On Tuesday, June 2 from 12:00 – 1:30 p.m. EST, the Fatherhood Research and Practice Network (FRPN) will host our second learning community webinar for researchers and fatherhood practitioners. Key topics to be discussed include:
- Resources to help find a fatherhood program or research partner.
- Qualities fatherhood programs look for in a research partner and the qualities researchers look for in a fatherhood program.
- The roles and responsibilities of researchers and practitioners in conducting fatherhood program evaluations.
- How programs and researchers divide the duties required of fatherhood program evaluations.
- Past evaluation experiences of researchers and fatherhood program staff.
We will feature two evaluation researcher/practitioner teams in the webinar:
- Home Visiting for Fathers Project: Jennifer Bellamy, MSW, University of Denver School of Social Work and Sandra Morales-Mirque, project coordinator, Dads Matter, University of Chicago. This researcher/practitioner team is one of the four currently funded FRPN projects.
- Compadre y Compadre Project:. Mathew Smith, president/director, MLS Health Services, Inc., Atlanta, and Yvette Sanchez, chief program officer, The Children's Shelter, San Antonio.
To register for this webinar, please email Rebecca Kaufman, MSW, senior research coordinator for the FRPN.
Note: The "New Pathways for Fathers and Families" grant applications recently released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance, require local evaluations. This webinar will help you learn how to create effective researcher/practitioner partnerships to apply for this funding.
Timeline for New FRPN Request for Proposals Announced
The FRPN plans to release our next request for proposals in January 2016. This release has been delayed so that fatherhood programs will know whether or not they have received programmatic funding support from the Office of Family Assistance upon applying for FRPN funding.
Learn more about FRPN funding opportunities here.
FRPN Launches New List-Serve for Researchers
and Fatherhood Practitioners
In order to better connect researchers and fatherhood practitioners as they conduct evaluation research projects, the FRPN has launched an online list-serve. List-serve participants are encouraged to share best practices, ask questions and communicate their experiences in conducting evaluation research projects.
Click here to sign-up for the FRPN list-serve.
FRPN Co-Director Edits Special Issue
of Family Court Review
FRPN Co-Director, Jessica Pearson, Ph.D., has organized and edited a special issue of Family Court Review (Volume 53, Number 2, April 2015) entitled: "Parenting Time and Co-Parenting for Unmarried Parents." Family Court Review is a quarterly journal published by the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts. The articles in this issue examine the special challenges unmarried parents and their families face; why it is important to address their parenting and co-parenting situations; and the approaches that child support agencies, courts and federally funded programs have developed to meet their needs.
Read the April 2015 issue of Family Court Review in its entirety here.
In partnership with the National Partnership for Community Leadership (NPCL), the FRPN will host a one-day workshop in advance of NPCL's 17th Annual International Fatherhood Conference on Tuesday, June 9. This workshop will take place at Temple University in Philadelphia from 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
The FRPN workshop will focus on the benefits of evaluation research for fatherhood programs, how to begin research projects and how to apply for research funding. Attendees will participate in interactive sessions with several teams of fatherhood practitioners and researchers highlighting logic models, components of a successful grant proposal and measuring key program outcomes such as father involvement and co-parenting, as well as key data collection strategies.
A certificate in fatherhood program and evaluation from the School of Social Work at Temple University will be offered to all workshop attendees.
Click here to register for the workshop and learn more about NPCL's conference.
MDRC will host a webinar on Friday, May 29 at 2:00 p.m. EST regarding two new federally led evaluations of a small number of healthy marriage and responsible fatherhood/ReFORM grantees. The evaluation of the small set of responsible fatherhood/ReFORM grantees is called "Building Bridges and Bonds (B3)." The evaluation of the small set of healthy marriage and relationship education grantees is called "Strengthening Relationship Education and Marriage Services (STREAMS)."
Click here for more details on this webinar.
Jessica Pearson, Cynthia Osborne, Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin and FRPN responsible fatherhood workgroup chair, and Kjersti Olson, Ph.D., University of Minnesota, will conduct a workshop on "Approaches to Parenting Time and Co-Parenting for Unmarried Parents" at the 52nd Annual Conference of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts in New Orleans on May 29.
FRPN Co-Director Jay Fagan, PhD | Professor, Temple University School of Social Work
The Fatherhood Research and Practice Network is supported by grant #90PR0006 from the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The contents are solely the responsibility of the Fatherhood Research and Practice Network, Temple University and the Center for Policy Research and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, the Administration for Children and Families or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
