Dad Training/ Feedback/ Weld/ Two-Spirit/ More Grants - 10/10/06

[Smartmarriages]

- FREE INSIDE/OUT DAD TRAINING IN WASHINGTON, DC NOV 13 -14
- GRANT FEEDBACK 
- $5M WELD GRANT PROMOTES HEALTHY MARRIAGES
- MALTA: MEDIATION SAVES 220 MARRIAGES IN THREE YEARS
- "TWO-SPIRIT" PEOPLE
- ACF WELFARE RESEARCH AND EVALUATION CONFERENCE JUNE 4-6, DC
PLUS THREE ADDITIONAL GRANT ANNOUNCEMENTS
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- FREE INSIDE/OUT DAD TRAINING IN WASHINGTON, DC NOV 13 -14

This 12-session curriculum is designed to reach dads in a correctional
setting (jail, prison, half-way house, etc.) to teach them how to be more
involved, responsible, and committed fathers.  Includes a reentry module  to
help dads plan for their release. For more information:
http://www.fatherhood.org/insideoutdad.asp.

This intensive 2-day training, sponsored by the National Fatherhood
Initiative, includes the curriculum and continental breakfasts.   9 am to
4:30 pm.  Limited to the first 30 applicants.

For Information or to register: Jillian Stanton at 240-912-1282.

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- GRANT FEEDBACK 
> Diane, Here is a response I received from ACF regarding feedback on
> unfunded Marriage & Fatherhood grants.  Might help others on the list.
> Jan Hayne
> Dads Make a Difference
> Saint Paul, MN

>> Jan,
>> Sorry for the delay in this reply.  I am told that all unfunded applicants
>> will receive a letter informing them of the process of requesting feedback
>> regarding their grant applications. You should receive a letter later
>> this week or next week.      Thank you for asking.
>> Paul Maiers

################################
Not sure why, but Weld County seems still to be the only grant that is
getting publicity in their local newspapers.  Here is a second article on
the Weld grant.  Interesting to see how it's portrayed and what they've
proposed. - diane 

- $5M WELD GRANT PROMOTES HEALTHY MARRIAGES
By Ben Ready
The Daily Times-Call
October 9, 2006

GREELEY ‹ Low-income married couples facing divorce in Weld County recently
won $5 million from the federal government to keep their unions alive.

The Weld County Department of Social Services announced Oct. 2 it received a
$5 million, five-year grant to help maintain healthy marriages through
education.

Starting in early 2007, the Healthy Marriages Demonstration Grant ‹ offered
through the U.S. Health Department¹s Administration for Children and
Families ‹ will fund marriage education classes for 800 Weld County couples
and provide family-related services to another 2,980 county couples over the
next five years.

Free classes focusing on relationships, health care, conflict resolution,
nutrition, employment and substance-abuse prevention will soon be offered
regularly throughout the county, including in Frederick and Dacono.

³This grant really is giving couples the nurturing they need to be
successful,² said Healthy Marriage coordinator Simone Brown. ³They¹ll have
another place in their lives ‹ their marriages ‹ where they¹ll be supported
to be successful.²

Brown, who is employed by the Weld County DSS, also heads the county¹s Faith
Based Initiative. That program has expanded DSS¹s database of outside
service providers to include churches and other religion-based
organizations.

Under Healthy Marriages, DSS and countywide partners from the United Way,
Head Start, A Woman¹s Place, Workforce Development Center and at least 70
churches will offer ongoing 17-week courses that meet for two-hour classes
once a week.

They will also offer ³marriage enrichment weekends² and follow-up ³booster²
courses. All participating couples will come as volunteers, Brown said, not
as court referrals.

Each couple will have a marriage coach, mentor or caseworker assigned to
them, and in some cases receive stipend money for baby-sitting,
transportation and even ³date nights.²

Once connected to caring individuals and support services, spouses should
stand a better chance of nourishing their lifelong commitments, Brown said.
Nationally, about 50 percent of marriages end in divorce, and Weld County is
no exception.

With the grant money in hand, the Weld DSS will now start compiling a list
of interested low-income couples.

Some will likely have marriages in jeopardy of divorce; other marriages
might be falling apart because of unemployment. Some will be engaged couples
hoping to get their marriage off on the right foot, Brown said.

As a secondary goal, Healthy Marriages will encourage financial
self-sufficiency and independence from government-funded resources such as
welfare and food stamps.

While Healthy Marriages calls for community groups including churches to
participate, Brown said all grant-funded classes must remain secular and
free of proselytizing.

Church leaders may support the program by offering space for classes,
encouraging low-income couples in their congregation to enroll or getting
trained and facilitating marriage courses themselves, Brown said.

Researchers from the University of Northern Colorado will track the couples
over the five-year program to measure whether their marriages stay together
and whether the marriage classes helped.

To enroll in a class or for more information, call Simone Brown at
970-352-1551, Ext. 6552.

##########################
- MALTA: MEDIATION SAVES 220 MARRIAGES IN THREE YEARS

Mediation saves 220 marriages in three years
Malta Today
October 10, 2006 
James Debono

Malta. 220 couples whose marriage was on the rocks after entering separation
proceedings are now back together, thanks to the mediation system introduced
three years ago with the aim of avoiding legal litigation and encourage
reconciliation when possible.

It means that 12 per cent of all personal separations initiated in the
Family Court since January 2004 have ended with the reconciliation of the
estranged spouses.

In the first nine months of 2006, 72 couples were reconciled following
mediation. The year before, 111 separation cases ended in reconciliation, a
sharp increase from 2004 when only 34 cases ended in reconciliation.

Parliamentary Secretary Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, the architect of the legal
reform which introduced mediation services in Malta, is moderately satisfied
by these results: ³There is room for improvement but overall the system has
offered estranged couples the opportunity of having someone who listens to
them before taking their case to court.²

According to Mifsud Bonnici the figure of 220 reconciliation does not
reflect the full picture as it does not include a significant number of
couples who simply drop separation procedures and do not proceed with the
mediation.

He also specified that mediation services are not only aimed at helping
separating couples, but also at cohabiting partners seeking agreement on the
separation of goods and the custody of children.

#######################
- "TWO-SPIRIT" PEOPLE
This article from the Sunday 10/8/06 NY Times is being much blogged about
this week an I had a reporter ask me about it a few mins ago so went on-line
to read it.  It asserts that before the arrival of Christianity, Native
American Indian tribes dealt with homosexuality by recognizing that some
children were born with "two spirits". You might want to read it just to
stay current on this latest (or, oldest) understanding.
 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/fashion/08SPIRIT.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

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- ACF WELFARE RESEARCH AND EVALUATION CONFERENCE JUNE 4-6, DC
PLUS THREE ADDITIONAL GRANT ANNOUNCEMENTS

*The following information comes to you courtesy of ACF OPRE News*
(OPRE - Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation)

The 2007 Welfare Research and Evaluation Conference

Please plan to join us for the 10th Annual Administration for Children and
Families¹ Welfare Research and Evaluation Conference on June 4-6, 2007, at
the Hilton Crystal City Hotel, just outside of Washington, DC. The
conference will mark a decade of disseminating the research findings on
welfare and related topics.

A call for conference presentation abstracts will be issued shortly;
interested researchers and evaluators may contact wrec2007 at esi-dc.com for
details on submitting abstracts or should watch this space for additional
details.

Grant Announcements:

2006 ­ ACF Responsible Fatherhood and Healthy Marriage RESEARCH Initiative
Projects: The purpose of this initiative is to evaluate services to promote
responsible fatherhood through encouraging and supporting healthy marriages
between low-income parents.  The studies use an experimental research design
to test the effectiveness of approaches to helping interested low-income
fathers and couples understand the importance of two-parent families for
child well-being, helping couples achieve their desire for a healthy
marriage and sustain those marriages, and helping fathers develop the skills
to be responsible parents.

-----------------------
Grant Recipient:   University of Denver (Markman and Stanley)

Project Title:  Using Marriage Education to Foster Investment in Fatherhood:
A Long-Term Comparison of Individual vs. Couple Level Treatment

This project will assess the effectiveness of an 8-week marriage education
curriculum designed for low-income individuals and couples in promoting
investment in relationships by fathers and positive parenting outcomes. The
evaluation will assess whether efficacy of the treatment depends on whether
couples or individuals participate.

----------------
Grant Recipient: Relationship Research Institute (Gottman)
Project Title:     Couples Together Against Violence: An Innovative Program
to Strengthen Marriage and Relationships, Increase Father Involvement, and
Reduce Violence among Lower-Income, Low-Level Situationally Violent Couples

This project will assess the effectiveness of the marriage education
curriculum entitled Couples Together Against Violence in reducing low-level
situational violence, strengthening marriage/relationships, and increasing
father involvement.  The evaluation will aim to identify the mechanisms
responsible for decreases in domestic violence.

---------------------
Grant Recipient:  University of Georgia (Beach)

Project Title:     Strong African American Fathers in Healthy Marriages: A
Randomized Controlled Trial with Rural Families

This project will assess the effectiveness of the curriculum entitled
Program for Strong African American Fathers, a course of 6 in-home sessions
for couples focused on marriage and parenting.  The evaluation will assess
the program¹s effect on African American fathers living in rural Georgia in
strengthening marriage and increasing father involvement.
-----------------------------
New Reports include:

Implementing Healthy Marriage Programs for Unmarried Parents: Early Lessons
from the Building Strong Families Project

This report documents early lessons from the program development and pilot
stages of the Building Strong Families (BSF) project --  a program of
marriage education and support services for expectant or new unwed parents.
The report provides information on the varied challenges faced by different
types of host programs that incorporated BSF into their delivery system and
the strategies utilized by the host programs to address them.  It documents
the recruitment strategies used by program staff to enroll couples and the
outcomes of those efforts.   The report also describes the types of couples
that are attracted to the BSF program and their responses to it. The report
findings can help inform other projects that plan to provide healthy
marriage services to interested low-income, expectant or new unwed parents.

The report is available at
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/strengthen/build_fam/reports/implementi
ng_healthy/impl_title.html.


**************************
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