2000 Best Practice: Illinois - Employment And Training For NCPs (Cook, St. Clair And Madison Counties)

Illinois

Employment and Training for NCPs (Cook, St. Clair and Madison Counties)

Description/Goals

The noncustodial Parent Services Unit (NCPSU) was established in April 1994 to provide a non-adversarial venue for noncustodial parents of children receiving Aid to Families With Dependent Children (AFDC) to address their needs under the child support system. The program provides qualified NCPs with both employment and non-employment related services through direct referrals to private-sector and community-based providers. NCPSU represents a collaborative effort between the local Circuit Court System including judges and the clerk of the court, State Attorney's Office, Attorney General's Office, state IV-A office, state IV-D office and the community.

Results

NCPSU's Fiscal Year 1999 results are as follows:

515 referrals for service
280 other client contacts through case management services
571 participants in Earnfare Program
Processed 532 Pass-Through payments associated with the Earnfare participants
A total of $26,600 child support payments from Earnfare
159 new participants through the Job Search Program
Processed 175 legal action referrals for non-compliance
110 cases were closed for changes in case status and for other miscellaneous reasons
More than 80 individuals were employed in full-time positions making in excess of the minimum wage. Each person has in place a withholding order to continue child support payments.
In the non-employment related service area, the Unit received more than 1200 inquiries for information regarding the Unit and child support services.

Location

Both of NCPSU's facilities are in urban areas in the Northern and Southern parts of the state in Chicago and Belleville respectively. Belleville, which serves St. Clair and Madison Counties, is a city just across the border with Missouri near St. Louis. The Belleville unit was an expansion of the Chicago facility. The NCP unit located in Belleville is staffed differently from the Cook County unit. Whereas, in Cook County NCP staff is made up of both Child Support and Human Services employees, that is not the mix with the Belleville staff. Instead the program in Belleville uses the court and administrative consent processes for referrals and the Earnfare and job search components are administered by Local Units of Government under contract through the Department of Human Services. The staff in this location who work with NCPs serve as intermediaries with the court system and as referral agents. Additionally, these staff work with community-based organizations to provide other services, including job readiness, and placement. The Department is currently in the process of expanding NCPSU into other areas of the state, specifically into the City of Peoria.

Funding

The funding for NCPSU is a combination of state funds and TANF dollars. TANF dollars are utilized to provide specified services to qualified NCPs by community based service providers through contractual agreements with the state IV-A Agency while other state funds are utilized to provide on-the-job type training for individuals utilizing the Earnfare program. The Earnfare program is a state sponsored training program for single adults who fall into any of the following categories: receiving Food Stamps, eligible to receive food stamps, or court-or administratively-referred for services.

Replication Advice

In attempting to replicate NCPSU, three major points should be considered. The first is utilizing a combination of court-ordered and self-referral opportunities for participation. The second is providing extensive case management services both from providers and the lead agencies and third, creating some private partnerships that will allow for non-TANF related individuals to utilize services that are available. An ideal model would utilize judicial, administrative and self-referral processes for referrals. The combination of the three allows for a wide range recruitment of individuals to participate in the program. Judicial and Administrative processes provide the court and department with an ability to address their child support issues while the self-referral process would give an opportunity to individuals not current in judicial situations to access primarily Welfare-to-Work programs for which eligibility can be easily determined.