Daddies/ TA Fatherhood/Welfare Reform & Marriage - 6/06

Wed Jun 14 13:10:28 EDT 2006

- SMART MARRIAGES LISTSERV SHUTTING DOWN FRIDAY - I LEAVE FOR ATLANTA
- DADDIES DO MATTER
- PROMOTING RESPONSIBLE FATHERHOOD CALL TRANSCRIPT AVAILABLE
- PROGRESS NOTED IN WELFARE REFORM

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- SMART MARRIAGES LISTSERV SHUTTING DOWN FRIDAY - I LEAVE FOR ATLANTA

Tomorrow, June 15, is last chance to get listserv notices to me before the
conference. 

If you need to check/change/add banquets or Institutes to your Smart
Marriages registration call 800-314-1921 ext 22.

You can still register by Fax or Express mail until noon tomorrow, June 15.
You can still register on-line until Monday the 19th. After that, just
register on-site in Atlanta.  All sessions are still open and you'll get
your first choices. We've got 2,000 registrants but can fit you all in
because of the magical, moveable hotel meeting room walls.  - diane

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- DADDIES DO MATTER

>> I work with Bethel Church.  My pastor was wondering if an article came
>> through Smart Marriages that was about some elephants destroying a village
>> and needing the older to come alongside of them to train them.  Does that
>> ring a bell?  If it does, can you tell me where to find it.
>> Joanne Lueck 
> 
> Yes, that's a great one for Father's Day. Go to
> http://www.smartmarriages.com/marriage.quotes.html
> 
> Search for "elephant" and you'll go right to it.
> 
> Also, check out the Men and Marriage and Daddies section - lots of good stuff.
> - diane 

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- PROMOTING RESPONSIBLE FATHERHOOD CALL TRANSCRIPT AVAILABLE

The Promoting Responsible Fatherhood Conference call transcript is now
available on the Welfare Peer TA Web site.

On May 24th, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) released the
Promoting Responsible Fatherhood funding opportunity notice to announce the
availability of competitive grants for States, Territories, Indian Tribes,
and Public and Non-Profit Community Entities to develop and implement
projects that promote the objectives of the ACF Fatherhood Initiative. To
assist interested organizations with application preparation, on Thursday,
June 8th at 3:00 PM Eastern Standard Time, ACF presented a two-hour
pre-application conference call to provide technical assistance on the
Promoting Responsible Fatherhood Grant Program Announcement
HHS-2006-ACF-FR-0130.

To view the transcript from the call and questions/answers on the funding
opportunities, please see: http://peerta.acf.hhs.gov/whatsnew/index.htm#New.

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- PROGRESS NOTED IN WELFARE REFORM
By Cheryl Wetzstein
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
June 14, 2006

>     The new $150-million-a-year allocation for marriage skills and responsible
> fatherhood programs isn't going directly to states like other welfare funds,
> but is being made available to applicants, including government agencies, who
> are clear that they are committed to such programs, Mr. Rector said.
> 
>     The goal is to avoid having funding recipients "slap" a marriage class "on
> their job-training program and call it a marriage program," he said.

The landmark 1996 welfare-reform law has done a lot to "break the cycle of
dependency" on public assistance, but it has "unfinished business" in moving
more people into self-sufficiency and stable, two-parent families, Health
and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Michael O. Leavitt said yesterday.

    More single mothers are working, child-support collections have nearly
doubled and more than 1 million fewer children live in poverty, Mr. Leavitt
said at the Heritage Foundation.

    "Self-sufficiency is a powerful influence in the lives of us all," he
said, citing an example of a welfare mother who now has a stable job, bought
a car and a home and helped her child succeed in school.

    However, welfare reform needed a midcourse correction, which was
included in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, said Mr. Leavitt.

    States now are required to put at least half their welfare recipients
into work or other productive activities, as well as renew efforts to
discourage unwed childbearing and encourage two-parent families and healthy
marriages. 

    "You might say we've rebooted the system and we're starting welfare
reform all over again," said Mr. Leavitt, who as Utah's governor lobbied for
and implemented reform in his state.

    Welfare reform was written by the Republican majority in Congress,
passed with strong bipartisan support and signed into law by President
Clinton on Aug. 22, 1996.

    Its unprecedented mandatory work rules for recipients, 60-month time
limit on benefits and state flexibility to tailor welfare programs to
low-income populations led to a 57 percent reduction in the number of
families on welfare. About 1.9 million families were on welfare last June,
compared with 4.4 million families in August 1996, HHS data show.

    The Republican-led House Ways and Means Committee has been publishing
10-year anniversary reports on the 1996 welfare reform law this year.

    One "untold story" about welfare reform is that it saved taxpayers
billions of dollars by ending welfare checks to prisoners, fugitives, drug
addicts and alcoholics, as well as legal aliens who signed pledges not to
collect welfare when they came to this country, said Rep. Wally Herger,
California Republican and chairman of the House subcommittee that wrote the
welfare law. 

    But old patterns die hard and the 1996 reforms haven't led to a lot of
change in many welfare bureaucracies, Heritage welfare analyst Robert Rector
said yesterday. 

    The new $150-million-a-year allocation for marriage skills and
responsible fatherhood programs isn't going directly to states like other
welfare funds, but is being made available to applicants, including
government agencies, who are clear that they are committed to such programs,
Mr. Rector said. 

    The goal is to avoid having funding recipients "slap" a marriage class
"on their job-training program and call it a marriage program," he said.