Strategies for Addressing Common Implementation Challenges in Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education Programs: A Guide for Supporting Program Improvement Efforts
OPRE Report #2022-314
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Key Findings
To use this guide, practitioners should follow three steps:
- Step 1: Map specific challenges to approaches. Use the tables in the guide to identify common challenges based on implementation area—recruitment, retention, or content engagement. These tables also link specific challenges to approaches. Users should work to understand the key drivers of their challenges and then review these tables to identify potential approaches.
- Step 2: Explore the strategies listed under the approach to determine fit and feasibility. Users should review each relevant approach for specific strategies that might address their challenge, noting populations and implementation areas relevant to the strategy. Users should also consider whether specific strategies are feasible and appropriate to implement in the near term and long term, given their program’s context.
- Step 3: Refine the strategy and develop an implementation plan that details how the program will use and test the strategy. It is important to remember that this guide is only a starting point. The strategies listed in each approach are intentionally general and require work to adapt them to the context of the population a program serves and to test them as part of program improvement efforts. We provide additional guidance at the end of the guide on how to incorporate, refine, and test these strategies as part of CQI efforts.
This guide presents promising approaches and strategies for addressing implementation challenges common to HMRE services. While the promising approaches and strategies included in this guide have not yet been tested for effectiveness, they are based on the academic literature and consultation with experts and could be implemented and tested in specific contexts. The overall purpose of this guide is to support continued research on how these strategies can be implemented and tested in new contexts and the types of adaptations that might be needed to support positive outcomes. Using the information presented, HMRE service providers can tailor these strategies to fit individual program contexts and test them through CQI efforts.
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