• RF program staff view preventing and addressing IPV as essential to achieving their program goals, noting that violence is closely interrelated to other challenges faced by fathers.
• Staff spoke about the delicate balance between keeping participating fathers engaged in RF programming and pushing them to seek help in instances when they have used violence.
• Curricula used by RF programs generally include some IPV education, though the amount and type of content vary. All curricula reviewed, including those from the broader field that were not currently used by the RF programs in this study, focused on addressing fathers' perpetration of IPV, but not on fathers as survivors.
• RF programs create safe, non-shaming spaces and facilitate discussions about the consequences of IPV for children, both of which are central to the engagement of fathers in IPV education.
• RF programs screen routinely for IPV at intake; however, they reported that screening at intake is not the optimal strategy to identify fathers in need of services because fathers often do not see themselves as users of violence, and because a trusting relationship with program staff, which supports disclosure, has not yet been established.
• RF programs have diverse protocols for responding to disclosures of IPV and addressing safety. Some RF programs focus on reporting to authorities whereas others make referrals.
• Significant barriers to preventing and addressing IPV among fathers include stigma, fathers' and their communities' normalization of violence, and lack of free and accessible programs for men who use violence.
• Partnerships between RF programs and local domestic violence organizations that are built on respect, strong relationships with shared goals, and trust are instrumental and allow for mutual learning.
• Teaching fathers about the consequences of IPV for children's well-being may be an effective strategy to motivate fathers to better engage in IPV services.

Research has shown that Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education (HMRE) programs and Responsible Fatherhood (RF) programs often face implementation challenges in areas such as recruitment, program completion, and engagement during program sessions. To help address these challenges, OPRE launched two projects that will develop and test promising implementation solutions: Strengthening the Implementation of Marriage and Relationship Programs (SIMR) and Strengthening the Implementation of Responsible Fatherhood Programs (SIRF).  

SIMR and SIRF will each engage in a series of short learning cycles to pilot potential solutions to common implementation challenges. During these short learning cycles, each project will collect and analyze data on pilot tests, refine the solutions that were tested, and test the solutions again to adjust strategies most effectively.

The SIMR and SIRF teams will partner with HMRE and RF programs to conduct this work. The teams will collaborate closely with program partners at all stages of the learning cycles to ensure that the solutions are relevant and adapted to each program's context. To identify common implementation challenges, both projects have begun to engage experts and stakeholders in the field through phone calls, interactive webinars, and review of research literature and grantee performance data. Each project will then engage researchers and practitioners to brainstorm creative and innovative solutions to those challenges.

What is next for SIMR? The SIMR team is compiling information from the literature, current grantees, experts, and stakeholders to develop a list of common HMRE implementation challenges and solutions. Over the summer, they will begin prioritizing this list and developing rapid-cycle designs to test potential solutions. 

What is next for SIRF? This spring, SIRF will meet with other stakeholders, including fatherhood programs and fathers as well as federal and community stakeholders, to inform project priorities and future learning cycle initiatives.