Highlights from Local Evaluations at Responsible Fatherhood Programs from 2020 to 2025

From 2020 to 2025, 39 Responsible Fatherhood (RF) grantees conducted local evaluations to assess how their services support fathers and families. These local evaluations were sponsored by the Administration for Children and Families’ Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood (HMRF) grant program. Also known as Fatherhood Family-focused, Interconnected, Resilient, and Essential (Fatherhood FIRE) grants, these grants fund community-based organizations across the country to promote responsible parenting, healthy relationships, and economic stability.  

Each local evaluation was conducted by an individual program in partnership with an independent evaluator to answer questions about its own services and participants. Collectively, these studies provide valuable insights for federal partners, policymakers, researchers, and practitioners seeking to strengthen fatherhood services. 

This publication summarizes findings from 36 completed local evaluations conducted by RF grantees between 2020 and 2025. These findings offer early evidence about program effectiveness, summarize what worked well across a range of settings, and highlight opportunities to strengthen future fatherhood services and evaluations. 

• Evaluations used a mix of descriptive and impact designs. Most studies were descriptive, comparing participant outcomes before and after services. Eleven grantees conducted impact evaluations using comparison or control groups. Nearly all evaluations included implementation analyses based on focus groups, staff interviews, and observations.
• Positive impact findings, although limited in number, add evidence about which fatherhood program strategies show promise: Targeted coaching and job-readiness support improved employment outcomes or fathers’ employment hope; multicomponent models strengthened communication and coparenting relationships; and enhanced service packages improved father-child engagement.
• Many statistical tests reveal null findings that could be due to short follow-up periods, modest sample sizes, and complex implementation environments. The findings do not imply that programs were ineffective or that nothing was learned. They offer insights about program implementation and program improvement strategies. 
• Participants consistently rated programs as relevant and affirming. 

The local evaluation technical assistance team summarized results for this publication by coding the research design and findings from thirty-six final reports submitted to the Administration for Children and Families. Overall, the reports included information from 26,000 individuals, the majority of whom were fathers or father figures, and over 600 outcome measures. 

Israel, Dina, Irma Castañeda, and Rachel Richman. Highlights from Local Evaluations at Responsible Fatherhood Programs from 2020 to 2025. April 2026.