IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Baltimore, MD - July 2007 - The Maryland Department of Human Resources, in partnership with Campaign For Our Children, the Maryland Network Against Domestic Violence, and Friends of the Family have launched two new programs, Strong Fathers/Strong Families and Winning Fathers, funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Responsible Fatherhood Initiative.

In Baltimore City, the Strong Fathers/Strong Families program prepares fathers and families for successful healthy relationships that stress the importance of rearing children in a two parent home.  The Winning Fathers program serves incarcerated or ex-offender fathers and their spouses/partners in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Prince George’s, Montgomery, and Talbot counties in Maryland.  Its goal is to enable fathers and their spouses to develop healthy marital relationships for the overall support of the family.

Optimal is conducting a five year process evaluation of the two programs.  In conducting the evaluations, Optimal has implemented a secure, web-based management information system to collect and manage data from fatherhood and marriage education programs across the state.

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Optimal Solutions Group, LLC is a nonpartisan, public policy research consulting firm in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area. Optimal is committed to supplying insightful program evaluation, cost-benefit and effectiveness analyses, custom econometric modeling, and market analyses for decision makers in both the public and private sectors.

Optimal serves numerous government and commercial clients, including federal and state agencies, community-based organizations, business associations, and law firms. 

For more information, please contact:
Dr. Mark Turner at 301.918.7301, mturner@optimalsolutionsgroup.com. 
Tracye Turner at 301.918.7302, tturner@optimalsolutionsgroup.com.