Cost Considerations for Planning a Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education Program
OPRE report #2022-326
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Associated Project
Strengthening Relationship Education and Marriage Services (STREAMS) Evaluation
Prepared for:
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation
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Key Findings
From STREAMS, we learned that HMRE programs can vary widely in cost and that the primary drivers of cost fall into the following four interrelated categories: (1) program design, (2) program services, (3) partnerships, and (4) personnel costs. When planning an HMRE program, providers can assess where they are likely to fall on the cost spectrum by considering questions about program design, program characteristics, partnerships, and personnel costs.
This brief provides a framework for thinking about cost when planning an HMRE program. The framework in this brief comes from the Strengthening Relationship Education and Marriage Services (STREAMS) evaluation, sponsored by ACF. In 2015, ACF contracted with Mathematica and its partner, Public Strategies, to conduct the STREAMS evaluation to identify strategies for improving the delivery and effectiveness of HMRE programs. The cost estimates and framework presented in this brief are based on the experiences of four HMRE programs that participated in the STREAMS evaluation and provided cost data to the evaluation team.
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