Strengthening the Implementation of Responsible Fatherhood Programs (SIRF)

OMB # 0970-0356

Expiration Date: 6/30/2021

Instrument 2: SIRF Phone Meeting with Stakeholder Protocol

SIRF Semi Structured Protocol for Initial Phone Call with Stakeholders

What is SIRF? What is the purpose of our call?

My name is _______________, and I’m a researcher with MDRC/MEF/Insight Policy Research. We’re contacting you on behalf of the Strengthening the Implementation of Responsible Fatherhood Programs (SIRF) project. SIRF is a new study sponsored by the federal government examining the implementation challenges and effective solutions that Responsible Fatherhood programs, or programs like them, face. As you know, since 2006, Responsible Fatherhood programs have been supported by dedicated federal funding from the Office of Family Assistance within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families, or ACF. While there is a growing body of research to learn from regarding fatherhood services, research and evaluation efforts have also uncovered implementation challenges associated with recruiting fathers, supporting them to show up for services, and keeping them engaged in services over time, among others. The Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation of ACF awarded MDRC and its partners MEF and Insight Policy Research a contract to test innovative approaches to overcome these challenges. The funding for this project comes from the Office of Family Assistance within ACF.

Today, we are calling because we are in a preliminary stage of gathering information to inform the research questions and design for the SIRF project. We learned about your experience in the fatherhood field and thought it would be valuable to learn more and get your perspective on the challenging and successful aspects of service delivery. Over the next hour, we would like to walk through specific questions about the topics we provided in advance of the meeting. Please know that talking with the SIRF team is completely voluntary, and you can choose not to answer any question you don’t want to answer, or to leave the discussion entirely.  Any information you share will be kept private and will not be used to evaluate you in any way. I’ll be taking some notes in order to keep track of what we discussed here today.  They’ll be stored securely and will not be shared with anyone outside of the SIRF team. Do you have any questions before we get started? 

An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB # for this information collection is 0970-0356 and the expiration date is 6/30/2021.

Current affiliation and role

1. Can you tell us about your current affiliation and role?

2. What are your past affiliations and roles related to fatherhood or similar programs?

3. How long were you in those roles?

Experience with father-serving programs

1. Can you say more about the program(s) you have experience with?

PROBES:

1. What fatherhood services does [insert program name] provide?

2. What type of agency or organization operates the fatherhood program? (e.g. social service government agency, social service stand-alone agency, child support agency.) What other services are offered, if any?

3. Who does it primarily serve? (e.g. non-resident fathers, resident fathers, under 25, over 35, fathers with prior justice involvement, couples, mothers)

4. How many clients did [insert program name] serve at any one time? How many are served at any one time in each service component?

5. How many new enrollments does it have in an average year?

6. Can you describe the staffing structure of the program? (Probe: number of staff, different roles, and reporting structure)

7. What were the primary funding sources for the fatherhood services?

Experience with iterative learning strategies

1. What is your experience with iterative learning methods?

2. In what context were these methods used?

3. What do you see as the strengths of these methods?

4. What are the limitations of each method?

5. What data collection instruments were used for these methods?

Program implementation challenges

1. What are the biggest implementation challenges faced by programs serving fathers?

PROBES:

1. Challenges to recruit fathers?

2. Challenges to deliver services?

3. Challenges to engaging and retaining fathers in services?

2. What are the main barriers fathers face?

3. How do those barriers affect the implementation of fatherhood services?

Knowledge of existing promising approaches to address implementation challenges

1. What do you think are the most effective program components to serve fathers?

2. What are promising practices?

1. Why do you think these practices are effective?

2. How and where have these practices been implemented?

3. Are you aware of any evidence that exists for this practice, or if additional evidence is needed?

4. What are some strategies that you tried but may not have worked?

3. How do you think the field and fatherhood programs have evolved to better support fathers?

4. Are there any current reviews or seminal articles influential to the field that you would recommend?

5. Are there any programs you recommend the study team visit to learn more about the field?

Ideas for other innovative approaches to address implementation challenges

1. In your opinion, what is the most important way father-serving programs can improve implementation?

1. Do you have specific recommendations for improving recruitment?

2. Do you have specific recommendations for improving service?

3. Do you have specific recommendations for recruiting fathers?

2. What future research directions do you think we should consider?

NOTE: The Paperwork Reduction Act Statement: This collection of information is voluntary and will be used to gather preliminary information about the fatherhood field and explore with fatherhood programs the research questions that are of interest and the design options that are feasible. Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 60 minutes per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and reviewing the collection of information. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden to Katie Pahigiannis; [email protected], and Kriti Jain; [email protected]; Attn: OMB-PRA (0970-0356).