This issue brief focuses on the role of partners and spouses in the decision-making processes of social service clients. Using survey data, direct observation of couple interactions, and physiological measurement, findings suggest that the decisions of individuals receiving public...

This resource guide provides examples of program strategies and approaches, including creating a positive context and coordinating services, to help people who face difficult challenges in making the transition into employment.

Family Connections in Alabama (FCA), a 12-month project conducted in 2003, aimed to design, implement, and evaluate a program to provide family life education to low-income unmarried parents of young children. This report describes and develops lessons learned from FCA that are relevant for...

This report documents the design and implementation of the eight BSF programs, reports on program services, analyzes characteristics of couples and programs that may affect participation, and describes experiences of couples in the program.

By the end of 2007, between 5 and 10 percent of Oklahoma households had participated in relationship skills workshops. Every county in the state was reached to some extent. About three-quarters of participants were youth or adult clients of agencies that serve single adults. The overall...

Building Strong Families (BSF) is a large-scale demonstration and rigorous evaluation of marriage and relationship education programs that has now enrolled more than 5,000 low-income, romantically involved, unmarried couples. At enrollment, all couples were expecting or recently had a child...

Presents a conceptual framework for designing, implementing, and testing interventions for low-income unmarried parents interested in strengthening their relationships and possibly forming and sustaining healthy marriages. The interventions would address the needs and circumstances of these...