Abstract
The Community Healthy Marriage Initiative (CHMI) is a key component of the healthy
marriage demonstration strategy of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) to
determine how public policies can best support healthy marriages and child well-being. The
community healthy marriage demonstrations discussed in this report are funded through
waivers granted by the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) under authority of
Section 1115 of the Social Security Act.1
Two concepts underlie the CHMI strategy. One is
that community coalitions can be an effective vehicle for developing a range of healthy
marriage and healthy family activities, including classes that build marriage skills,
partnerships with clergy and others, celebration days, and media messages about the value
of marriage and healthy families. The second is that communities with a critical mass of
such activities can lead to positive outcomes for families, individuals and couples as a direct
result of their participation in classes and other services and indirectly through their
interactions with friends, family, and others in the community who were themselves
influenced by a local marriage-related activity sponsored by the local coalition. The goals of
the section 1115 healthy marriage waiver initiatives are to achieve child support objectives
through healthy marriage activities.