Coffin Corner

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Monday, October 3, 2011

Contact: Kenneth J. Wolfe

(202) 401-9215

HHS’ Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance (OFA) today announced $119,393,729 in grant awards to 120 grantees to promote healthy marriage and responsible fatherhood. Authorized by the Claims Resolution Act of 2010 (CRA), the grant awards will help fathers and families build strong relationships to support the well-being of their children.

“A strong and stable family is the greatest advantage any child can have,” said George Sheldon, HHS acting assistant secretary for children and families. “These grants support programs that promote responsible parenting, encourage healthy relationships and marriage, and help families move toward self-sufficiency and economic stability.”

The Healthy Marriage program awarded a total of $59,997,077 in grants, which include 60 Community-Centered Healthy Marriage grants and a National Resource Center for Strategies to Promote Healthy Marriage grant. The Responsible Fatherhood program awarded a total of $59,396,652 in grants, which include 55 Pathways to Responsible Fatherhood grants and four Community-Centered Responsible Fatherhood Ex-Prisoner Reentry Pilot Project grants.

These grants, administered by OFA, must have procedures in place to address issues of domestic violence and child abuse and neglect, and they must ensure that program participation is voluntary. HHS encouraged applicants to develop programs that emphasized providing comprehensive services to participants, including attention to the importance of employment and economic stability. 

The marriage and fatherhood grants were awarded through a competitive process and aim to test promising strategies for supporting healthy relationships and marriages and for helping fathers meet their parenting and financial obligations to their children. Organizations receiving healthy marriage grants may provide a range of services including marriage education, divorce reduction, and marriage and relationship skills programs that may include parenting skills, financial management, conflict resolution, and job and career advancement.  Fatherhood program funding must be used to promote responsible fatherhood through activities that promote or sustain marriage and responsible parenting, and that foster economic stability. 

Today’s $119 million in grants are part of a $150-million fund established by Congress to promote healthy marriage and responsible fatherhood. The remaining funds are allocated for research, a responsible fatherhood clearinghouse and Tribal TANF - Child Welfare grants (as authorized by the legislation), training and technical assistance for all grantees and administrative costs.

For the complete list of grantees visit: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/news/press/2011/Grantawards2011.html.

For more information on the Office of Family Assistance visit: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ofa/.

For more information on Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood visit: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/healthymarriage/ and http://www.fatherhood.gov/.

Note: All ACF press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are available at www.acf.hhs.gov/opa/index.html.