Glossary_RF

Appendix G
PROMOTING RESPONSIBLE FATHERHOOD GRANTEE PERFORMANCE
MEASUREMENT
GLOSSARY
This glossary is for the use with the Promoting Responsible Fatherhood grants performance
indicators only and does not necessarily reflect the official definitions used by the Office of
Family Assistance.
Abuse prevention skills: Skills to prevent and eliminate domestic violence in relationships
including how to control aggressive behavior within the context of marriage and reducing and
eliminating aggressive behavior.
Activities: Activities performed under each authorized activity are the provision of curriculabased training, case management, mentoring/life skills, coaching, or support groups provided by
the program to promote the goals of each authorized activity.
Authorized activities: The tasks conducted by the grantees. The three (3) relevant activities for
the fatherhood reentry grants, activities to promote or sustain marriage, activities to promote
responsible parenting, and activities to foster economic stability, are defined in the legislation and
grant announcements.
Any: One or more. The purpose of this question is to get an unduplicated count of people
showing an improvement in any of the skill areas.
Attitude: A mental position, disposition, or emotion towards something.
Attitude towards marriage: A mental position, disposition or emotion towards the institution of
marriage.
Budgeting/Financial skills: Proficiencies or aptitudes in management of household income and
expenses.
Case management: An individualized plan for securing, coordinating, and monitoring the
appropriate interventions and ancillary services necessary to serve each participant successfully
for optimal responsible fatherhood outcomes.
Child/Children: A person under the age of 18.
Child Support Knowledge: Awareness and information about the child support system, the role
of the courts, and personal legal and financial obligations and responsibilities related to child
support.
Child well-being: A multidimensional concept encompassing positive outcomes for children in
the domains of family and social environment, economic circumstances, accessibility and usage
of health care, physical environment and safety, behavior, education and health.
Co-parent: The other parent involved in the conception and/or raising of a child.

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Commitment to family financial responsibility: The state of an individual being obligated or
feeling emotionally impelled to contribute income and other monetary supports to their children
and/or spouse/fiancé/partner/co-parent.
Commitment to fatherhood: The state of an individual being obligated or feeling emotionally
impelled to provide emotional supports to their child[ren], be engaged in the life of their
child[ren], and show commitment to parenting or co-parenting the child[ren].
Commitment to marital stability: The state of a married individual being obligated or feeling
emotionally impelled to strive to make their marriage one that demonstrates qualities of spousal
commitment, long-term endurance and low propensity to divorce.
Communication Skills: This relationship skill is the interaction and exchanging of information
in verbal or non-verbal ways between two individuals (a couple) resulting in respectful and
positive methods of problem solving.
Completed: Service recipients finishing the core program requirement as determined by grantee.
Report the number of individuals who completed the program during the current reporting period,
even if they began in the program in an earlier reporting period.
Conflict resolution skills: A relationship skill used to work through a particular disagreement
and come to a mutual understanding or agreement between two people.
Contact with child[ren]: The amount of interaction between a father and child[ren] measured in
time. Contact can be in-person, by telephone, by video, through letters, e-mails or other forms of
communication.
Couple: As referenced in the authorized activity, couple can mean “married” or “unmarried”
couple.
Married couple: One man and one woman engaged in a legal union as husband and
wife. The word ‘spouse’ refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or
wife
Curricula-based training: Skill-based instruction of at least eight hours provided on a

body of material that defines the content to be taught and the methods to be used. For the
purposes of these performance measures, the body of material is related to the marriage
education, parenting education, or promoting economic stability.
Denominator: The number of the individuals who complete a survey measuring outcomes upon
program completion
Educational attainment: The highest grade completed within the most advanced level attended
in the educational system.
Enrolled: Service recipients who complete grantee’s intake process. Report the number of
individuals who were enrolled in the program during the current reporting period.

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Ethnicity: The heritage, nationality group, lineage, or country of birth of the person or the
person’s parents or ancestors before their arrival in the United States. People who identify their
origin as Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino may be of any race.
Economic stability: The long-term financial self-sufficiency of an individual or family that
includes a combination of employment, income, assets, and savings.
Employment status: Refers to the type of employment one has. E.g. full-time employment, parttime employment.

Family well-being: A multidimensional concept encompassing positive outcomes for families in
the areas of health, income, child care, education, and marriage.
Father: A male biological, adoptive or foster parent of a child.
Financial /Employment skills: Proficiencies or aptitudes that encourage economic stability
developed through education, training, or activities. For the purposes of these performance
measures, financial/employment skills are job search skills, financial planning skills, job training,
and job retention skills.
o

Job search skills: Examples include developing proficiencies or aptitudes in
participants in areas such as cover letter and resume writing, internet employment
searches, use of One-Stops, interviewing and networking.

o

Financial planning skills: Examples include developing proficiencies or
aptitudes in participants in areas such as budgeting, managing and tracking
income, investing, saving, and use of credit.

o

Job training: Examples include developing proficiencies or aptitudes in skills
used on-the-job such as customer service skills or mechanical skills.

o

Job retention skills: Examples include developing proficiencies or aptitudes in
participants in areas such as conflict resolution, communication, appropriate
workplace behaviors and protocols.

Financial planning skills: Examples include developing proficiencies or aptitudes in participants
in areas such as budgeting, managing and tracking income, investing, saving, and use of credit.
Healthy marriage: A union that encompasses commitment, satisfaction, communication, conflict
resolution, lack of domestic violence, fidelity, time together, intimacy and emotional support,
commitment to children, and duration/legal marital status.
Healthy Marriage skills: Proficiencies or aptitudes that encourage healthy marriage developed
through education or training. Under these performance measures, healthy marriage skills are
communication, conflict resolution, abuse prevention, and budgeting/financial skills.
o

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Communication Skills: This relationship skill is the interaction and exchanging
of information in verbal or non-verbal ways between two individuals (a couple)
resulting in respectful and positive methods of problem solving.

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o

Conflict resolution skills: A relationship skill used to work through a particular
disagreement and come to a mutual understanding or agreement between two
people.

o

Abuse prevention skills: Skills aimed at reducing domestic violence in
relationships including how to control aggressive behavior within the context of
marriage and reducing and eliminating aggressive behavior.

o

Budgeting/Financial skills: Proficiencies or aptitudes in management of
household income and expenses.

Intermediate outcome: The changes in individuals, agencies, systems, and communities that
occur as a result of the grant activities. Outcomes in the intermediate term include changes in
action, behavior, practice, policies, social action, and decision-making.
Job search skills: Examples include developing proficiencies or aptitudes in participants in areas
such as cover letter and resume writing, internet employment searches, use of One-Stops,
interviewing and networking.
Job training: Examples include developing proficiencies or aptitudes in skills used on-the-job
such as customer service skills or mechanical skills.
Job retention skills: Examples include developing proficiencies or aptitudes in participants in
areas such as conflict resolution, communication, appropriate workplace behaviors and protocols.
Marital Status: The legal status of each individual in relation to the marriage laws or customs.
Marriage: A legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife.
Marriage education: Skill-based instruction to promote, enhance or maintain healthy marriages.
Marriage stability: A married relationship demonstrating qualities of spousal commitment,
long-term endurance and low propensity to divorce.
Mentoring/life skills/coaching: A process in which a person serves as a role model, trusted
counselor, or teacher who provides opportunities for development, growth, and support to less
experienced individuals. Could include peer mentoring or professional counseling.
Outcomes: The changes in individuals, agencies, systems, and communities that occur as a result
of the grant activities.
Outcome indicator: A captured quantifiable measure of an outcome.
Output: The services, products, or participation delivered or created in the authorized activities.
Output indicator: A captured quantifiable measure of an output.
Parenting skills: Proficiencies or aptitudes learned by parents that aid them in being positive
role-models and providing support, structure, discipline, and education to their child[ren].

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Participated: Individuals who received services under all grant activities including curriculabased training, case management, mentoring/life skills/coaching, and support groups.
Peer group meetings: A group of people who share a similar problem or concern. The people in
the group help one another by sharing experiences, knowledge, and information. Could include
peer groups or groups led by a professional counselor.
Performance indicator: A quantifiable metric of a program output or outcome reflecting
program accomplishments towards organizational goals. Used as a management tool to monitor
and improve program success.
Performance measurement: The ongoing monitoring and reporting of program
accomplishments, particularly progress toward pre-established goals.
Race: A sociopolitical construct that takes into account social and cultural characteristics.
Relationship with their spouse/fiancé/partner/co-parent: A multidimensional concept that
includes satisfaction with the relationship and enjoyment, understanding, affection, appreciation,
respect, honesty, trust, emotional support, interdependence between the couple. Relationships
between co-parents may focus more around the support of each other in the parenting of children,
responsibility for child-rearing, and the trust in the co-parent’s parenting ability and judgment.
Relationship with their child[ren]: A multidimensional concept that includes satisfaction with
the relationship and enjoyment, understanding, affection, appreciation, respect, honesty, trust, and
the dependence of the child on the parent to provide emotional support and guidance.
Relationship skills: Proficiencies or aptitudes that encourage healthy relationships developed
through education, training, or activities.
Reporting period: The six-month period that matches the period of grantees’ semi-annual
reports.
Responsible fatherhood: Fathers that are engaged in the lives of their children including
providing ongoing emotional and economic support, showing a commitment to parenting and coparenting with the children’s mother, and demonstrating parenting skills and economic stability.
Services offered by program:

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o

Case management: An individualized plan for securing, coordinating, and
monitoring the appropriate interventions and ancillary services necessary to serve
each participant successfully for optimal responsible fatherhood outcomes.

o

Mentoring/life skills/coaching: A process in which a person serves as a role
model, trusted counselor, or teacher who provides opportunities for development,
growth, and support to less experienced individuals.

o

Support groups: A group of people who share a similar problem or concern.
The people in the group help one another by sharing experiences, knowledge, and
information.

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o

Curricula-based training: Skill-based instruction provided on a body of
material that defines the content to be taught and the methods to be used. For the
purposes of these performance measures, the body of material is related to the
marriage education, parenting education, or promoting economic stability.

Sex: Gender of participants
Short-term outcome: The changes in individuals, agencies, systems, and communities that occur
as a result of the grant activities. Outcomes in the short-term include changes in learning,
awareness, knowledge, attitude, skills, opinions, aspirations, and motivations.
Showed Improvement: Program has determined that individual has increased skills, attitudes or
other measures such as earnings during the course of participating in the program. Improvement
often is measured by a change in a test score between pre-test and post-test, but programs may
choose to measure improvement in other ways. For example, improvements in earnings are
preferably measured through documentation or verification of increased wages rather than client
self-report.
Subsidized Employment: An employer in either the public or private sector receives a subsidy
from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) or other public funds to offset some or
all of the wages and costs of employing a recipient 1 .
Unsubsidized employment: Full- or part- time employment in the public or private sector that is
not subsided by TANF or any other public program 2 .

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www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ofa/.../appendix-iii_definitions-wei.doc
www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ofa/.../appendix-iii_definitions-wei.doc

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