Evaluation of the Refugee Family Strengthening (RFS) Program

The US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) will be conducting an evaluation of a healthy marriage and relationship program developed by USCRI titled Refugee Family Strengthening (RFS) Program. This program is funded through an initiative of the Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance (OFA).

The Refugee Family Strengthening (RFS) Program builds on literature and existing research from the healthy marriage and relationship initiatives developed by ACF over the last 10 years, in particular the Supporting Healthy Marriage Program initiative that established a randomized clinical trial. In addition, marriage and relationship education/ enrichment literature and research has expanded dramatically over the past 35 years. The most glaring shortcoming of this database is the limited types of populations that are sampled and included in studies. USCRI's RFS program will provide important data about a diverse group of subjects that is currently unavailable.

The aim of the evaluation is to determine the effect of participating in two interventions on the population of refugee and immigrant couples, families, and individuals, served by USCRI. The program will target individuals ages 16 and older using a randomized control design. The program will be implemented with individuals, couples, and families. RFSP will recruit 9,350 individuals over the 5 year tenure of the project, 3115 of which will serve as control subjects, the remaining 6,235 subjects will be randomly assigned to intervention groups at each of the 11 selected sites that are participating in the project. Control subjects will not receive the intervention workshops, only case management.

The intervention is to be delivered as follows:

Group I: Intro to Relationship Enhancement (RE) (8 hours), Family Stress & Conflict Management (8 hours), and case management Group II: Intro to Relationship Enhancement (RE) (8 hours), & Financial Management (8 hours), and case management Group III: Case management ONLY

Data will be collected and analyzed across 3 collection points: Pre-test immediately before the start of the interventions, Post-test immediately upon completion of the interventions, and again at 6 months following the pre-test date.

Results will be analyzed to determine gains towards the following research questions:

When participating in the RFS program:

• Do individuals who participate in the two RFS interventions demonstrate favorable impact in the four program outcomes as compared to those who participate in the control?
• What are the differences in gains for subjects who participate in the two different interventions?
• What are the long-term effects of participation in the RFS interventions on individuals?

The local evaluation is expected to reflect progress toward project outcomes and is anticipated to demonstrate significant results that will be highlighted and prepared for dissemination.

Inclusion criteria

• Refugee or Immigrant

Exclusion criteria

• Individuals under the age of 16
• Individuals that are not identified as refugees or immigrants