ACF Grants Press Releases/Money Flows article - 10/12/06

[Smartmarriages]

- ACF AWARDS $118 MILLION TO PROMOTE MARRIAGE, FATHERHOOD
- HHS AWARDS $58 MILLION THROUGH COMPASSION CAPITAL FUND
- MARRIAGE MONEY FLOWS TO FAITH-BASED AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS

Here is ACF's official press release about the Marriage and Fatherhood
grants - the $150 million actually ended up being $118 million with the
difference going to other ACF marriage/fatherhood initiatives. Also, the ACF
official press release on the Compassion Capitol Grants.  And, a summary
article from the The Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy. -
diane  

#######################
- ACF AWARDS $118 MILLION TO PROMOTE MARRIAGE, FATHERHOOD

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Contact: ACF Press Office
(202) 401-9215

WASHINGTON, D.C. --- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Administration for Children and Families (ACF) today announced $118,644,219
in grant awards to 225 grantees to promote healthy marriage and responsible
fatherhood.

³These programs will help couples form and sustain healthy marriages, and
equip men to be involved, committed and responsible fathers in the lives of
their children,² said HHS Assistant Secretary for Children and Families Wade
F. Horn, Ph.D.

While ACF has many grants that support responsible fatherhood and healthy
marriage, this set of grants is newly authorized by Congress under the
recently reauthorized Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
program.

These grants, overseen by ACF¹s Office of Family Assistance, must have
procedures in place to address issues of domestic violence and ensure that
program participation is voluntary. Grant funds may be used for the
following purposes:

    * Competitive research and demonstration projects to test promising
approaches to encourage healthy marriages and promote involved, committed
and responsible fatherhood;
    * Technical assistance to states and tribes;
    * Marriage education, marriage skills training, public advertising
campaigns, high school education on the value of marriage and marriage
mentoring programs; and
    * Promoting responsible fatherhood through counseling, mentoring,
marriage education, enhancing relationship skills, parenting and activities
to foster economic stability.

For the full list of grantees, go to:
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ofa/grantees/list10-06.htm

########################
- HHS AWARDS $58 MILLION THROUGH COMPASSION CAPITAL FUND
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oct. 6, 2006  
Contact: ACF Press Office
(202) 401-9215

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today announced
awards totaling $58,025,562 through the Compassion Capital Fund (CCF). The
awards, to 420 faith-based and community organizations, are designed to help
grass-roots faith-based and community organizations enhance their ability to
provide a wide range of social services for those in need. Those services
include aid for homeless persons, at-risk youth and rural communities and
initiatives to empower youth and promote healthy marriage.

³These awards are central to President Bush¹s agenda of compassion toward
those in need,² said HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt. ³By partnering with
faith-based and community organizations, the Bush Administration is
strengthening social services for millions of citizens.²

The awards consist of four sets of grants. The first involves the CCF
Demonstration Program and totals $5 million for ten organizations. These
groups will serve as intermediaries to help build the capacity of smaller
faith-based and community organizations.

The second set totals $15,116,280 for 310 faith-based and community
organizations under the CCF Targeted Capacity Building Program. The areas of
focus for this program include at-risk youth, homeless persons, rural
communities and strengthening marriage.

The third set of awards inaugurates the Communities Empowering Youth (CEY)
program, a new program created in response to First Lady Laura Bush¹s
Helping America¹s Youth initiative. CEY provides funding to strengthen
existing community coalitions working to combat gang activity and youth
violence and provide positive alternatives for at-risk youth. Under this new
program, $30 million is awarded to 100 organizations to build the capacity
of their coalitions, better enabling them to reduce youth violence in
communities across the country.

In addition, grants totaling $7,909,282 were awarded to continue currently
funded CCF programs.

³These funds provide compassion from the grass-roots up,² said Josephine B.
Robinson, director of the Office of Community Services. ³The Compassion
Capital Fund is making a positive difference for disadvantaged children and
families in communities across our nation.²

The Compassion Capital Fund is a cornerstone of President Bush¹s faith-based
and community initiative, and is designed to help organizations partner with
the federal government to strengthen these organizations¹ ability to provide
social services. Since its inception in 2002, approximately $206 million has
been given to more than 4,300 organizations, including sub-awards from
intermediary grantees. The primary purpose of CCF is to help faith-based and
community organizations increase their effectiveness, enhance their ability
to provide social services to serve those most in need, expand their
organizations and create collaborations to better serve those in need.

To view a complete list of today¹s awards, go to:
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/news/press/2006/ccf_fy_2006_data.pdf.

For more information on the Compassion Capital Fund, go to:
http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/ccf/.

####################
- MARRIAGE MONEY FLOWS TO FAITH-BASED AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS
The Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy
Anne Farris, Roundtable Correspondent
October 10, 2006

The first infusion of government money specifically appropriated by Congress
for a Healthy Marriage Initiative made its way last week to local private
organizations that will promote and encourage wedlock among low-income
citizens nationally.

The federal government announced last week that it was awarding $150 million
in 224 marriage and fatherhood grants as part of an effort that President
Bush has pushed since 2002 to promote matrimony among populations with
particularly high rates of divorce or out-of-wedlock births, such as
African-Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans.

The grants range from $166,892 to Cornerstone of Hope Church, Inc. in
Indianapolis, Indiana to $2.3 million to California Healthy Marriages
Coalition in Cerritos, California. They will pay for a range of activities
including public advertising campaigns, marriage counseling, pre-marital and
divorce reduction education, and marriage mentoring programs. The services
will be offered by both faith-based and community organizations.

Supporters of the marriage initiative point to research that claims marriage
benefits society, including increased wealth for married people over
singles, and the improved well-being of children who grow up in two-parent
families.

Opponents, however, say that government-sponsored marriage promotion could
encourage women to stay in abusive relationships, or disparage single
parents who are working hard to raise their children. They also argue that
marriage is a private realm that should remain protected from government
intrusion.

Federal agencies have spent money on marriage programs before now, but it
was not until February of this year that Congress, for the first time,
appropriated $100 million a year specifically for Healthy Marriage
Initiative programs and $50 million a year for projects that promote
responsible fatherhood, some of which also include marriage promotion.
Funding for both efforts was included in the reauthorization of the
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families cash assistance program.

"Government could hear what I have been saying, and they realized that there
were other ways to approach the problem," said Diane Sollee, director of the
Coalition for Marriage, Families and Couples Education and a former marriage
therapist who said she has promoted the marriage initiative idea as a social
policy agenda since 1989.

There were 1,653 organizations that applied for grants, and Sollee said the
funding is short of the need.

"It's $150 million when the government spends $146 billion annually on
welfare, which basically is supporting broken families," Sollee said. "It's
the right direction to go upstream and offer prevention, but it's just a
drop in the bucket."

California and Texas were tied for the most marriage and fatherhood grants
with 21 awards each, but California received more money: $11.65 million per
year versus Texas with $10.99 million per year. Florida ranked third with 13
awards totaling $6.58 million per year.

One hundred grants were made under the Fatherhood Initiative and 124 grants
were made under the Healthy Marriage Initiative.

The grants were awarded to a cornucopia of organizations. Several groups
such as the Cambodian Association of America of Long Beach, California and
the Boat People SOS, Inc. of Falls Church, Virginia serve immigrants. The
SOS website states, "Vietnamese view family matters as private and do not
discuss personal health, family violence, or marital distress even with
parents, children or siblings, let alone professionals." The organization
works to help families manage domestic problems.

A $530,755 grant was awarded to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society of
Denver, Colorado that will promote marriage education programs for people
with disabilities.

"They made a compelling case that one thing that happens when a partner is
diagnosed with multiple sclerosis is that it creates stress on the marriage
and they have a high rate of divorce," said Wade Horn, Assistant Secretary
of Administration of Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services. "This grant will provide them money for marriage
counseling." (Click here for a previous interview with Horn, including some
discussion of the Healthy Marriage Initiative.)

The Dibble Fund for Marriage Education of Kensington, California, which
received $549,999, works specifically with high school students. Other
grantees that focus on sexual abstinence education or adoption incorporate
marriage messages into their programs.

Some religious grantees include John Brown University in Siloam Springs,
Arkansas; National Association of Marriage Enhancement in Phoenix, Arizona;
and Bethany Christian Services Inc. of Atlanta, Georgia. Other faith-based
grantees such as Catholic Charities of Orange County, Inc. in Santa Ana,
California and Lutheran Social Services of South Dakota in Sioux City are
affiliated with religious organizations but generally offer secular
programs.

A grant for $246,728 was awarded to Northwest Marriage Institute (NMI) of
Vancouver, Washington, a faith-based organization that is the target of a
lawsuit filed in September. Americans United for Separation of Church and
State in Washington, D.C. filed the suit, contending the government violated
the Constitution when it awarded the Institute $97,750 in grants last year
because the program offers Bible-based counseling. The Institute's director
has said that no government money was used for counseling services or for
religious purposes. (Click here for a previous Roundtable story about the
lawsuit.)

Horn said application reviewers are instructed not to consider any
information not provided in the applications, and although HHS pays due
diligence in reviewing current grantees, the lawsuit would not impact
Northwest at this time.

"We're passing no judgment against Northwest because there has been no
decision in the lawsuit," he said.

Last week's Healthy Marriage Initiative grants also include $1.3 million
this year to Public Strategies, Inc., a public relations and public affairs
contractor in Oklahoma City that will develop and maintain the National
Healthy Marriage Resource Center. Funding for the center is slated at $10
million over a five year period. Public Strategies also received an
additional $700,000 to operate the center from separate funding sources, and
a $1 million grant to serve low-income expectant parents.

The center, an information clearinghouse that includes an informational web
site, lost its original operator in September after it was asked to include
a statement by President Bush and a picture of the President and First Lady
on its web site. The Minneapolis-based National Council on Family Relations
stated that those actions would have made the organization appear political,
and compromise its status as a tax-exempt nonprofit.

Public Strategies is no newcomer to the marriage initiative. Since 1999, it
has managed the Oklahoma Marriage Initiative (OMI), one of the nation's most
ambitious and diverse programs among the more than 25 states that have
marriage programs. OMI incorporates both secular and faith-based models and
leadership in its service delivery, and has even extended its marriage
education and counseling programs into the prison system.

The grants were awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS), which also announced last week that it was awarding other grants for
the marriage initiative in three additional and separate funding streams:

* More than $2.6 million in 53 mini grants from the HHS Compassion Capital
Fund (CCF). CCF was created to carry out the President's Faith-based and
Community Initiatives and provide technical support at the local level. The
mini-grants, ranging from $39,772 to $50,000, will help faith-based and
community organizations with capacity building. The grants are part of a $58
million CCF award last week to 420 faith-based and community organizations
designed to help those organizations provide a wide range of social services
for homeless persons, at-risk youth and rural communities.

* A total of $161,000 in Community Services Block Grant Healthy Marriage
grants to seven organizations. The grants range from $57,850 to Marriages
Delaware Ecumenical Council on Children and Families in Wilmington to
$95,400 to Wedded Bliss Foundation in Washington, DC. The grants will
provide training and technical assistant to providers of community action
agencies.

* A total of $4 million a year for five years in 12 grants from the Office
of Refugee Resettlement Refugee Healthy Marriage grants. Among the grantees
were the Lao Family Community Development in Oakland, California, which
received $250,000 and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society of New York City,
which received two grants totaling $1.23 million.


**************************
Send replies to this newslist to: diane at smartmarriages.com  Do not hit
"reply" - that goes to a filter.  This is a moderated list. Replies are read
by Diane Sollee, editor. Please indicate if your response is NOT to be
shared with the list.  PLEASE include your email address with your
signature. 

To SUBSCRIBE, UNSUBSCRIBE, or Change your subscription address,
use the form at: http://www.smartmarriages.com. Click Newslist - in the
column under the puzzle piece.

This newslist shares information on marriage, divorce and educational
approaches.  Opinions expressed are not necessarily shared by members of the
Coalition.

To read ALL past posts to the newsletter, visit the Archive at:
http://archives.his.com/smartmarriages/

11th Annual Smart Marriages Conference, Denver Adam's Mark Hotel,
June 28-July 1, 2007
Pre-Conference Training Institutes June 26-28
Post-Conference Training Institutes July 2-3
Details: http://www.smartmarriages.com/conferencedetails.html
Subscribe to the FREE Smart Marriages e-newslist at
http://www.smartmarriages.com


List your program in the Directory of Classes at
http://www.smartmarriages.com
Order conference audio & video CD/DVD/MP3s: 800-241-7785 or
http://www.iPlaybackSmartMarriages.com

Coalition for Marriage, Family and Couples Education, LLC (CMFCE)
Diane Sollee, Director
5310 Belt Rd NW, Washington, DC 20015-1961
http://www.smartmarriages.com
202-362-3332
cmfce at smartmarriages.com

FAIR USE NOTICE: This e-newsletter/site contains copyrighted material the
use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright
owner. We make such material available in our efforts to advance
understanding of marriage, family, couples, divorce, legislation, family
breakdown, etc. We understand this constitutes a 'fair use' of such material
as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with
Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed
without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the
included information for research and educational purposes. For more
information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you
wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own
that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright
owner.