U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families: Responsible Fatherhood Opportunities for Reentry and Mobility

This initiative will fund cooperative agreements that will support Responsible Fatherhood Opportunities for Reentry and Mobility Grants (ReFORM), which are designed to offer community-centered, skill-based pre- and post-release responsible fatherhood and supportive services to fathers transitioning from incarceration to their communities. The primary purposes of the cooperative agreements are to strengthen positive father-child engagement, enhance employment opportunities, and improve opportunities for economic mobility. Proposed programs must be designed to achieve the required outcomes by using elements of the three legislative activities (i.e., responsible parenting, economic stability and mobility, and healthy marriage). Finally, it is expected that programs will target fathers preparing to reenter their communities from incarceration, or those who have recently returned to their communities following incarceration.

The following is a list of eligible activities:

Responsible Parenting – Activities to promote responsible parenting, such as:

• Counseling, mentoring, and mediation
• Disseminating information about good parenting practices
• Skills-based parenting education
• Encouraging child support payments
• Other methods as appropriate

Economic Stability – Activities to foster economic stability, such as:

• Helping fathers improve their economic status by providing activities such as work first services, job search, job training, subsidized employment, job retention, job enhancement, and encouraging education, including career-advancing education
• Dissemination of employment materials
• Coordination with existing employment services such as welfare-to-work programs, referrals to local employment training initiatives
• Other method as appropriate

Healthy Marriage – Activities to promote marriage or sustain marriage through activities, such as:

• Counseling, mentoring, disseminating information about the benefits of marriage and two-parent involvement for children
• Enhancing relationship skills
• Education regarding how to control aggressive behavior
• Disseminating information on the causes of domestic violence and child abuse
• Marriage preparation programs
• Premarital counseling
• Marital inventories
• Skills-based marriage education
• Financial planning seminars, including improving a family’s ability to effectively manage family business affairs by means such as education, counseling, or mentoring on matters related to family finances, including household management, budgeting, banking, and handling of financial transactions and home maintenance
• Divorce education and reduction programs, including mediation and counseling

This RFP is distinguished from the RFP for New Pathways for Fathers and Families as it focuses on fathers reentering the community from incarceration.

Amount: Approximately $7,500,000 is available for up to 5 awards, ranging from $1,000,000 to $1,500,000 and averaging at $1,348,938. The duration of projects is up to five years.

Eligibility: Eligible applicants are states, territories, Native American tribes and tribal organizations (including state, territorial, and tribal post-secondary educational institutions), and public and nonprofit community entities (including religious organizations and public and private nonprofit post-secondary educational institutions).

Link: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/grants/open/foa/index.cfm?switch=foa&fon=HHS-2015-ACF-OFA-FO-0992

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