Challenge of Helping Low-Income Fathers Support Their Children: Final Lessons from Parents' Fair Share

摘要

Parents Fair Share (PFS) was designed as an alternative to standard enforcement. Launched in 1994 in seven sites, PFS was a national demonstration program that aimed to help low-income noncustodial fathers find more stable and better-paying jobs, pay child support on a consistent basis, and become more involved parents. Funded by the organizations listed at the front of this monograph, PFS provided employment and training services, peer support groups, voluntary mediation between parents, and modified child support enforcement. Besides designing the PFS demonstration, MDRC evaluated it. Between 1994 and 1996, each of more than 5,500 fathers was randomly assigned to PFS or a control group, and the programs effects were estimated by comparing how the two groups fared over a two-year period. This monograph synthesizes the demonstrations key findings and uses them to formulate several recommendations for the next generation of fatherhood programs.