Evaluation of A Father’s Place, Prince George’s County (Fatherhood FIRE)

A Father’s Place, Prince George's County, supports fathers and their families through counseling, coaching, relationship skill building and enhancement, and services to foster responsible parenting and economic stability. A program of the One World Center for Autism in Prince George’s County, Maryland, it is supported by an Office of Family Assistance Responsible Fatherhood grant program called Fatherhood—Family-focused, Interconnected, Resilient, and Essential (Fatherhood FIRE).

As a subcontractor to the One World Center for Autism, JBA is conducting a 5-year descriptive implementation and outcome evaluation of the program. The Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation reviewed and approved the local evaluation design.

The implementation evaluation will examine whether the program was carried out as intended and identify any barriers and potential changes to the service model. Data and analysis will involve focus groups with fathers and program staff; interviews with program leaders; and assessment of data from performance measures, stakeholder surveys, and service delivery data.

The outcome evaluation will examine whether fathers experienced changes in knowledge, attitudes, skills, behaviors, or status after participating in program workshops and intensive coaching. Outcomes are expected in areas such as healthy relationships and marriage skills, parenting and co-parenting, quality and frequency of father/child engagement, family functioning and well-being, and progress toward economic stability. Data will be collected at baseline, at workshop completion 6 weeks post-enrollment, and at a 9-week follow-up.