High Quality Early Care and Education is Child Maltreatment Prevention
June 10, 2016
Chris Maestas and his daughtersBy Dena Pisciotte, Communications Manager, Colorado Department of Human Services, Office of Economic Security
Until recently, Chris Maestas had little contact with his three children, two of whom were living in another state. One day, he got a call from the mother’s boyfriend telling him to come to Colorado to pick up his two daughters because their mother had left. When he arrived, the girls were gone.
“If I had an opportunity to do right just this one time, I’d really try,” Chris said as he set out to find his daughters. He settled in Prowers County, a southeast section of Colorado’s eastern plains where the population decreases each year. Poverty in rural areas like Prowers County is a serious problem and the job prospects are few, especially for a noncustodial parent with employment barriers.
Chris struggled to survive by doing odd jobs. One day, he saw a poster for the Colorado Parent Employment Project, or CO-PEP, which is part of the federal Child Support Parent Employment Demonstration grant. It is a national five-year OCSE program that funds employment-related projects in eight states.
Colorado received $2.3 million to study employment programs in five counties. CO-PEP serves populations with barriers to employment, such as being homeless, having a criminal record, or being chronically unemployed. The program aims to provide a supportive approach, including employment training, job search assistance, and help with resumes and interviewing. It also offers parent education and can provide bus passes, work clothing, and job-specific tools. Program staff can help get driver’s licenses reinstated if they are suspended for failure to pay child support.
Chris credits the program for changing his life.
“I had lost my focus; I was no longer a dad. Child support became a monthly bill, a hit on credit, and the loss of a driver’s license. CO-PEP changed that.”
He not only found his two daughters, but has also reestablished and strengthened his relationship with them. Chris said, “I knew I had a purpose. The reconnection with my children inspired me to share my story, as I know many fathers feel the same way I did.”
Anthony LaTour was the Prowers County CO-PEP case manager who assisted Chris. LaTour said that Chris’ case does not have to be a unique situation. “I think more positive outcomes in child support services would occur if intensive case management services were standard practice. Chris worked extremely hard to get to where he is today, to provide a better quality of life for his children and family.”
The benefits reach beyond one father and one county. Six months after enrollment, all sites show that parents are paying at least 10% more of their child support payments than they were in the six months prior to enrollment. In Prowers County, the payment increase is at 22%, but Grant Manager Dan Welch says it is a bit premature to say the program is the main reason.
“Collections have been up in all CO-PEP sites, although it is still early to tell whether the project is a major factor in the increase,” according to Welch. “A better short-term connection can be made with the program’s employment numbers. In Prowers County, six months after enrollment, 76% of the parents are employed; and 12 months after enrollment, 88% still have jobs.”
Chris is no longer living in his car, has a full time job, and sees his daughters regularly. Thanks to the El Paso County Child Support program, Chris also has less debt. Because El Paso County originally established the child support order, mediators there helped him work with both mothers on his past due child support. One has forgiven $30,000 in back debt; the other has forgiven nearly $9,000 on her case. Chris believes the mothers cooperated because of the mediation services provided by the county’s child support staff and CO-PEP. For Chris, the CO-PEP program has helped him put his life back on track.
More about the program, read “Employment project critical to small Colorado county” in the May 2016 Child Support Report.
For more information, email Grant Manager Dan Welch.
