Evaluation of the NRFCBI

Fathers play an important role in the lives of their children. A large body of research shows that, on average, children experience better short and long-term outcomes when fathers are actively involved in their lives than when their fathers are not. Many factors make it difficult for some fathers to be involved, responsible, and committed in their children’s lives. Unfortunately, many social-service organizations do not have the capacity to adequately engage fathers and help them overcome the challenges and barriers they face.

Since 1994, National Fatherhood Initiative (NFI) has sought to improve the well-being of children by increasing the proportion of children growing up with involved, responsible, and committed fathers in their lives. A major part of NFI’s work involves building capacity in organizations to effectively serve fathers. In an effort to better prepare small community and faith-based organizations to work with fathers, NFI implemented the National Responsible Fatherhood Capacity-Building Initiative (NRFCBI) in 2006 with funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services/Administration for Children and Families/Office of Family Assistance.

NFI works with cohorts of organizations (called Sub-awardees) for a period of 1 year as part of the NRFCBI. Each Sub-awardee receives a grant (sub-award) of $25,000 to build capacity to more effectively engage fathers in programs and services. Each Sub-awardee receives standard and customized training and technical assistance (T & TA) from NFI staff and consultants during their 1-year grant period. Sub-awardees must use their grant and the T & TA to build their infrastructure (e.g. board development and staff training on fatherhood programs) rather than to provide direct services. NFI is in Year 5 of the 5-year NRFCBI.

The NRFCBI builds capacity in four areas: Leadership Development, Organizational Development, Program Development, and Community Engagement. NFI evaluates the overall impact of the initiative and its impact in each of the four capacity-building areas using quantitative and qualitative research methods and analysis. NFI has collected complete data on the impact of the initiative from the Year 1, 2 and 3  Sub-awardees (69 in total). The findings are striking and reveal the interconnected nature of the four capacity-building areas.

View the evaluation:

Inspiration to Implementation: Evaluation of the NRFCBI (Fall 2010)