Impacts of a Community Healthy Marriage Initiative

This report describes the implementation and impacts of selected programs funded through grants awarded to a number of organizations to conduct large-scale, community-wide projects that used “various methods to support healthy marriages community-wide” (Community Healthy Marriage [CHM] Grants to Implement Multiple Allowable Activities: Level 3; Healthy Marriage Demonstration Grants. Funding Opportunity Announcement 2006). The projects were to implement simultaneously five or more of the eight allowable activities specified in the authorizing legislation, reach a broad audience, involve stakeholders from diverse community sectors (e.g., government, schools, faith-based organizations, businesses, health care providers), and offer voluntary, healthy marriage and relationship education services to reach as many interested participants as possible. Impacts, at the community level, on a range of family-life outcomes were measured utilizing a representative sample of adults in matched treatment and comparison communities. (Source abstract)

The purpose of Community Healthy Marriage Initiative (CHMI) was to examine the impacts of a community-wide effort aimed at improving relationship skills and increasing healthy marriage. ACF awarded grants to a number of organizations to conduct large-scale, community-wide programs that implemented multiple strategies aimed at the couple- and community-level to support healthy marriages community-wide.

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