton, and Paige M. Harrison. Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear 2006. Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin . June 2007, NCJ 217675. (2) Mumola, Christopher J. Incarcerated Parents and Their Children. Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report . August 2000, NCJ 182335. (3) Originally, 14 grants w

National Evaluation of the Responsible Fatherhood, Marriage, and Family Strengthening Grants for Incarcerated and Re-Entering Fathers and their Partners: Program Overview and Evaluation Summary. Implications

Information from the MFS-IP evaluation will assist federal, state, and community policy makers and funding agencies in identifying effective approaches for the provision of support to families affected by incarceration. Lessons from the implementation study will provide guidance to other organizations interested in delivering marriage and family

National Evaluation of the Responsible Fatherhood, Marriage, and Family Strengthening Grants for Incarcerated and Re-Entering Fathers and their Partners: Program Overview and Evaluation Summary. Evaluation Components

The evaluation has been designed to answer the following research questions: What are the defining characteristics of the grantees and their programs? What lessons can be learned from program implementation? How successful were the programs at achieving the desired outcomes? To what extent do the interventio

National Evaluation of the Responsible Fatherhood, Marriage, and Family Strengthening Grants for Incarcerated and Re-Entering Fathers and their Partners: Program Overview and Evaluation Summary. Evaluation Framework

Although each of the sites is unique, RTI has developed a framework for the evaluation that can accommodate site variation ( Figure 1 ). The framework first isolates inputs as the key factors necessary to implement MFS-IP programming at each site; these include such things as ACF funding, technical assistance, and federal grant requirements.

National Evaluation of the Responsible Fatherhood, Marriage, and Family Strengthening Grants for Incarcerated and Re-Entering Fathers and their Partners: Program Overview and Evaluation Summary. The National Evaluation of MFS-IP

The evaluation of program implementation and effectiveness is an important component of the MFS-IP initiative. RTI International was contracted by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) to conduct a seven-year national evaluation. The evaluation began in October 2006, with the first year focused on evaluation des

National Evaluation of the Responsible Fatherhood, Marriage, and Family Strengthening Grants for Incarcerated and Re-Entering Fathers and their Partners: Program Overview and Evaluation Summary. Program Descriptions

Brief descriptions of the MFS-IP programs operated by units of government funded are provided in Table 1 . Descriptions of the programs operated by faith and community-based organizations are provided in Table 2 .

National Evaluation of the Responsible Fatherhood, Marriage, and Family Strengthening Grants for Incarcerated and Re-Entering Fathers and their Partners: Program Overview and Evaluation Summary. Service Settings and Target Populations

The service settings and target populations vary among the grantees. All grantees plan to deliver services in at least one correctional facility (state prisons, county prisons, county jails, and tribal detention centers are represented), and many grantees will have a community-based component for partners on the outside or for formerly incarcerat

National Evaluation of the Responsible Fatherhood, Marriage, and Family Strengthening Grants for Incarcerated and Re-Entering Fathers and their Partners: Program Overview and Evaluation Summary. Program Components

No one program model is required for MFS-IP grantees, and the sites vary widely in terms of program components delivered and service delivery approach. The broad set of program components planned among the set of grantees includes the following:

National Evaluation of the Responsible Fatherhood, Marriage, and Family Strengthening Grants for Incarcerated and Re-Entering Fathers and their Partners: Program Overview and Evaluation Summary. MFS-IP Program Overview

MFS-IP grants support the provision of services to promote or sustain healthy relationships for couples with children, where one of the parents is incarcerated or otherwise involved with the criminal justice system (e.g., recently released from incarceration or under parole or probation). In addition to marriage-strengthening activities, grantees

National Evaluation of the Responsible Fatherhood, Marriage, and Family Strengthening Grants for Incarcerated and Re-Entering Fathers and their Partners: Program Overview and Evaluation Summary. Introduction

Many relationships, including those between intimate partners and among parents and children, are affected by incarceration.

Figure 1. MFS-IP Evaluation Frameword. See

National Evaluation of the Responsible Fatherhood, Marriage, and Family Strengthening Grants for Incarcerated and Re-Entering Fathers and their Partners: Program Overview and Evaluation Summary

This brief was prepared by Christine Lindquist and Anupa Bir of RTI International, under contract to ASPE. It describes the Responsible Fatherhood, Marriage, and Family Strengthening Grants for Incarcerated and Re-Entering Fathers and their Partners (MFS-IP) and provides an overview of the implementation and impact evaluation of this initiative.