Glossary

PROMOTING RESPONSIBLE FATHERHOOD GRANTEE PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT

GLOSSARY

This glossary is for the use with the Promoting Responsible Fatherhood demonstration grants performance indicators only and does not necessarily reflect the official definitions used by the Office of Family Assistance.

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.

Activities: Activities performed under each allowable activity are the provision of curricula-based training, case management, mentoring/life skills, coaching, or support groups provided by the program to promote the goals of each allowable activity.

Allowable activities: The tasks conducted by the grantees. The three (3) relevant activities for the promoting responsible fatherhood 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.

Commitment to family financial responsibility: The state of an individual being obligated or 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 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 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.

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 allowable 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.

Economic stability: The long-term financial self-sufficiency of an individual or family that includes a combination of employment, income, assets, and savings.

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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

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.

• 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.

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

• 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.

• 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.

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.

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 allowable 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].

Participated: Individuals who received services under all grant activities including curricula-based training, case management, mentoring/life skills/coaching, and support groups.

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.

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 co-parenting with the children’s mother, and demonstrating parenting skills and economic stability.

Services offered by program:

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

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.

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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