Illinois

Collaboration, Customer Service, Fatherhood, Paternity Establishment, Public Information

Description/Goal

Walk into a parent education meeting for Head Start parents in Chicago and you are likely to find a discussion on paternity establishment as part of a program on child support, KidCare and other community services. When a single mom picks up her tired toddler from the day care center at the end of the day, she can also pick up a brochure on how to get child support services. In addition, a mom applying for help in collecting child support can get basic information on how to apply for Head Start or get help with child care costs at the same time.

All of these events have been made possible by the activities of Illinois' Child Support, Child Care and Head Start Collaboration, begun in 1997 and now in its third year. Funded through a Federal OCSE grant, Illinois' Division of Child Support Enforcement (DCSE), the Illinois Network of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (INCCRRA), Illinois Head Start Association, the City of Chicago Department of Human Services, Springfield Urban League, SUI Carbondale Head Start and many others, work together to:

• Encourage eligible families in Head Start and child care programs to apply for and receive child support and paternity establishment services;
• Encourage both parents to provide emotional and financial support for their children;
• Dispel misconceptions about child support services and build parents' confidence in their ability to approach and work with the child support system; and
• Cross-train staff so that each agency's workers can help parents to better access the services of the other agencies.

A major outreach effort gives information on paternity establishment, child support, and the importance of fathers to children to the thousands of Head Start and child care sites in the state. The project:

• Makes presentations to Head Start and child care groups - over 120 in 1999 alone; an effort is made to speak at every state and regional Head Start and child care conference in Illinois. Staff have spoken at two national Head Start conferences, as well.
• Has developed over a dozen brief articles, in reader-friendly language, on paternity, child support, and medical support which are being used in the parent and staff newsletters of Head Start, child care and other community programs.
• Has developed a standard order form for fact sheets, posters, and other educational materials on paternity, child support and medical support with which Head Start staff order materials in advance of parent orientations and parent meetings.
• Has distributed almost 2,000 educational videos on paternity and fathers - e.g.Every Child's Right, A Child Is Waiting, and Dads Make a Difference - and plans to distribute over 3,500 more in FY 2000. Specialized materials for dads have been developed; collaboration with the Illinois Fatherhood Initiative is providing additional materials and programs.
• Has developed specialized materials such as a brochure for parents of teen parents -- What if your own child is about to become a parent? - to encourage paternity establishment.
• Works with a special site on outreach to Hispanic families.

DCSE, Head Start and child care agencies have collaborated on the development of brochures, a web-site, and other program materials. The jointly agreed-on theme: making a difference in the lives of children.

Head Start sites have identified frequently asked questions and recommended simplified terminology to DCSE. For example, fact sheets use “getting a legal dad” or “becoming a legal father” instead of “paternity establishment.” They have identified groups that lack the child support and paternity information they need, such as grandparents and migrant workers. As part of a program to increase the computer literacy of Head Start parents, parents soon will be able to download IV-D applications from the collaboration's web-site http://www.state.il.us/dpa/. And special programs for dads have been adopted.

Training on taking voluntary acknowledgments of paternity, comparable to that provided to hospital staff, was given to Head Start workers at special pilot sites. Head Start workers can take voluntary acknowledgments from Head Start program parents. At the same time, part of the collaborative effort has included training for child support staff on Head Start and child care services. Information on these services is now available in DCSE offices in pilot areas.

Results

• Perhaps the most important result is that the collaboration has helped families and children while breaking down the fears of many of the Head Start organizations in working with the Division of Child Support Enforcement. An ongoing system has been forged for providing paternity and child support information to Head Start families. Training needs to be repeated regularly because of the constant turnover of Head Start staff and families. DCSE has discovered that many Head Start and child care families have great difficulty in navigating the child support system to obtain an order or to have it enforced. They lack time and, in some cases the skills, to manage their child support cases. Many Head Start families wanted support, yet did not realize they already had open child support cases as a result of receiving public assistance or Medicaid. Helps: a support group for parents with DCSE cases, staff liaisons at both the Head Start site and DCSE to track individual cases.
• Training Head Start staff to take voluntary acknowledgments of paternity has not led to many paternities being “credited” to Head Start. However, DCSE believes the information and availability of forms leads parents to acknowledge paternity at Vital Records, registrars and clerks' offices
• Special needs groups, such as migrant workers with complex interstate cases and “pockets” of Spanish-speaking families in unexpected locations, have been identified. Policy concerns have been identified and the groups are beginning to work together to address them. For example, child support order amounts are counted as income to determine eligibility for and level of child care subsidies - yet often are not paid. Loss of Head Start or child care eligibility as a result of support collections concerns all partners in the collaborative venture.

Location

The general outreach and collaboration program is in effect throughout Illinois. Special emphasis projects are located in specific sites or in collaboration with specific organizations.

Funding

This project is funded through a three-year Child Support/Child Care/Head Start Collaboration Grant from the Federal OCSE. The project's third year budget totals $220,690. This is funded by grant funds of $64,000, IV-D matching funds of $145,655, and state funds in the amount of $11,035.

Replication Advice

Lois Rakov, Project Manager of the Collaboration, suggests the following:

• Work actively with the Head Start and child care communities - including boards and community activities;
• Plan on building relationships over a long period. Be patient. Keep showing up. Stuff envelopes. Do mailings for Head Start and child care conferences. You are not invited to be on the board right away, it takes time.
• Make it easy for Head Start and child care providers - provide articles for reprinting in newsletters; overheads, videos and handouts for presentations; training for staff. Head start staff have their hands full adapting to full-day/year-round programs in the wake of welfare reform, so help them out.
• Write materials and design outreach themes collaboratively. Get feedback on the best words to use to convey such legalistic concepts as “paternity establishment.”
• Talk about “dead broke dads.” Look for ways to involve fathers in kids' lives -- whether or not they have money. Educate both mothers and their parents on the importance of fathers. Do “father-friendly” site assessments.
• Build child support into other parent education topics - e.g., children's health insurance or family finances. Busy working because of welfare reform, parents won't come to meetings on child support alone.
• Be prepared to track individual child support cases for both Head Start staff and parents.