Developing Strategies to Address Implementation Challenges Facing Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education Grantees

This report describes the design of the SIMR study and how grantees are using Learn, Innovate, Improve (LI²) to design and test strategies to address implementation challenges. LI² is an analytic and science-based approach to managing change that draws on implementation science, human-centered design, and iterative rapid-cycle learning to identify and address implementation challenges (Derr et al. 2017). This report has been generated to provide an update on the study’s activities, to promote transparency, and to disseminate promising approaches to other HMRE projects. A final report from the SIMR study will compile findings across the rapid-cycle learning that grantees will conduct between September 2021 and September 2022.

• The ten HMRE grantees participating in SIMR represent a mix of demonstrations serving adult couples and individuals and youth in school-based and community settings. They serve a diverse range of participants, including pregnant and parenting youth, Spanish-speaking couples with low-incomes, and people involved with the criminal justice system. They operate in a variety of settings across the country that include both urban and rural areas.
• Five grantees (four adult-serving and one youth-serving grantee) are working with the SIMR team to address recruitment challenges, such as encouraging male partners to enroll in services designed for Spanish-speaking couples and recruiting people with romantic partners who are incarcerated.
• Three youth-serving grantees are using rapid-cycle learning to address content engagement challenges, such as co-facilitating large workshops and reinforcing curriculum content with school-based case management.
• Two grantees (one youth-serving and one adult-serving grantee) are addressing retention and content engagement challenges by developing high-quality virtual versions of their services, which they began providing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This report describes the methods used to conduct the SIMR project. Grantees are using the LI² framework to conduct rapid-cycle learning. Throughout the three phases of LI², researchers collaborate with practitioners to identify the root causes of a challenge (Learn); create innovative program improvement strategies that are human-centered, informed by science, and sustainable (Innovate); and test and refine strategies using rapid-cycle learning methods (Improve). The SIMR team conducted a staged process during the Learn phase to select participating grantees, including a review of grant applications, telephone interviews, and design sessions to understand programs’ implementation challenges. In the Innovate phase, the SIMR team and grantees collaborated to design strategies informed by evidence and best practices from literature as well as staff members’ knowledge of and expertise in the populations they serve and the context in which the grantee operates. The Learn and Innovate phases were conducted between April 2021 and September 2021. In the Improve phase, the SIMR team and grantees are using rapid-cycle learning to test and refine the strategies co-developed by the SIMR team and grantees.

Baumgartner, Scott, Daniel Friend, Robert G. Wood, Annie Buonaspina, and Hannah McInerney (2022). “Developing Strategies to Address Implementation Challenges Facing Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education Grantees: The Strengthening the Implementation of Marriage and Relationship Programs (SIMR) Project.” OPRE Report # 2022-36. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.