JOBs/ Incentive Outcome Data/Weld County/Failure Feedback/CCF list - 10/4/06

Wed Oct 4 17:59:05 EDT 2006

- JOB POSITIONS PAGE IS READY TO ROLL:
- ANYONE GOT MARRIAGE ED INCENTIVE OUTCOME DATA?
- WELD COUNTY COLORADO
- GETTING GRANT FEEDBACK
- CCF GRANTS: FULL LIST?

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- JOB POSITIONS PAGE IS READY TO ROLL:

I know so many of you are well trained, well equipped and eager to work in
the newly funded marriage education efforts.  Just hope some of you are able
to move to where the work is!  Check out the listings and submit your
resumes.  

If you have jobs to post, send me your listings. Thanks to Jennifer Baker of
Springfield for being our test monkey.  PLEASE follow the template - or,
make yours even shorter.  Cut all unnecessary words - it's free to list
jobs, but please pretend you're paying by the word.  I have no staff and no
one is subsidizing this - just want to help get this next effort off the
ground. So help me help you by cutting down the time it takes me to format
it in html.  Send your listings as email text or as attached word doc.  And,
even though we've got a template, am open to suggestions for
improving/streamlining things.

I am NOT going to list resumes of those looking for jobs.

Job Descriptions can be found at: http://www.smartmarriages.com/jobs.html

Or, go to Smart Marriages home page and click Community Marriage Initiative
and then Job Descriptions.  - diane

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- PLEASE HELP - ANYONE GOT MARRIAGE ED INCENTIVE OUTCOME DATA?

Dear Diane,
I am an intern working for John Crouch and Americans for Divorce Reform on a
project on pre-marital education incentive programs. There is a lot of
information on legislation that offers incentives (reduced marriage license
fees) for couples that take a marriage education course in states like
Florida, Minnesota, and Tennessee. Unfortunately, I found very little
information on effectiveness of these programs.  How many couples actually
use them?  Is there adequate funding to let the public know about the
programs and incentives? Has there been any measurable reduction in divorce?
I would greatly appreciate it if you could post my question on the listserv
and I would appreciate hearing from anyone even if it's just to point me in
a direction for tracking down this information.

Cameron Conway, ADR Intern
Website: http://www.divorcereform.org
E-Mail: divorcereform at usa.net  (divorcereform "at" usa.net)

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- WELD COUNTY COLORADO
> Diane, 
> Your "cynical reader" who wrote about Weld County's grant didn't quite get it
> right.  This community, one of the fastest growing counties in the nation, did
> their homework, wrote an excellent grant and has been working closely with
> their community partners and at least one other large county in the State to
> address the strains of family life and marriage, serving a low income
> population that has a high minority population.  I applaud their efforts.
> They developed local resources to move forward on this very important purpose
> of the TANF program.  Also, the grant is NOT 4% of the total, as claimed.  The
> grant amount the press release announced is for the TOTAL they received for
> five years, not each year.  This issue should not be politicized, instead,
> others should look at what Weld County did and learn from it.
>  
> By the way, Colorado, as a whole, did quite well in the competition both in
> the fatherhood and healthy marriages grants.  I believe, this is, in part, due
> to the work that many fine folk have labored together on, addressing family
> strengthening strategies that virtually everyone can embrace.  They did this
> by opening up the process to any interested party, coming to the table with no
> hidden agendas, agreeing to address those priorities that everyone could live
> with, focusing in on what families need to thrive and grow.  Over 40 statewide
> organizations, governmental and non-governmental, starting January 2002 came
> together to help craft a course toward a better future for families, electing
> to find common ground for common benefit, based on what research is showing is
> good for kids and their parents.
>  
> Submitted by an optimist for the future of marriage, fatherhood and family
> integrity for future generations.
>  
> Kevin R. Richards, Director
> Colorado Works Program (TANF)
> Colorado Dept. of Human Services
>  
> P.S.  We are looking forward to the Smart Marriages conference coming to
> Denver.

BTW, I have been asked if I somehow KNEW Colorado would be one of the big
winners and if that was why Smart Marriages will be in Denver this year.
NOPE.  Promise I had no clue and wasn't even aware of the large number of
grants being submitted from the state.   But it certainly is working out
nicely.  I'm looking forward to coming back to Denver.  Love the city, love
the hotel, love the Rockies, love that weather.  And, we're going to have
another off the charts program.    - diane

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- GETTING GRANT FEEDBACK

> Diane,
> 
> I just talked to the person in charge of Healthy Marriage Grants program in
> our region and was informed that those who were not funded will NOT
> automatically receive information on why their grants did not meet the
> criteria for funding. Therefore, each applicant must request the written
> feedback from the reviewers but the person I was talking to  did not know who
> to contact with for that information.
> 
> It is customary in the vast majority of so-called competitive grant programs
> that I've been involved with for 20 years that all applicants who applied for
> the grants AUTOMATICALLY receive information back from the granting agency.
> The idea is that you can examine the reviews of the grant, evaluate the flaws
> (if any!), and do better next time.
> 
> I have been told by one of our Senator's aides that if we do not receive
> feedback we should call the Senator's office in D.C. and request assistance.
> 
> I'd prefer to remain anonymous.  But I would hope you will share
> this information with the list and learn if anyone else has different
> information. 

Will someone at ACF send me the protocol and contact numbers so I can send
this info to the list?  Or, maybe just send it to everyone that had a failed
grant application.  I'm sure there is a very simple procedure and no need
for anyone to contact their Senator. - diane

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- CCF GRANTS: FULL LIST?

> Hi Diane:
>  
> Do you have a link to all the CCF awards? Thanks.
>  
> kevin

I just checked and don't see that posted. I posted only the Marriage awards.
And, it's true that there are many other categories, and some which may be
addressing marriage.  Here's where to look:

>> To best of my understanding the Compassion Capital Fund grants will be
>> announced by the end of this week.  If you want to keep checking to see if
>> the list is posted, go to: http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/ccf/   If any of
>> you see the list posted, please alert me so I can share the news.

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