Projects to Address the Economic Downturn on IV-D Operations
Alabama
Family Resource Center, Inc. (Tuscaloosa’s One Place [TOP]) Tuscaloosa, AL
“Co-Parenting with Responsibility (CPR)”
“Funding Opportunity: “Family Centered Services”
CPR is a comprehensive program designed to educate and involve both parents in the child support enforcement process as well as coordinate services that promote family strengthening and support. Partners include Tuscaloosa Department of Human Resources, Family Court, Drug Court, Bradford Health Services, Workforce, and others. The project will target low-income, unwed parents who are involved with child support enforcement (CSE) in Tuscaloosa. Participants may enter the program voluntarily or through court order from CSE, family, or drug courts, and will include both custodial (CPs) and noncustodial parents (NCPs). The program also will provide comprehensive services to both parents. The family court judges plan to order both CPs and NCPs to participate in CPR and plan to hold additional dockets requiring participants’ appearance.
TOP will assign a Family Support Specialist who will serve as CSE/court liaison as well as case manager for CPR families. The Program Coordinator will assist with teaching activities, complete all evaluations and help participants get needed services.) All work will focus on improving the consumer’s understanding of the child support process, increasing child support collections, and improving parental involvement and family relationships. TOP will serve 80-100 families per year. Clients will enter the program the beginning of each month and will receive information related to child support, parental rights, basic parenting skills as well as communication and relationship skills. TOP also will provide job search, résumé preparation and will link with the Career Development Center (non-CSE services will be paid from other than grant funds). Referrals to other agencies (such as Alabama Employment Services) will be made for other services not offered by TOP. The project team will meet monthly.
Goals:
- Knowledge of CSE will increase by 30%
- 20% improvement in parent cooperation and commitment to cooperate with CSE
- 20% increase in CSE collections
- 25% of participants will find employment
- Improved custodial/noncustodial relationships
- Mediation services for parents will increase by 20%
- 50% increase in visitation between NCP and his/her child
Long-term outcome includes strengthening the relationship between CSE and other stakeholders to improve services to families.
Grant Number:90FI0108
For Information, contact: ACFOCSEGrantsinfo@acf.hhs.gov
Project Period:09/01/10 – 08/31/2013
Florida
Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL
"Using Florida’s Supervised Visitation Programs to Increase Economic Self-Sufficiency for Low-Income Families"
Funding Opportunity: “Family Centered Services”
The Clearinghouse on Supervised Visitation, within Florida State University, will partner with two supervised visitation programs – Tampa’s Children’s Justice Center Visitation Program (urban) and the Panhandle’s Judge Ben Gordon Visitation Program (rural). The two programs will work with community partners including the Florida Child Support Enforcement (CSE) program, job placement, Assets for Independence, fatherhood groups and housing agencies to link low-income families with services, track their involvement and provide them with support to improve families’ financial conditions. Many parents referred to supervised visitation are low-income and unaware of valuable community resources. The project will help families obtain the resources they need. Currently, Florida’s best practices on supervised visitation contain large service and training gaps, especially regarding child support and financial services, for example. Each supervised visitation site will have a project and case manager who will be trained to educate families about CSE services and how to access these and other needed services.
Project objectives:
- Two supervised visitation programs will assist 80 parents each to help them build economic self-sufficiency;
- 60% of participant parents will experience improved CSE outcomes;
- 75% of participants will indicate (via survey) their experiences improved financial stability;
- Inform all 60 supervised visitation programs in the state and the Supervised Visitation Standards Committee of project goals and achievements to encourage replication.
Grant Number:90FI0107
For Information, contact: ACFOCSEGrantsinfo@acf.hhs.gov
Project Period:09/01/10 – 08/31/2013
Ohio
Summit County, Ohio, Child Support Enforcement
Agency (CSEA), Akron, Ohio
“Positive Solutions”
Funding Opportunity: “Family Centered Services”
The program will divert families involved in contempt proceedings for non-payment of support (either due to the obligor being unemployed or the receipt of current public assistance benefits by the children or obligee). In lieu of sentencing, the Court will direct both parents to participate in an educational seminar which will affect compliance with the support order covering activities such as employment and job readiness, interpersonal conflict, parenting skills, access and visitation, etc. Partners will explain services they offer and parents will then be interviewed to determine which services meet their needs and will be referred, accordingly. The project will provide for a Positive Solutions Coordinator within CSEA, who will be stationed at the courthouse. This position will be responsible for coordinating and participating in the program, overseeing referrals to partner agencies, recording and maintaining data and attending regular partner meetings. The coordinator in conjunction with Family Court Service staff will report individual case plans to the court, and monitor participant compliance and project outcomes. The monitoring will include the tracking of referrals of either/both parents, results and problems encountered for treatment participants as well as for control group participants. CSEA and the Court will have primary roles in determining the conduct and performance of partners within the project and will hold period team meetings with all partners.
The project expects to serve 560 cases (1,120 parents) per year (based on the CSEA caseload for 2010). One in every 4 contempt cases (where there is employment/underemployment and/or receipt of public assistance) will be identified as control group participants and go through the regular process for contempt. The treatment group will be notified of the program option and the treatment services available.
Expected Outcomes:
- Parents will attain increased knowledge of their CSE rights and responsibilities and identify barriers to providing support;
- Parents will increase knowledge and receive resources to improve their parenting skills;
- 40% of unemployed/underemployed parents will obtain new or increased employment (which will be measured at intake/exit of surveys and verified with employers;
- 30% will receive fatherhood training;
- 40% will have support orders or arrears modified or reduced (with custodial parent agreement) due to obligor participation in fatherhood or employment training;
- 70% of project cases will receive support obligations for 9 out of 12 months following entrance to the program.
Grant Number:90FI0109
For Information, contact: ACFOCSEGrantsinfo@acf.hhs.gov
Project Period:09/01/10 – 08/31/2013