Evaluation of the Fathers Advancing Communities Together (FACT) Program

The Urban Institute-a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization-is partnering with Rubicon Programs to conduct a rigorous evaluation of its Fathers Advancing Communities Together (FACT) program. FACT is a multi-faceted program designed to deliver responsible parenting, healthy relationships, and economic stability services on a voluntary basis to low-income fathers in Contra Costa County, California. Urban's evaluation comprised of three key components:

The implementation evaluation will describe FACT program activities and services, including communication and coordination across partners, service delivery mechanisms, and whether and how participants and their families received comprehensive services. Urban will identify a logic model for the program and assess the barriers to and facilitators of program performance. The implementation evaluation will draw from interviews with program staff, partners, and stakeholders, as well as field observations, program and administrative data, and focus groups with FACT participants and their families.

The outcome evaluation will build on the implementation evaluation to determine whether specific program components, their frequency, and their duration, are related to outcomes. Urban will conduct surveys of program participants at the time of their enrollment into the program and one year following their enrollment to explore how participants' self-reported attitudes on various domains are associated with economic self-sufficiency and family functioning. Urban will also use program and administrative data collected by Rubicon and its partners, specifically Rubicon's case management database, to assess participant outcomes.

The impact evaluation will assess to what extent participation in the FACT program is associated with improved outcomes as compared to similarly situated individuals who did not participate in the program. Urban will work with Rubicon's partners to identify individuals living in Contra Costa County who were eligible to participate in the program but, for whatever reason, did not do so. Once a comparison group of fathers has been established, Urban will use individual-level outcome data to determine whether the FACT program has an impact on economic self-sufficiency and family functioning.

Study Overview

• Status: Unknown
• Conditions: Responsible Fatherhood Programming
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Fathers Advancing Communities Together (FACT) program

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Anticipated): 520

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • California
    • Richmond, California, United States, 94804
      • Rubicon Programs

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 45 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

The study population will include all FACT participants enrolled from July 2016 through September 2019. An individual is eligible to enroll in FACT if the individual is a parent with a child under 18, classified as having low income, lives in Contra Costa County, and is interested in services to enhance financial mobility. The participant survey will be administered to a sub-sample of approximately 200-250 FACT participants enrolled from March 2017 to March 2019. The sub-sample for the impact evaluation will be FACT participants with an active child support case.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• An individual is eligible for the impact evaluation if the individual is a FACT participant and is a parent with an open child support case in Contra Costa County, CA during the time of their enrollment.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Observational Models: Case-Control
• Time Perspectives: Retrospective

Number of groups / cohorts

2

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort	Intervention / Treatment
Program group; The program group will be comprised of all individuals who enrolled in the FACT program from July 2016 through September 2019 and have active child support cases with the Contra Costa County Department of Child Support Services.	Behavioral: Fathers Advancing Communities Together (FACT) program; The FACT program offers fathers and their families responsible parenting, healthy relationship, and economic stability services and activities.
Comparison group; The comparison group will be comprised of individuals with active child support cases with the Contra Costa County Department of Child Support Services who are demographically comparable to the treatment group (i.e., FACT fathers with active child support cases), yet did not participate in or receive FACT services.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Increases in child support payment modifications	The outcome is a dichotomous measure of whether the individual had any child support modifications between enrollment and 6-months post enrollment (1 = Yes; 0 = No).	6 months
Increases in monthly child support payment amounts	This outcome is a semi-continuous measure indicating the average dollar amount of monthly child support payments between enrollment and 6-months post enrollment in dollars	6 months
Increases in employment	This outcome is a dichotomous measure of whether the individual was employed at any point between enrollment and 6-months post enrollment (1 = Yes; 0 = No).	6 months
Increases in receipt of public assistance	This outcome is a dichotomous measure of whether an individual was on any public assistance (e.g., TANF and SNAP) at any point between enrollment and 6-months post enrollment (1 = Yes; 0 = No).	6 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Court orders	The outcome is a dichotomous measure of whether there was a new child support court order during the 6-month period after enrollment (1 = Yes; 0 = No).	6 months
Amount of court orders	This outcome is a semi-continuous measure indicating the total dollar amounts of new court orders during the 6-month period after enrollment.	6 months
Arrear	This outcome is a dichotomous measure of whether there was a new arrear (an open case with unpaid child support owed to the custodial parent) at 6-months post enrollment.	6 months
Arrear balance	This outcome is a semi-continuous measure of the total balance of new arrears at 6-months post enrollment.	6 monhts
Months on public assistance	This outcome measure is a count of the number of months individuals were on any public assistance during the 6-month period after enrollment.	6 months

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Improvement in fathers' attitudes and perceptions of economic self-sufficiency, relationships, and parenting as measured by participant-level surveys, program data, and administrative data.	This outcome will capture how, due to FACT programming, participants' changes in attitudes and perceptions of their parenting, relationships, and economic stability were associated with changes in program-specific behaviors/outcomes, and the extent to which program components (e.g., classes and workshops) were associated with changes in fathers' attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors as measured by a participant survey. This outcome will draw on data collected from participant surveys, program data in Rubicon's Salesforce/ECM database, and administrative data from Rubicon's partners providing services to FACT participants. All of the above data points will be combined and linked, to the extent possible, to analyze individual-level data to assess participants' changes in their attitudes and perceptions of self-sufficiency, relationships, and parenting.	One year (baseline and one-year follow up)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Urban Institute
• Collaborators: Rubicon Programs
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Lindsey Cramer, Urban Institute; Principal Investigator: Bryce Peterson, PhD, Urban Institute

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: July 1, 2016
• Primary Completion (Actual): September 30, 2019
• Study Completion (Anticipated): September 1, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 30, 2017
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 3, 2017
• First Posted (Actual): May 8, 2017

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): October 1, 2020
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 29, 2020
• Last Verified: September 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: 09226-000-00

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No