Fathers & Families Support Center

New Pathways to Responsible Fatherhood Family Formation Project

Project Date
Oct 2015 – Sep 2019

Type of Evaluation
Impact

Setting
Community-based

Overview

Fathers & Families Support Center provides a comprehensive array of services to parents in St. Louis to help create positive outcomes for children and families.

The Evaluation Center partnered with Fathers & Families Support Center to conduct an impact evaluation of their New Pathways to Responsible Fatherhood Family Formation project. The overarching goal of this five-year project was to provide parenting education, economic stability and mobility services, and healthy marriage education to economically disadvantaged fathers in St. Louis, Missouri.

Project Description

Background

Fathers & Families Support Center (FSC) is dedicated to fostering healthy relationships by strengthening families and communities. In October 2015, FSC began the New Pathways to Responsible Fatherhood Family Formation (NPFF) project. In June 2016, the evaluation team began an impact evaluation.

The evaluation sought to quantify the added benefit of parenting, father-child engagement, and father well-being curriculum compared to course content containing economic stability material only. The impact evaluation utilized a randomized control trial (RCT) design to compare fathers in the Family Formation program (treatment group) to those in the Economic Stability program (comparison group) on short- and long-term outcomes.

Evaluation Center Activities

  • Developed an evaluation plan for the NPFF project.
  • Developed surveys using validated instruments related to father and child engagement and father and child well-being. These were administered to fathers at the time of enrollment, 3-months, and 12-months after the program to assess short and long-term outcomes and compare.
  • Developed focus group guides and conducted focus groups with a sample of fathers to assess acceptability, appropriateness, barriers and facilitators of the programs.
  • Analyzed quantitative and qualitative data collected from surveys and focus groups and share findings with FSC via annual evaluation reports.
  • Developed protocols for enrollment, check-ins, and follow-ups with fathers to document the impact evaluation process approach.
  • Provided evaluation trainings and technical assistance to FSC as needed.

Our Products

  • Evaluation plan, including logic model and methods matrix
  • Baseline cohort reports
  • Consort diagrams
  • Qualitative findings reports
  • Quantitative findings reports
  • Annual evaluation reports

Project Funder

Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance

Contact Person
Patricia Kohl, PhD

Patricia Kohl, PhD

Associate Professor