- CHILD SUPPORT DEMONSTRATIONS APPROVED IN THREE MORE STATES!!

March 15, 2005




- PRESIDENT ANNOUNCES $43 MILLION IN GRANTS FROM COMPASSION CAPITOL FUND

August 3, 2004

 

- ACF APPROVES CHILD SUPPORT DEMONSTRATIONS IN FOUR STATES

April, 29, 2004 - 1115 waivers



- MINNESOTA HEALTHY MARRIAGE AND RESPONSIBLE FATHERHOOD INITIATIVE

April, 29, 2004 



- HHS AWARDS GRANTS FOR CHILD SUPPORT DEVELOPMENT
Jan 3 2003 

<>- ACF Grants awarded to Grand Rapids, Michigan and Nampa, Idaho
May 9, 2003

- ACF/CHILDREN'S BUREAU GRANTS ANNOUNCED
</>October 3, 2003

- ACF HEALTHY MARRIAGE GRANTS TO INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION
October 3, 2003

##########################

- CHILD SUPPORT DEMONSTRATIONS APPROVED IN THREE MORE STATES!!

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

ACF 



HHS' Assistant Secretary for Children and Families Dr. Wade F. Horn today

announced $2,958,184 in federal funding to support demonstration projects in

Georgia, Kentucky and Texas to promote improvements in child support

enforcement efforts.



"These projects will help improve the well-being of children, promote

paternity establishment and help parents provide increased financial and

emotional support for their children," Dr. Horn said. "With today's

announcement, we now have nine child support enforcement projects aimed at

developing and testing new strategies in communities across the nation to

support healthy marriages and parental relationships."



The grants are awarded under the authority of Section 1115 of the Social

Security Act and require that each project be designed to improve the

financial well-being of children or otherwise improve the operation of the

child support enforcement program. Section 1115 authorizes states to conduct

experimental, pilot or demonstration projects likely to assist in promoting

the objectives of the Social Security Act.



The goals of the demonstration projects include improving the establishment

of paternity and increasing financial support for children as well as

improving fathers' relationships with both their children and the mothers of

their children. The projects also include efforts to improve couple

relationships and reduce the potential for domestic violence. The projects

are required to screen participants for domestic violence and refer

appropriate individuals for services.



Kentucky will receive $1 million in federal funding. Texas will receive

$998,184 and Georgia will be awarded $960,000. HHS' Administration for

Children and Families will conduct a comprehensive evaluation to assess how

the projects were implemented and their effects on families, children and

the child support program.



The projects will last between two and five years and will be supplemented

by private funding. The grants represent additional funding to the states

and will not affect the amount of federal funds available to administer

child support programs.



Note: All ACF press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are

available at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/opa/index.html.

##########################
- PRESIDENT ANNOUNCES $43 MILLION IN GRANTS FROM COMPASSION CAPITOL FUND

Tuesday, August 3, 2004

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: ACF Press Office

(202) 401-9215



Faith and Community-Based Groups to Help Youth, Couples, Needy



President Bush today announced $42,957,597 in 145 grants to

organizations that provide services and support through soup kitchens,

homeless shelters, drug treatment centers, job training programs, and

other compassionate programs. Faith-based and community-based

organizations will receive the federal funding from the Compassion

Capital Fund, which is in its third year of existence. . . .



Today's announcement consists of two sets of grants. The first totals

$38 million. $6.9 million -- the first installment of a three-year grant

award -- will go to 14 new intermediary organizations, including the

Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty in New York; Cherokee Nation in

Oklahoma; the Governor's Office for Faith-Based and Community

Initiatives in Ohio; and Mission West Virginia, Inc. $31.1 million will

be used for 31 second and third-year continuation awards from the

Compassion Capital Fund Demonstration Program. The intermediaries will

assist grass-root, faith and community-based organizations so they may

increase their effectiveness, enhance their ability to provide social

services and create collaborations to better serve those in need.



The second set of grants totals $4.9 million under the Compassion

Capital Fund Targeted Capacity Building Program. They will be given to

100 organizations that work on priority issues such as at-risk youth,

homelessness, healthy marriages and serving people in rural communities.

Organizations include Hope Partnership for Education in Pennsylvania;

Prevent Child Abuse in Minnesota; the Community Partnership for the

Homeless in Texas; EnFamilia in Florida; and Lutheran Social Services of

South Dakota.



"The grants we are announcing today give what President Bush calls the

'armies of compassion' the resources they need to serve the poor, the

hungry, the homeless and the addicted," said Dr. Wade F. Horn, HHS

assistant secretary for children and families. "Faith-based and

community-based groups know the problems and solutions in their

neighborhoods. Now they will have more resources with which to improve

the lives of children and families around the country."



Since the program's inception three years ago, $99.5 million will be

given to a total of 1,906 organizations through the Compassion Capital

Fund, which is run by HHS' Administration for Children and Families. One

hundred and ninety-seven organizations have received grants and 1,709

grass-roots faith and community-based organizations have or will receive

sub-awards by Sept. 30, 2004. For a complete list of grantees for

today's awards, go to:



http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2004pres/20040803b.html



########################

- HOORAY FOR THESE FOLKS!

Just think what we could do if TANF would pass. But in meantime,

if you click on the url above you'll see that this announcement includes

BIG grants ($hundreds of thousands) and "little" grants of $50,000 each.

Attendees of the conference and readers of the smartmarriages list will

recognize - and should send up a cheer for - a bunch of the little ones

($50K) which include:



Bluegrass Healthy Marriages Partnership, Lexington, KY



Community Marriage Builders, Inc., Evansville, IN



Community Marriage Initiative, Inc., Amherst, NH



EnFamilia, Inc., Homestead, FL



Families Are Relationships (FAR) Foundation, Dallas, TX



Family Life Council of Greater Greensboro, Inc., Greensboro, NC



Family Support Council, Dalton, GA



Heritage Community Services, Inc., Charleston, SC



Iowa Family Policy Center, Pleasant Hill, IA



Marriage Alliance of Central Virginia, Forest, VA



Marriage Builders Alliance of Richmond, Richmond, VA



Opportunities Industrialization Center of Greater Milwaukee, WI



Orange County Marriage Resource Center, Anaheim, CA



Palmetto Family Council, Columbia, SC



Sioux Empire Marriages Savers, Sioux Falls, SD

#######################

- ACF APPROVES CHILD SUPPORT DEMONSTRATIONS IN FOUR STATES

April, 29, 2004 - 1115 waivers



Four new 1115 waivers were announced today! We should see some exciting

marriage action from Louisiana, Massachusetts, Illinois and Minnesota.  As

you get your individual press releases, please send them to me - we want the

details!  I've got one from U of Minnesota that follows.



To see announcements of the three previous 1115 waivers in 2003 (Grand

Rapids, Michigan, Nampa, Idaho and Hampton Roads, Virginia) go to:

http://archives.his.com/smartmarriages/smartmarriages.0305/msg00008.html

and 

http://archives.his.com/smartmarriages/smartmarriages.0309/msg00004.html



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Thursday, April 29, 2004

Contact: Chris Downing

ACF Press Office (202) 401-9215



The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) today announced $3.7

million in funding to support demonstrations in Illinois, Louisiana,

Massachusetts, and Minnesota to promote improvements in child support

enforcement efforts.



³This brings to seven the number of projects we are funding to develop and

test new strategies in communities across the nation to support HEALTHY

MARRIAGE and PARENTAL RELATIONSHIPS with the goals of improving the

well-being of children, promoting paternity establishment, and increasing

financial and emotional support to children,² Health and Human Services

Secretary Tommy G. Thompson said.



The states will receive federal funding in the following amounts: Illinois

will receive $819,009; Louisiana will receive $924,000; Massachusetts will

receive $973,180; and Minnesota will receive $989,999.  ACF will conduct a

comprehensive evaluation to assess how the projects were implemented and

their effects on families and children and the operation of the Child

Support Program.  Some of the projects will last five years, others three.



All will be supplemented by private funding.  These grants represent

additional funding to the states and will not affect the amount of federal

funds available to administer child support programs.



³These projects continue our efforts to enhance the overall goals and

effectiveness of the child support enforcement program by testing and

evaluating creative approaches to integrating the promotion of healthy

marriage into existing child support services,² said Wade Horn, Ph.D., the

assistant secretary for children and families at the Department of Health

and Human Services (HHS).



The grants are awarded under the authority of Section 1115 of the Social

Security Act and require that each project be designed to improve the

financial well-being of children or otherwise improve the operation of the

child support enforcement program. Section 1115 of the Social Security Act

authorizes states to conduct experimental, pilot or demonstration projects

that are likely to assist in promoting the objectives of the Social Security

Act. 



The goals of the demonstration projects include improving the establishment

of paternity and increasing financial support for children as well as

improving fathers¹ relationships with both their children and the mothers of

their children. The projects also will include efforts to improve couple

relationships and reduce the potential for domestic violence. The projects

are required to screen participants for domestic violence and refer

appropriate individuals for services.



###############################

- MINNESOTA HEALTHY MARRIAGE AND RESPONSIBLE FATHERHOOD INITIATIVE

April, 29, 2004 

Tah Dah!!  



University of Minnesota Professor To Direct Healthy Marriage Project With

New Grant



MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL ( 4/29/2004 ) --Gov. Tim Pawlenty announced today

that Minnesota will receive almost $1 million in additional federal child

support funding for a community-based project through the University of

Minnesota to promote healthy marriage and family formation.   Minnesota's

award totaling $989,999 is part of $3.7 million in child support

demonstration funding announced today by U.S. Department of Health and

Human Services.



University of Minnesota family social science professor William Doherty

will direct the project, called the "Minnesota Healthy Marriage and

Responsible Fatherhood Initiative." Doherty is director of the Marriage and

Family Therapy Program and a nationally recognized expert in promoting

healthy marriage and responsible fatherhood.



"Participants will be unmarried new parents in Minneapolis and St. Paul and

who want to raise their child together and who hold marriage as a goal for

their relationship," Doherty said.



The project aims to encourage stable family formation among new unmarried

parents; promote healthy and successful marriages among unmarried couples

who desire it; encourage responsible fathering; promote the economic and

psychosocial well-being of children; promote paternity establishment; and

encourage community support for marriage and family formation among

unmarried parents.



National data show that about one-third of children born each year in the

United States are born to unmarried parents. In Minnesota, 26 percent of

children born in 2001 had unmarried parents. The latest research indicates

that most adult couples having a child outside of marriage are in a

romantic relationship at the time of birth. Most say they want to marry

someday and raise their child in a stable family. This project is designed

to help the couples move forward into a healthy marriage.



An initiative like this one is important, because risks associated with

nonmarital childbearing are well documented and include lower levels of

physical health, psychosocial well-being, economic well-being and academic

achievement among children, Doherty said. Mothers also experience higher

poverty rates and a lower likelihood of future marriage. Observers also see

less responsible fathering in terms of parental involvement and economic

support.



This new project will use a community mobilization approach, Doherty said.

Couples who married after having a child will serve as mentors to new

parents. The new parent couples will also receive additional support from

faith communities, community based parent education and couples education

adapted for unmarried new parents, access to premarital and marriage

counseling services, access to employment and related services to achieve

self-sufficiency, assistance with child support arrangements and

flexibility in their enforcement, and opportunities to become involved as

citizens and leaders in the project.



This is the first federally-funded marriage project that uses a community

organizing approach that does not emphasize traditional programs and

services, but rather layers of mentoring and support from many sectors of

the community, Doherty said.



"We want to counteract the current culture of despair about the prospects

of unmarried new parents in our urban communities," Doherty said.



The federal funding requires a local match of  $500,000. A proposal to

provide the funds from marriage license fees is pending in the Legislature.

The project is expected to begin in late 2004 and will last for five years.

The Minnesota Department of Human Services, which supervises state child

support efforts, will oversee the project through a contract with the

university.



########################



subject: HHS AWARDS GRANTS FOR CHILD SUPPORT DEVELOPMENT
PROJECTS-1/03

Date: Fri, 03 Jan 2003 12:39:16 -0500

Very exciting news - here are clips from today's HHS/ACF Press Release that
includes three grants for strengthening marriage.

> Three grants were awarded to faith-based and non-profit organizations and a
> state agency to emphasize the importance of healthy marriage to a child*s well
> being.
>
> - The Marriage Coalition, a faith-based organization in Cleveland Heights,
> Ohio, received $199,994 to test a curriculum to provide poor, unmarried
> parents with knowledge on the importance of establishing paternity and paying
> child support or the advantages of a healthy marriage.
>
> - In Allentown, Pennsylvania, the Community Services for Children, Inc.
> received $177,374 to provide, in collaboration with local faith-based
> organizations, marriage education, employment and other services to unwed
> couples involved with Early Head Start or Head Start.
>
> - The Alabama Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Board received $200,000 to
> provide services to help low-income, ethnically diverse, unmarried parents
> learn practical skills to promote healthy marriage, improve employment and
> increase paternity establishment rates and child support payments.

Note that Sandra Bender, director, of the Cleveland Marriage Coalition will
be a presenter at the Reno Smart Marriages conference where she'll talk
about capacity-building and will be able to answer your questions about how
they developed a "fundable" project. (Web: recreatingmarriage.com)

For info on the other projects see their web sites:

Allentown - http://www.cscinc.org/

Alabama Child Abuse and Neglect - http://www.ctf.state.al.us/

####################
subject: ACF Grants awarded to Grand Rapids, MI and Nampa, ID - 5/9/03
May 9, 2003

- ACF APPROVES CHILD SUPPORT DEMONSTRATIONS IN MICHIGAN AND IDAHO

We will feature presentations on these projects at the closing Marriage
Rally plenary at the Smart Marriages Reno conference. In Michigan, the
grant goes to Healthy Marriages Grand Rapids (HMGR) and in Idaho, to
The Nampa Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood Coalition. - diane

For Immediate Release
Contact: ACF Public Affairs
202-401-9215

> "The projects will develop and test new strategies in these communities to
> SUPPORT HEALTHY MARRIAGE and parental relationships with the goals of
> improving the well-being of children, promoting paternity establishment, and
> increasing financial and emotional support to children," Health and Human
> Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson said.

> These grants represent additional funding to the states and will not affect
> the amount of federal funds available to administer child support programs.

> "These projects are a sensible government approach to testing and evaluating
> creative approaches that enhance the overall goals and effectiveness of the
> child support enforcement program by integrating the promotion of healthy
> marriage into existing child support services," said Wade Horn, Ph.D., the
> assistant secretary for children and families at the Department of Health and
> Human Services (HHS).

<>> The projects also will include efforts to improve couple relationships and
> reduce the potential for domestic violence. \

ACF APPROVES CHILD SUPPORT DEMONSTRATIONS IN MICHIGAN AND IDAHO
</>The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) today announced $1.5

million in funding to support demonstrations in Michigan and Idaho to
promote improvements in child support enforcement efforts.

"The projects will develop and test new strategies in these communities to
support healthy marriage and parental relationships with the goals of
improving the well-being of children, promoting paternity establishment, and
increasing financial and emotional support to children," Health and Human
Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson said.

Michigan will receive $990,000 in federal funds, while Idaho will receive
$544,400 in federal funds. ACF will conduct a comprehensive evaluation to
assess how the projects were implemented and their effects on families and
children and the operation of the Child Support Program. Each project will
last five years and will be supplemented by private funding. These grants
represent additional funding to the states and will not affect the amount of
federal funds available to administer child support programs.

"These projects are a sensible government approach to testing and evaluating
creative approaches that enhance the overall goals and effectiveness of the
child support enforcement program by integrating the promotion of healthy
marriage into existing child support services," said Wade Horn, Ph.D., the
assistant secretary for children and families at the Department of Health
and Human Services (HHS).

The grants are awarded under the guidance of Section 1115 of the Social
Security Act and require each project be designed to improve the financial
well-being of children or otherwise improve the operation of the child
support enforcement program. Section 1115 of the Social Security Act
authorizes states to conduct experimental, pilot or demonstration projects
that are likely to assist in promoting the objectives of Title IV-D of the
Social Security Act.

The goals of the demonstration projects include improving the establishment
of paternity and increasing financial support for children as well as
improving fathers* relationships with their children and mothers of their
children. The projects also will include efforts to improve couple
relationships and reduce the potential for domestic violence. Both projects
will be required to screen participants for domestic violence and refer
appropriate individuals for services.

######################
October 3, 2003
- ACF/CHILDREN'S BUREAU GRANTS ANNOUNCED

Discretionary Grant Recipients for
"Projects to Develop Programs to Strengthen Marriages" from the Children's Bureau/ACYF

The Children's Bureau, ACYF, awarded seven grants for this marriage
initiative whose purpose is to refine, implement, and evaluate an
articulated, specifiable program supporting marriage relationships targeting
married parenting couples, and/or cohabitating parenting couples known to
the child welfare agency, as well as community members who request the
opportunity to participate in the program. The program must promote healthy
marriage and family formation as a means of achieving safety, permanency,
and well-being for children and families, particularly those in the child
welfare system. The following will receive these five-year, $200,000 per
year, grants:

1. Louisiana Department of Social Services plans to provide their
Family Resource Centers (FRC) the opportunity to add a healthy
marriage/strengthening relationship component to their menu of services by
training the staff of the FRCs. Targeted are families served by the DSS,
OCS and FINS programs, thus, they expect to strengthen parental
relationships and promote healthier marriages/ enhanced relationships for
adult caregivers in fragile families throughout Louisiana. They intend to
utilize Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program (PREP), and a
collection of supplemental intervention tools in the Centers. It is
expected that 1,080 families statewide will be positively affected by this
initiative over the grant period. The data collected and analyzed will
include differences in service delivery methods, i.e. in-home one-on-one
versus group settings and those using supplemental materials versus those
using only PREP materials.

2. Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services will implement the
Healthy Marriage Initiative in the Omaha Enterprise Community in Omaha,
Nebraska. The program will be available to the community at large. They
intend to increase the overall community awareness of the benefits of living
in a stable and healthy marriage and the knowledge of where services can be
accessed in the target area. They also plan to engage at least 150 couples
per year an individualized, strengths-based marriage preparation program
that moves the couple to marriage. They anticipate that this will increase
by 20% the number of children in the target area who are raised by both
parents in a stable and healthy marriage. They plan to be comprehensive,
using numerous marriage program options and a minimum six month time frame
of participation while participants integrate the skills learned.

3. The Orange County, California Social Service Agency plans a
collaborative effort among numerous local agencies. They will introduce and
utilize the Relationship Enhancement (RE) program into the child welfare
system of Orange County in such a way that benefits these families and
demonstrates the effectiveness and benefits of this intervention for both
English and Spanish speaking families in voluntary child welfare services.
This project will include a 17-hour marriage skills-building program for
couples with a complementary children's program and will be offered at nine
locations in Orange County. The project will offer a "Train the Trainer"
approach to any faith-based or community-based organization who wants to
utilize the RE program. A quasi-experimental evaluation design is proposed
with a pre-post test design and comparison groups.

4. Oklahoma Department of Human Services will concentrate on marriage
education targeted to adoptive families with this grant. The services will
include a variety of settings, such as retreats (two per year),
community-based marriage education workshops provided to adoptive couples or
community-based marriage education provided to the general public with no
emphasis on the needs of adoptive families. Length of participation time
will also depend on the couples' specific needs. The project team will
review program design elements to determine if there are differences in the
effectiveness of the services when delivery variables are changed or when
the format is different.

5. Florida Department of Children and Families (FDCF): The Florida
Marriage and Family Research Institute will be a research, education and
intervention program administered through the University of Central Florida.
The aim of the grant is to strengthen existing marriage and couple
relationships to create healthy couples and healthy families. This will be
accomplished by providing research and training for social service agency
staff in the public, private non-profits and faith-based community
organizations while providing direct services to couples and families. The
provision of these services are a means of establishing best evidence-based
practices for service delivery and training which the Institute will
disseminate through a variety of methods.

6. Florida Department of Children and Families: FDCF, in conjunction
with Big Bend Community Based Care (BBCBC), a newly-formed non-profit
corporation and a contracted provider of family safety and preservation
services for the FDCF in eight counties in the panhandle (northwestern) area
of the State will administer the "Strengthening Marriages and Cohabitating
Couples" program. The goals of the project are to strengthen and preserve
the family and build upon the family's strengths while meeting individual
and family needs. The specific aim will be to implement and evaluate the
effectiveness of a Gottman-based service model to strengthen relationships
of married/cohabitating parent couples who are having difficulty meeting
their relationship needs as demonstrated by their involvement in the child
welfare system.

7. Florida Department of Children and Families: The "Building Local
Capacity for Healthy Marriage and Family Formation" program will concentrate
on building the capacity of local FDCF offices to work with mothers and
fathers and increase the well-being of children both inside and outside of
the child welfare system. All project staff will receive intensive training
and support from the National Center for Strategic Nonprofit Planning and
Community Leadership (NPCL) and Practical Application of Intimate
Relationship Skills (PAIRS). A local community advisory board will be
appointed and collaborative agency linkages will be established. The
services to parents will be based on the immediate needs of parents and will
vary according to their current marital and living situations. Project
evaluation will concentrate on learning what works best in providing
relationship skills training to the parents of children in the child welfare
system and other community couples who request services.

#####################
October 3, 2003
- ACF HEALTHY MARRIAGE GRANTS TO INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION

Child Welfare Training Grants for Healthy Marriage and Family
Formation Summary

The Children's Bureau, Administration on Children, Youth and Families,
Department of Health and Human Services awarded Child Welfare Training
Discretionary Grants on "Training for Healthy Marriage and Family Formation"
to five public and non-profit institutions of higher education. These FIVE-
year grants were awarded to:

Syracuse University,
Forest Institute of Professional Psychology,
State University of New York at Albany,
University of Denver, and
the University of Louisville.

Grant activities include developing, field testing, implementing, evaluating
and disseminating a competency-based curriculum and training plan to enhance
frontline and/or supervisory child welfare staff capacity to address healthy
marriage and family formation effectively. Expected benefits of these
activities include the achievement of positive safety, permanency and
well-being outcomes for children and families in the child welfare system.

1. Training for Healthy Marriage and Family Formation; Syracuse
University, Syracuse, New York. First year funding level: $135,688.

Working through an interprofessional coalition of academic departments
within the College of Human Services and Health Professions including the
School of Social Work, Department of Child and Family Studies, Department of
Marriage and Family Therapy, and through child welfare agencies; Syracuse
University will (1) identify current best practices that can be adapted to
fit the specialized needs of the child welfare client population, (2) field
test and disseminate a competency-based curriculum, (3) provide training to
33 graduate students as part of an academic program leading to a Master's
degree in Social Work, Child and Family Studies or Marriage and Family
Therapy, (4) deliver continuing education workshops for 100 to 150
additional employees of regional child welfare agencies, and (5) disseminate
training materials and information through various media. One of the
expected outcomes is a higher rate of healthy marriages and families, and a
lower rate of child abuse and neglect for persons in the child welfare
system.

2. Training for Healthy Marriage and Family Formation; University of
Denver Graduate School of Social Work, Denver, Colorado. First year funding level: $200,000.

The University of Denver's "Training for Healthy Marriage and Family
Formation Project "is an innovative collaboration with a Learning Systems
Group, distinguished marriage researcher, Dr. Howard Markman, national
marriage strengthening experts and three western states (Colorado, Wyoming,
& Kansas). The collaboration is established to (1) develop, test, implement,
evaluate and disseminate a competency-based training program to enhance
worker, supervisor and administrative capacity to address healthy marriage
and family formation toward the goal of achieving safety, permanency and
well being outcomes for children and families, and (2) identify and promote
systemic responses to barriers to transfer of this training to practice. The
collaboration's five-year plan includes training 300 frontline workers,
supervisors and administrators, as well as community and faith-based service
providers across three western states. It is expected that children and
families will benefit from applied understanding of healthy marriage and
family formation concepts, and that the child welfare system will benefit
from the focus on eliminating systemic barriers to promoting healthy
marriages and families.

3. The Prevention of Child Maltreatment through Child Welfare Training on
Healthy Marriage and Family Formation; University of Louisville, Louisville,
KY. First year funding level: $161,064.

The goals of this project are to develop a competency-based training
curriculum on Healthy Marriage and Family Formation specific to child
welfare and through the training to enhance the State Child Welfare
Organization's capacity to provide Healthy Marriage and Family Formation
services. Development of the curriculum involves partnership with
faith-based organizations, the child welfare agency and other community
representatives. The project will provide competency-based training for 50
child welfare teams (supervisors & workers), managers and representatives of
faith-based organizations. Anticipated benefits include development of an
integrated training plan and training reinforcement tools, increase in the
knowledge and skills of child welfare workers, engagement of community
partners, dissemination of marriage and family information and services
through the public awareness campaign and the prevention of child
maltreatment through the strengthening of marriages and families.

4. Expanding the Family Circle: Child Welfare Training on Healthy
Marriage and Family Formation; State University of New York at Albany, Albany, New York. First year funding level: $200,000.

In collaboration with the New York State Office for Children and Family
Services, the Social Work Education Consortium and the Center for Human
Services Research; the State University of New York at Albany's School of
Social Welfare plans to improve child welfare services and outcomes as
outlined in Federal Reviews, and New York State's Program Improvement Plan.
A competency-based curriculum and training plan that promotes family
centered practice, incorporates healthy marriage, family formation and
father involvement into child welfare practice and is culturally competent
in its application to the diverse population living in New York State will
be developed. The project will base its work on emerging research, including
information on fragile families and their marriage hopes and behaviors,
research on father involvement in child welfare services, and research on
culturally competent child welfare practice. The project will contribute
important information to child welfare practice and disseminate this
information through a conference and written resources, including an edited
volume.

5. Training for Healthy Marriages and Family Formation; Forest Institute of
Professional Psychology, Springfield, Mo. First year funding level:
$187,099.

The primary project objective of the Forest Institute and its partners,
Southwest Missouri State University and the Southern Region of the Missouri
Division of Family Services is to develop, implement and institutionalize a
competency-based curriculum to train child welfare staff enabling effective
services to clients in need of assistance in healthy family formation. This
two phased program will expand the knowledge and skills of child welfare
staff to address the needs of low-income residents in eight counties in the
Ozarks region of Missouri. The first phase will include formal training in
prevention, relationship enhancement and associated concepts of healthy
family formation. The second phase involves mentoring trainees as they
provide marriage and family formation services to their clients. A network
will be formed of government, community and faith-based organizations to
assist in addressing the needs of the clients of child welfare workers.

Jennifer L. Baker Psy.D LMFT
Forest Institute of Professional Psychology
2885 W. Battlefield Rd.
Springfield, MO 65807
417-823-3477 // 417-865-8943
Email: jbaker@forest.edu
Web: www.forest.edu

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