Instrument 1: Screener for selecting fatherhood sites – Screened, not selected for data collection

CHaRMED

Screener for Selecting Fatherhood Program Visit Sites

FATHERHOOD PROGRAM SCREENING

Fatherhood Program:

State/Cities Served:

Spoke to:

Date/Time:

INTRODUCTION

Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us. My name is [NAME] and I’m with an organization called Child Trends, which is conducting the CHaRMED study. I also have [NAME] on the line, who will be taking notes to make sure I don’t miss anything. As we mentioned in our email, the goal of the CHaRMED study is to learn more about how fatherhood programs support fathers’ healthy coparenting and romantic relationships.

We are reaching out to you as a program director to learn more about your work with fathers to select programs to participate in the CHaRMED study. The goal of today’s conversation is to learn more about how you support fathers’ healthy coparenting and romantic relationships, when services related to these topics are offered, and your interest in participating in the study. If selected for the study, we would like to visit your program to observe program sessions or any other relevant programming or trainings and conduct interviews with staff at your organization. We would also like to conduct focus groups with participating fathers and potentially their coparents at some programs. These program visits are expected to begin in [FILL IN MONTH] and will be completed by [FILL IN MONTH].

Your participation in today’s discussion is completely voluntary – you can choose to answer some questions and not others. We will not name you or your organization in any reports without your permission. We think today’s conversation will take about 30 minutes to get through our questions. If your program is selected to participate in CHaRMED, we estimate you will spend up to 5.5 additional hours helping us schedule interviews and the program visit.

Because this is a federally-funded project, I have to read a couple of sentences to you before we begin. According to the Paperwork Reduction Act, an agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB number for the described information collection is [NUMBER] and the expiration date is [DATE]. If you have comments regarding this estimated interview length or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing the interview length, please send them to Mindy Scott at Child Trends, 7315 Wisconsin Ave, Suite 1200W, Bethesda, MD 20814; Attn: OMB-PRA [NUMBER].

Before we dive into the discussion, do you have any questions? Is it OK to go on?

SCREENING QUESTIONS

1. To start, I want to make sure I am calling your fatherhood program by the right name. Is [FATHERHOOD PROGRAM NAME] correct?

2. Can you very briefly tell me about [FATHERHOOD PROGRAM NAME] for fathers?

We’d like to learn a little bit today about your work related to promoting positive coparenting relationships and promoting healthy romantic relationships. We’d also like to know a little more about the kinds of things you and other fatherhood programs do or do not offer related to these topics. We know that some programs offer a lot of different things and some may have more limited programming related to coparenting or romantic relationships. Whatever you are doing is okay—we just want to know more about it. So, I’m going to go through a list of different things that we think programs might do and we’d like to know ‘yes’ or ‘no’ for each one. We’ll learn a lot more about this if you are selected for a program visit, so today we’re just looking for an overall picture of your program.

3. Let’s start with coparenting. And just to make sure we’re clear, when we say ‘coparent’ we mean the mother(s) of the father’s child(ren) and others who work with the father and share responsibility for raising a child.

1. Please tell me yes or no to the following topics for coparenting. Do you…

Yes	No	Topic
		Ask fathers about their coparenting relationships and whether they are interested in services related to coparenting during screening or intake?
		Talk to fathers as a group or individually about coparenting relationships?
		Do skill building with fathers on this topic?
		Do role-playing or other interactive exercises on this topic?
		Have an educational session or sessions that fathers’ coparents can attend?
		Have any other activities that fathers’ coparents can attend?
		Do you use any specific curricula for coparenting content in your programs? (If yes, please list) Curricula names:
		Offer written resources on things like conflict management, coordination with a coparent, or other relevant topics?
		Refer fathers to other organizations in the community for more services on this topic?
		Offer mediation services related to this topic?
		Help fathers with negotiating and/or navigating child support, child custody, or other areas of their lives where coparenting may come up?
		Specifically train staff on how to help fathers with their coparenting relationships?
		Anything else?

2. Overall, across all the different ways you address coparenting, do you have specific sessions and activities devoted just to coparenting?

3. Do you address coparenting by discussing it at the same time as other topics?

4. How much time would you say you spend on the topic of fathers’ coparenting, through any of the services just mentioned? We are just looking for a rough estimate.

5. What language do you use when you talk to fathers about their coparenting relationships? For example, do you use the term coparents, or something else? How do you describe [THE SERVICES LISTED ABOVE] to fathers?

4. Now let’s think about your work related to healthy romantic relationships, including romantic relationships among both married and unmarried fathers. This is sometimes called Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education, or HMRE.

1. Please tell me yes or no to the following topics for Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education. Do you…

Yes	No	Topic
		Ask fathers about their relationship status and whether they are interested in services related to romantic relationships during screening or intake?
		Talk to fathers as a group or individually about romantic relationships?
		Do skill building with fathers on this topic?
		Do role-playing or other interactive exercises on this topic?
		Have an educational session or sessions that fathers’ romantic partners can attend?
		Have any other activities that fathers’ romantic partners can attend?
		Do you use any specific curricula for healthy romantic relationship content in your programs? (If yes, please list) Curricula names:
		Offer written resources on things like conflict management, communication and listening, or other relevant topics?
		Refer fathers to other organizations in the community for more services on this topic (e.g., couples counseling)?
		Offer IPV/DV services?
		Offer mediation services?
		Specifically train staff on how to help fathers with their romantic relationships?
		Anything else?

2. Overall, across all the different ways you address healthy romantic relationships, do you have specific sessions and activities devoted just to this topic?

3. Do you address healthy romantic relationships by discussing it at the same time as other topics?

4. How much time would you say you spend on the topic of fathers’ healthy romantic relationships, through any of the services just mentioned? We are just looking for a rough estimate.

5. What language do you use when you talk to fathers about their romantic relationships? For example, do you use the term partner, mother, or something else? How do you describe your healthy romantic relationship or HMRE services [REPHRASE THE SERVICES LISTED ABOVE IF NEEDED] to fathers?

5. [FOR FEDERALLY FUNDED PROGRAMS] Across both healthy coparenting and romantic relationships, are there any other services you offer to fathers or couples outside of OFA funds. For example, couples counseling? [FOR NON-FEDERALLY FUNDED PROGRAMS] Across both healthy coparenting and romantic relationships, are there any other services you offer to fathers or couples, for example, couples counseling?

6. We are interested in understanding the different kinds of fathers you serve; can you tell me for each of these different characteristics whether you serve these types of fathers with a yes/no. If you do, please estimate if it’s the majority of your fathers or just some, your best guess is perfectly fine:

Yes, the majority	Yes, some	No, none	Topic
			Fathers involved in the criminal justice system (e.g., incarcerated, under probation or other legal supervision)
			Fathers who are underemployed
			Fathers with low educational attainment
			Fathers with substance use/abuse challenges
			Fathers with mental health challenges
			Fathers involved in the child support system
			Fathers who live in a rural area
			Unmarried fathers
			Nonresident fathers
			Low-income fathers
			Teen fathers

7. What race/ethnicity are the fathers that you serve? Would you say over half of your participants identify as any specific race/ethnicity? (If yes, confirm what race/ethnicity)

8. Are there any other characteristics of your population that you think we should know?

Thank you. Now I’m going to ask some questions about what your program will be doing in the upcoming months. If your program is selected and you would like to participate in CHaRMED, this will help us plan our visit to your program.

9. To the best of your knowledge, what services/program activities for fathers or staff trainings related to coparenting or HMRE will be occurring between [ADD MONTHS]?

1. Are these activities typically on the same day of the week or do they occur on a set schedule?

2. Are these activities all conducted in English or is another language used?

3. Where does your coparenting and HMRE programming occur? [onsite, community partner, etc.]

10. Who are key program staff that you think would be best to meet with to learn more about your work related to coparenting or healthy romantic relationships? We are hoping to speak with 1-2 program facilitators and 1-2 individuals at the director level, possibly including a follow up interview with you.

1. Can you please provide their email addresses and phone numbers?

2. [IF ADDITIONAL NAMES ARE NEEDED] Is there another director/administrator and facilitator you would recommend talking to?

11. Do you work with or refer fathers to any partner organizations to offer services related to these two topics?

1. If yes, who are key partner staff that you think would be best to meet with to learn more about your work?

2. Can you please provide contact information for up to two partner organizations that we can call to gather more information about their organizations as part of our recruitment process? [Collect name, phone number, email address, and information about position at partner organization]

12. For our program visits, we hope to hold focus groups with 6-8 dads who are participating in coparenting and/or HMRE services. Who would be the best person to help us recruit fathers for the focus group?

1. [IF THIS IS A NEW PERSON] Can you please provide their email addresses and phone numbers?

2. Is there a particular day/time that you recommend we schedule the focus group for? Any particular days/times to avoid?

13. We are also hoping that we might be able to hold a focus group with coparents who are participating or have participated in coparenting services. Even if coparenting services are not offered at your program or these services are only provided to fathers, we would still be interested in talking to coparents about what the fatherhood programs could do for fathers and their families. Do you think this would be possible at your program?

1. Do you have enough of a connection with coparents to be able to help recruit them?

14. Finally, we are hoping to interview 1 or 2 fathers who are not participating in HMRE or coparenting services within your program. These could be fathers that enrolled and then dropped out of your program’s coparenting or HMRE services, or fathers who participated in other services that you offer and then dropped out of the program entirely. We’d like to talk with them about successes and challenges they experience in coparenting and their romantic relationships, and ways fatherhood program services could better address their relationship needs. Do you think you might be able to help us recruit a father or two for these interviews?

1. [IF NOT SURE] Is there another staff member who you would recommend we talk to about this?

Thank you, I believe I have all the information I need right now. May I contact you again if I have additional questions? Do you have any questions for us?

CLOSING

Once we select programs to participate we will look to schedule a convenient time for our team to visit those organizations for 2-3 days. As we discussed, we’d want to do interviews, focus groups, and observe program sessions or trainings, if possible. This visit will require some time for scheduling and other logistics, recruitment for the focus group(s), as well as the staff time needed for the actual interviews. Each staff interview should last about 90 minutes and will require no preparation time for the participant other than up to 30 minutes for scheduling the interview. Focus groups will also last about 90 minutes.

We would also like to be able to observe 1-2 sessions with fathers or staff trainings, particularly program sessions or trainings that address coparenting or healthy romantic relationships.

Do you have any questions about this plan?

Would your organization be willing to participate in the program visits, if selected?

[RECORD ANSWER] _________________________

Wonderful, who should we coordinate with if your program is selected to participate in the program visits?

• NAME: _____________________________________

[IF PARTICIPANT LISTS HIM/HERSELF] Do we have permission to follow up with you further about the study via email?

[RECORD ANSWER] _________________________

• NAME and EMAIL ADDRESS: _____________________________________