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About Us

The National Healthy Marriage Resource Center (NHMRC) is a national resource and clearinghouse for information and research relating to healthy marriages. We strive to be a "first–stop shop" for marriage and family trends and statistics, marriage education and programming, scholarly research and the latest news and events. In particular, the NHMRC also provides training and technical assistance presentations and documents for federally funded Healthy Marriage Initiative (HMI) grantees.

The NHMRC supports the Administration for Children and Families furthering its commitment to promoting and supporting healthy marriages and child well–being by providing research and program information and generating new knowledge about promising and effective strategies.

Our audience includes individuals, couples, families, educators, policymakers, researchers, and organizational leaders with an interest in marriage. The NHMRC provides access to print and electronic publications, timely information on healthy marriage issues, and targeted resources that support healthy relationships and marriages.

Topics on this Page:

• Personnel Listing
• Background
• NHMRC Partners
• Additional Supporters

Other NHMRC Personnel:

Jeremy Brown
Whitney Bryant
Toni Faris
Allison Hyra
Erv Lucero
Jen McHenry
Marissa Stone
Mark Thomas
Leslie Williams
Stephanie Wofford
Nathan Woods

The NHMRC staff members listed above may be reached by emailing info@healthymarriageinfo.org. For more contact information, please see the Contact Us page.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance Personnel:

Michelle Clune
Federal Project Officer
Administration for Children and Families
Office of Family Assistance
370 L'Enfant Promenade SW
5th Floor East
Washington, DC 20447
202–401–5467

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Background

Research shows that, on average, children raised by their married parents do better than children raised in other types of families.1  To support healthy marriages and healthy families, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) launched the Healthy Marriage Initiative (HMI) in 2002 to help couples, who have chosen marriage for themselves, gain greater access to marriage education services, on a voluntary basis, where they can acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to form and sustain a healthy marriage. As part of the HMI, ACF has funded numerous marriage education programs and a wide variety of research related to healthy marriage and the effects of marriage education. In 2004, the Office of Family Assistance (OFA) recognized the need for a resource center, information clearinghouse and technical assistance provider for Healthy Marriage grantees and the broader marriage education field and funded the National Healthy Marriage Resource Center (NHMRC).

With the passage of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, authorizing $100 million per year for five years to support new healthy marriage projects and related research and evaluation activities (as well as $50 million per year to support responsible fatherhood programs, some of which will focus on healthy marriage), OFA seeks to accelerate and expand efforts of the NHMRC to provide information and technical support especially helpful to its grantees to build capacity and foster support for healthy marriage program development and implementation.

The Office of Family Assistance represents ACF in the cooperative partnership with the NHMRC. Sidonie Squier, Director of the Office of Family Assistance, and Michelle Clune, Federal Project Officer, have five primary areas of responsibility: 1) informing the NHMRC team of the vision and expectations for the NHMRC; 2) participating in regular meetings with the NHMRC team to review progress toward the objectives of the work plan; 3) reviewing topics and content posted on the NHMRC Web site and otherwise distributed by the NHMRC; 4) noting and documenting ACF–funded Healthy Marriage Initiative grantee technical assistance needs and informing the NHMRC of requested technical assistance topics, and 5) serving as a liaison between the NHMRC and other federal offices and programs.

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NHMRC Partners

The Administration for Children and Families' Office of Family Assistance (OFA) has entered into a cooperative agreement with Public Strategies, Inc. (PSI) to develop the National Healthy Marriage Resource Center. PSI has brought together the expertise of The Lewin Group, Caliber/ICF International, the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence and Oklahoma State University, to form the NHMRC team. The team works closely with OFA to provide support to ACF grantees and individuals and organizations throughout the U.S. that want to learn more about how to form, support and promote healthy marriage. To learn more about this project, please email us at info@healthymarriageinfo.org.

This Web site is also supported in part by the Administration for Children and Families' Children's Bureau (CB), Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) and the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Johnson Foundation. The research and materials provided on this site do not necessarily reflect the views of ACF, ACF/OFA, ACF/CB, ACF/OCSE, ACF/OPRE, the Casey Foundation, the Johnson Foundation, or the NHMRC or its partner organizations.

The NHMRC is organized to ensure efficiency and maximize the assets each partner institution brings to the Center. These partners bring a breadth of expertise and a wide geographic reach to the project.

ACF / Office of Family Assistance

The Office of Family Assistance (OFA) is located in the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families and administers the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Program which was created by the Welfare Reform Law of 1996. TANF became effective July 1, 1997, and replaced what was then commonly known as welfare: Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training (JOBS) programs. In February 2006, President George W. Bush signed the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, which reauthorized the TANF program. The DRA reauthorization also included $150 million to support programs designed to help couples form and sustain healthy marriages. In its welfare reform law of 1996, Congress stipulated three of the four purposes of the TANF block grant to states be related to promoting healthy marriages. The Healthy Marriage Initiative (HMI), administered by ACF, was created in 2002 by President Bush to help couples who have chosen marriage gain greater access to marriage education services, on a voluntary basis, where they can acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to form and sustain a healthy marriage. Funding of the NHMRC furthers the goal of the HMI by providing a clearinghouse of information and resources.

Public Strategies, Inc. (PSI)

Public Strategies, Inc. is widely recognized as a leader in the marriage policy arena, having distinguished itself as a firm capable of managing both national and state marriage education programs and government contracts. PSI, with offices in Oklahoma City and Denver, has the largest staff (60+) in the country whose daily focus is on managing and delivering marriage education services. Many of those services are being delivered to low–income families and to culturally diverse populations. The firm is accomplished at building healthy partnerships to support the development of quality work products, and has developed a first–rate reputation for program launch and technical assistance (TA). Its team of communication specialists understands the science of delivering messages in ways that are appropriate for diverse populations, while its team of policy specialists is accomplished at identifying and documenting promising and best practices. PSI has earned a solid reputation as an organization that is accomplished at moving research into practice, and is uniquely qualified to provide TA to the new ACF healthy marriage grantees. It also manages the Oklahoma Marriage Initiative, a multi–million dollar, comprehensive, multi–sector program designed to strengthen marriage and support family formation.

Caliber/ICF International (Caliber)

Caliber/ICF International provides state–of–the–art resource center and clearinghouse services, research and evaluation support, information technology expertise and services, and training/technical assistance in support of a wide variety of human and social services. Caliber has a long history and a strong reputation in Federal consulting, along with excellent results working with various individual states and communities. Caliber brings impressive corporate experience and extensive subject matter expertise to this project, currently operating several clearinghouses and resource centers for ACF. The firm pioneered Community of Practice technology for the Office of Family Assistance, and also manages approximately 30 Web sites for Federal clients. Caliber has created and supported the technical infrastructure for multiple clearinghouses and T&TA centers.

The Lewin Group (Lewin)

The Lewin Group is a premier national health and human services policy research and consulting firm with 36 years of experience providing objective analysis, technical assistance, policy analysis, and program evaluation. Their social science portfolio encompasses healthy marriage, TANF and low income populations, child support, child welfare, adolescent pregnancy prevention, fatherhood programs, Head Start, abstinence education, domestic violence, and community–based initiatives. Under contract with ACF since 2002 to provide technical assistance to healthy marriage grantees funded through child welfare and child support, Lewin has become expert in advising grantees in the design, implementation, and evaluation of their marriage education programs–for which the firm was awarded the 2006 "ACF Outstanding Contractor" award. Lewin has trained Federal healthy marriage staff in how to develop and use logic models for monitoring their healthy marriage grantees and, for the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE), trained selected OCSE grantees in how to develop and use logic models for program improvement. Lewin enjoys an interdisciplinary staff with advanced degrees in child and family studies, marriage and family therapy, sociology, economics, public health, and public policy, as well as hands–on experience applying this knowledge to health and human service delivery systems.

Oklahoma State University Department of Human Development and Family Science (OSU)

OSU is a national leader in the field of marriage research, having served as the research partner for the Oklahoma Marriage Initiative since the project's inception. That role is widely congruent with the goals of the Department of Human Development and Family Science, which has a primary focus on integrative approaches to developing individual and relationship competence. OSU is also home to the Bureau for Social Research, a leader in social sciences research and a specialist in the areas of survey design and implementation. Members of the Department are partners on many OMI research projects and the University is the recipient of an OPRE–funded research study on the barriers to participation in marriage education workshops.

The National Resource Center on Domestic Violence (NRCDV)

The National Resource Center on Domestic Violence (NRCDV) has been operated by the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence since it was established with funding from ACF in 1993. During that time, NRCDV has responded to over 42,000 requests for technical assistance, provided extensive training to national and state–wide audiences, and developed numerous practice papers, policy briefs, and curricula. In 1994, NRCDV received funds from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop VAWnet: the National Online Resource Center on Violence Against Women. Since 2005, the NRCDV has worked with The Lewin Group, ACF's healthy marriage technical assistance contractor, to assist Community Healthy Marriage Initiative grantees design and implement domestic violence protocols.

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Additional Supporters

The Annie E. Casey Foundation

Since 1948, the Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF) has worked to build better futures for disadvantaged children and their families in the United States. The primary mission of the Foundation is to foster public policies, human service reforms, and community supports that more effectively meet the needs of today's vulnerable children and families.

The Johnson Foundation

The Johnson Foundation cultivates ideas that sustain community — people living in harmony with one another and their environment. The Foundation pursues this mission through Wingspread conferences, small meetings of thoughtful inquiry convened in an atmosphere of candor and purpose. The Johnson Foundation's strategic interests are Education, Sustainable Development and Environment Democracy and Community, and Family. It also seeks to advance the arts, help those with disabilities, and enhance the future of Racine and southeastern Wisconsin.

ACF / Children's Bureau

The Children's Bureau works with State and local agencies to develop programs that focus on preventing the abuse of children in troubled families, protecting children from abuse, and finding permanent placements for those who cannot safely return to their homes.

The Children's Bureau seeks to provide for the safety, permanency and well being of children through leadership, support for necessary services, and productive partnerships with States, Tribes, and communities.

ACF / Office of Child Support Enforcement

The nation's Child Support Enforcement Program (CSE) is a federal/state/local partnership to help families by promoting family self–sufficiency and child well–being.

The mission of the Child Support Enforcement Program is to enhance the well–being of children by assuring that assistance in obtaining support, including financial and medical, is available to children through locating parents, establishing paternity, establishing support obligations, and monitoring and enforcing those obligations.

ACF / Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation

OPRE is responsible for advising the Assistant Secretary for Children and Families on increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of programs to improve the economic and social well–being of children and families.

In collaboration with ACF program offices and others, OPRE is responsible for performance management for ACF, conducts research and policy analyses, and develops and oversees research and evaluation projects to assess program performance and inform policy and practice. The Office provides guidance, analysis, technical assistance, and oversight to ACF programs on: strategic planning; performance measurement; research and evaluation methods; statistical, policy, and program analysis; and synthesis and dissemination of research and demonstration findings.

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1 Building Real Solutions for Real People, Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.