What Is the Building Strong Families Project?

Strengthening marriages and relationships in low-income families has emerged as a national policy strategy to enhance child well-being. Building Strong Families (BSF) is an initiative to develop and evaluate programs designed to help interested unwed parents achieve their aspirations for healthy marriage and a stable family life. This website is designed to help programs that participate in the evaluation, and other interested parties, learn about the progress of the evaluation and the kinds of services that are being tested. Many materials will be available to the public, but over time, a password-protected Learning Community will also be supported for the BSF research sites and others directly involved in the evaluation. For a description of the Building Strong Families project, click here.

Inside BSF

This 10-minute video shows couples participating in an actual BSF group session, as one couple tells its story. A narrator provides context, including the purpose of marriage education programs, who participates, and topics the programs cover. The video was designed as an outreach tool to illustrate how BSF works and to describe the program to eligible couples, as well as a resource to inform or engage the interest of potential program funders or community partners.

Altering this video without permission is prohibited. However, broadcast, copying, and public performance are permitted provided that the following attribution is noted:

“This video was produced by the Relationship Research Institute, through subcontract with Mathematica Policy Research, under contract with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families. The information and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the positions of the Department of Health and Human Services or the Administration for Children and Families.”

To view the video, click here.    To download the video, click here.    To download a transcript of the video, click here.

Recent Publications

Implementation of the Building Strong Families Program

This report highlights key findings from an implementation analysis of BSF’s seven program sites in Atlanta, Baltimore, Baton Rouge, Florida, Indiana, Oklahoma, and Texas during the evaluation's first 6 to 14 months. The analysis documents recruitment and enrollment practices, describes the characteristics of enrolled couples, provides data on program participation, and summarizes the experiences of couples participating in the intervention. Individuals who enrolled in the program were typically in their mid-twenties, and often had children from prior relationships. While most had a high school education, earnings and income were low. Over half the recruited sample members were African American, about one-quarter were Hispanic, and about 14 percent were non-Hispanic white. The average couple had known each other for several years, was cohabiting, and had high hopes for marrying their partner.
Download the report in PDF format

Implementing Healthy Marriage Programs: Early Lessons

This report documents early lessons from pilot demonstration sites in Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Oklahoma, and Texas from early 2005 to early 2006. The report shows that unwed parents in the program are interested in marriage education programs that will help them build the necessary skills to form and sustain a healthy marriage. It also indicates that, overall, couples responded positively to the programs and valued the group format and learning from other couples' experiences.
Download the report in PDF format

Healthy Marriage Programs: Learning What Works

Public and private interest in programs to strengthen the institution of marriage and reduce the number of children growing up without both their parents is growing. The central policy question is whether effectively implemented programs can increase the number of children who are raised by both parents in healthy and stable marriages, especially within disadvantaged populations known to be at higher risk for family instability. The author describes such marriage programs; discusses the main challenges and opportunities in implementing them in low-income populations; and explains how researchers, policymakers, and practitioners are beginning to learn whether they work.
Download the article in PDF format

Guidelines for Developing BSF Programs

These guidelines will help interested sponsors design and deliver program services. They detail the three program components that all BSF programs must include: instruction in skills associated with healthy marriage, family support services, and family coordinators. The publication also describes an optional fourth component to reduce marriage disincentives created by government programs and policies.
Download the guidelines in PDF format

Lessons from Family Connections in Alabama

Family Connections in Alabama (FCA), a 12-month project conducted in 2003, aimed to design, implement, and evaluate a program to provide family life education to low-income unmarried parents of young children. This report describes and develops lessons learned from FCA that are relevant for designing and implementing programs to serve low-income unmarried couples having a child together—the population being served by Building Strong Families programs. Implementation lessons identified include issues relating to staffing, service delivery format, recruitment and retention, and curriculum use.
Download the report in PDF format

Strengthening Families: A Framework for Interventions

This report presents a conceptual framework for designing, implementing, and testing interventions for low-income unmarried parents interested in strengthening their relationships and possibly forming and sustaining healthy marriages. It builds on research showing that the period around a child's birth is a critical moment for strengthening couple bonds.
Download the full report in PDF format

Issue Briefs

Characteristics of Fragile Families: Implications for BSF Programs

This brief summarizes information from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study about the characteristics and relationships of unwed parents. The findings can help state and local agencies and other groups designing BSF programs gain a better understanding of their target population and develop interventions that respond to their needs and circumstances.
Download the brief in PDF format

Strengthening Relationships and Supporting Healthy Marriage

The first publication in the BSF issue brief series focuses on program design aspects of the conceptual framework for interventions with unmarried parents to help them strengthen their relationships and form and sustain healthy marriages.
Download the brief in PDF format