The Office of Family Assistance (OFA), Family and Economic Stability Demonstration and Innovation Division (FED Innovation Division), Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood (HMRF) programs provide $150 million per year in discretionary grants, contracts, research and evaluation, and other activities to strengthen families, promote responsible parenting, and improve family economic stability. The programs were originally authorized in 2006 and continue under 42 U.S.C. §603(a)(2).
These programs play a key role in helping OFA achieve its goals to foster economically secure households and communities for the well-being and long-term success of children and families. The HMRF programs are specifically designed to help interested adults and youth build stronger relationships, marriages, father-child engagement, and families. There are currently 109 grant awards to various organizations in 38 states to provide activities to promote healthy marriage and responsible fatherhood promotion activities.
Our Approach
The Office of Family Assistance (OFA), Family and Economic Stability Demonstration and Innovation Division (FED Innovation Division), competitively awards Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood (HMRF) grants to states, local governments, tribal entities, and community-based organizations (both for profit and not-for-profit, including faith-based organizations). These grantees work to help participants build and sustain healthy relationships and marriages, and to strengthen positive father-child interaction.
Our Programs and Grantees
The HMRF programs are part of ACF’s strategy to improve the long-term well-being of children and families. We are pleased to announce that the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) awarded a new cohort of HMRF programs on September 29, 2025; these are five-year grants that will end on September 29, 2030. OFA currently funds 109 grants across a network of 109 organizations in 38 states under three Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFOs):
- Projects funded under the Helping Every Area of Relationships Thrive - Adults (HEART) program provide services that combine marriage and relationship education with efforts to address participation barriers and the economic stability needs of adult participants (age 18 and older).
- Projects funded under the Family, Opportunity, Resilience, Grit, Engagement — Fatherhood (FORGE Fatherhood) project integrate robust economic stability services, healthy marriage education, and activities designed to foster responsible parenting for adult fathers (age 18 and older). FORGE Fatherhood projects also serve fathers who are close to release or recently released from incarceration and who intend to return to their communities and families.
- Projects funded under the Relationships, Education, Advancement, and Development for Youth for Life (READY4Life) NOFO provide a broad array of healthy marriage promotion services designed to support healthy relationships and marriage, including the value of marriage in future family formation and skills-based healthy relationship and marriage education to youth in high school (grades 9-12), high-school-aged youth (ages 14-17), and/or youth in late adolescence to early adulthood (ages 18-24).
You can view the distribution of these programs on our Project Map.
Our Learning Agenda
ACF is continuing to implement a learning agenda that focuses on expanding the knowledge base to continue improving programming and increase positive outcomes for individuals, couples, families, and children. The learning agenda activities also provide valuable information to grantees on performance and outcomes that will facilitate continuous quality improvement.