Colorado
Colorado Division of Child Support Enforcement
"Operation Access for Active Duty Military"
"Funding Opportunity: “Projects to Address Child Support Needs of Active Duty Military Members"
This collaboration between the El Paso County Child Support Enforcement Unit and active duty military installations and military personnel proposes to improve service and to educate military personnel on matters of child support.
The major goals and objectives of the project are to develop: a structured and sustainable process for engaging active duty military and their families in the child support enforcement process in a way that meets the needs of the military installations, the El Paso County Child Support Enforcement Unit, and the needs of the military families they serve; a streamlined method of handling change of custody and review and adjustment for active duty military; and a resource list of family law legal resources in the area that are free or have adjusted fees and are readily available to military personnel.
To achieve these goals, the project will develop and design: a sustainable service of process method for active duty military; presentation and handouts for use at onsite sessions for military personnel; and a sturdy, pocket-sized booklet with key information fur use by active duty military.
Additionally, they plan to improve and expand: secure communication methods for use by overseas military; the content and use of the CSE website for delivery of CSE information and secure bi-directional communication.
The grantee will identify and propose any needed policy changes or legislation that would remove barriers or enhance the provision of services to active duty military.
Grant Number: 90FD0166
For Information, contact: ACFOCSEGrantsinfo@acf.hhs.gov
Project Period: 9/30/2010 – 9/29/2013
Colorado
Colorado Division of Child Support Enforcement
"Triple Play: Three Paths to Success"
Funding Opportunity: “How OCSE Grantees Can Support “Building Assets for Fathers and Families” (BAFF)
In collaboration with Mile High United Way (MHUW) and the Colorado Responsible Fatherhood Program (CRFP), the project will build on the established Assets for Independence (AFI) program that MHUW operates. The program has well-defined intake and eligibility criteria for participation, a financial literacy curriculum that is required of all participants, individualized, asset-building counseling services offered through skilled providers, and other financial services (e.g., tax preparation, banking and credit counseling).
Project implementation plans include: develop and sustain the collaboration with MHUW (AFI grantee) and community partners for providing opportunities for noncustodial parents (NCPs) with IV-D cases; develop NCP incentives to encourage successful participation in the AFI asset development program; develop a business plan and an outreach plan to private for-profit and non-profit sectors in hopes of identifying and recruiting donors to support the program financially beyond the grant period; create a referral process to identify and refer qualified NCPs to each entity in a manner that allows for minimum effort for those being served; modify the AFI financial education modules to include child support enforcement-related program information; and cross train collaboration partners to develop in-house experts about the child support and AFI programs.
Proposed project outcomes are: improved financial literacy in the areas of banking and savings (through the use of Individual Development Accounts, credit repair, debt management; access to financial institutions (banking); and a choice between three asset-building paths for low-income NCPs with a IV-D child support enforcement case in two of the ten largest child support enforcement units in the state of Colorado (Adams and Jefferson counties).
Grant Number: 90FD0168
For Information, contact: ACFOCSEGrantsinfo@acf.hhs.gov
Project Period: 9/30/2010 – 9/29/2013
Florida
Florida Department of Revenue, Child Support Enforcement
"Child Support and Assets for Independence Collaboration"
Funding Opportunity: “How OCSE Grantees Can Support “Building Assets for Fathers and Families” (BAFF)
This project will be implemented in Nassau and Duval Counties. Delinquent Child Support Enforcement (CSE) cases with associated parents at or below 200% of the poverty level will be referred to Assets for Independence (AFI) services as well as offered enforcement delay incentives for the fathers of these cases who attend fatherhood initiative educational sessions and access AFI services. Family Foundations and Northeast Florida Community Action Agency are the two AFI-funded organizations selected as partners for this project. Their service recipients are predominantly female, which is usually the gender of CSE custodial parents. Many of the project services will assist custodial parents; however, services will be offered to noncustodial parent, as well.
There are approximately 24,000 cases in Duval and Nassau counties with delinquencies. About 10% of these cases (2,400) will be reviewed for associated parent incomes at or below 200% poverty level. The parents on these cases will be informed about project services. Male noncustodial parents will be offered incentives to attend Fatherhood Initiative education and AFI services to prevent the seizing of assets for current active participants in IDA programs. With successful completion of the program enforcement actions would be delayed for six months. Fathers facing judicial enforcement could also be ordered by the judge or hearing officer to participate in the educational program in order to delay enforcement actions.
There will be cross-training of CSE, AFI and fatherhood staff so that a full range of services offered to participants will be shared for appropriate referral of the services to participants. Assigned case managers will review existing orders, secure a modified order when necessary, expedite the review and adjustment process, help parents navigate the CSE process, and serve as an informational resource. Project services and the importance of CSE, AFI and fatherhood roles will be advertised in local newspapers near the want ad section to inform parents about the project and increase their participation.
It is expected that parents participating in AFI programs will be able to build assets through financial literacy education and sustaining Individual Development Accounts (IDAs). CSE compliance will be added to financial literacy education modules. Parents who have bank accounts that support direct deposit of child support payments will lead to increased child support order compliance. Fatherhood Initiative educational courses will supplement AFI strategies and help fathers understand the importance of reaching personal financial goals by managing personal finances and achieving financial self-sufficiency so that their dependent children can also experience financial well being.
Grant Number: 90FD0173
For Information, contact: ACFOCSEGrantsinfo@acf.hhs.gov
Project Period: 9/30/2010 – 9/29/2013
Florida
Florida Department of Revenue, Child Support Enforcement Program
"Non-conventional Search & Identification of Delinquent Parents"
Funding Opportunity: "Projects to Avoid Increasing Delinquencies (PAID) through Collaboration with Other Agencies or Programs"
The project will develop innovative technology to increase positive locate results for delinquent parents through a partnership with the Florida State University, Electronic Crime Investigative Technologies Laboratory (ECIT at FSU).
Florida has approximately 419,893 delinquent child support cases. Of those delinquent cases, almost 70,000 cases have exhausted all traditional enforcement tools without obtaining any new noncustodial parent contact information or consistent payments toward support. Almost $22 million dollars in delinquent child support accrues on this group of cases on a monthly basis in the state.
Child Support Enforcement (CSE) has access to very effective databases and is often able to track down appropriate information about noncustodial parents but there are still many who are delinquent. With the use of a new, innovative and automated locate software tool that uses new internet sources to improve locate results CSE will be able to move forward with case enforcement actions.
The proposed project goals are to ensure that parents who are required to pay child support meet their obligations and to reduce the number of hard to enforce cases by at least 10% (6,908 cases) resulting in the reduction of associated delinquent child support amounts.
Grant Number: 90FD0165
For Information, contact: ACFOCSEGrantsinfo@acf.hhs.gov
Project Period: 9/30/2010 – 9/29/2013
Michigan
Michigan Department of Human Services
"REACH – Referral for Employment, Asset Development, Cooperation and Hope"
Funding Opportunity: "How OCSE Grantees Can Support “Building Assets for Fathers and Families"(BAFF)
This grant will increase the financial well-being of children through the collaboration of local agencies that provide services to educate and assist noncustodial parents in building assets and in improving their financial literacy skills. The local county child support agency [Kent County Friend of the Court (KCFOC)] is partnering with the local Assets for Independence (AFI) agency and a local non-profit agency (Hope Network) specializing in workforce development. Over the course of the grant, the partners will provide financial assessment, financial management and planning, employment counseling, and a referral to AFI’s IDA program for approximately 540 primarily noncustodial parents.
Approximately $11 billion is owed in past-due child support in Michigan. The pilot county has $428 million owed in past-due support. Michigan’s Underground Economy Task Force has noted that often noncustodial parents do not participate in child support proceedings because they believe that the issue will go away if ignored. Nonparticipation often leads to default judgments entered for high amounts that may exceed the noncustodial parent’s actual ability to pay. Once the parent discovers that magnitude of the debt owed and compares it to a present ability to pay, the resulting feeling of futility causes some to run away from the situation – escaping into the underground economy where their assets cannot be traced and where they hide from support enforcement.
KCFOC will provide the following services in support of the AFI agency by modifying support orders to assist the parent’s financial management efforts and business start-up efforts: providing intensive judicial supervision to encourage participation; working with families to develop voluntary agreements to compromise arrears commensurate with an asset management plan; and providing parenting time and custody services to encourage cooperation to develop family wealth.
It is expected that during the course of the grant the financial well-being of children will be increased through the collaboration of local agencies providing services to educate and assist noncustodial parents in building assets and in improving their financial literacy skills. Child support orders will be modified, arrears will be adjusted and collections will increase on cases referred to the program.
Grant Number: 90FD0170
For Information, contact: ACFOCSEGrantsinfo@acf.hhs.gov
Project Period: 9/30/2010 – 9/29/2013
Ohio
ODJFS – Ohio Office of Child Support
"Asset Building for Financial Responsibility Program"
Funding Opportunity: “How OCSE Grantees Can Support “Building Assets for Fathers and Families” (BAFF)
The Ohio Office of Child Support (OCS) and its primary partner, the Ohio Community Development Corporation (OCDC), an Assets for Independence (AFI) grantee, will develop a program with a two-pronged statewide and local approach that will improve the financial well-being of children across Ohio, with a particular focus on families living in urban poverty. The Ohio Commission on Fatherhood, the Ohio Practitioners’ Network for Fathers and Families and the State Treasurer’s Office will join OCS and OCDC in developing a statewide approach connecting low income noncustodial fathers to financial education and asset building programs offered by AFI grantees. The partners will cross-train child support workers, fatherhood and family-serving practitioners, financial literacy providers and AFI staff on the child support system and its processes and the asset building services and tools available to low-income families through the AFI program.
OCS and OCDC will partner with child support agencies and asset-building grantees in Cincinnati and Cleveland to implement the local approach. Cincinnati, where 36% of children live in poverty, and Cleveland, where 42% of children live in poverty, have both consistently ranked among the top ten poorest cities in the country. Two groups of parents with child support cases will be targeted in the Cuyahoga and Hamilton County Child Support Enforcement Agencies (CSEAs). Low-income obligors who are current on their child support payments and those in default on child support orders and/or struggling with large arrearages will be engaged in the process to increase their knowledge about and use of financial literacy and asset building services available in the community as well as child support order modifications, compromise, and waiver of arrearages as unemployment benefits terminate.
As the CSEAs refer low-income families to the asset building agencies, they will be referred to specific programs based on their individual needs. This will permit noncustodial parents with an opportunity to learn about effective practices and strategies to assist them with overcoming barriers to manage their debt and increase their credit scores, and pay their child support obligations. As the program progresses, an advisory board will meet and discuss how to expand this program to additional counties and share approaches, lessons earned, and best practices. Assisting parents with long-term financial stability will benefit the children of Ohio and increase child support collections. The special emphasis on providing financial benefits to noncustodial parents to enhance financial health by providing child support education, financial literacy workshops, courses on life and leadership skills to assist in obtaining employment, and seminars to encourage savings and asset-building through educational outreach will improve the family lifestyle and add to family stability.
Grant Number: 90FD0174
For Information, contact: ACFOCSEGrantsinfo@acf.hhs.gov
Project Period: :9/30/2010 – 9/29/2013
Oklahoma
Oklahoma Child Support Services (OCSS), a division of OKDHS
"Get PAID! Collaborate to Collect"
Funding Opportunity: "Projects to Avoid Increasing Delinquencies (PAID) through Collaboration with Other Agencies or Programs"
This 36-month grant responds to Priority Area “Projects to Avoid Increasing Delinquencies (PAID) through Collaborations with Other Agencies or Programs.” OCSS plans to increase child support collections and manage arrears by collaborating with the Texas and Chickasaw Nation IV-D programs to automate the collection process for their Automated/Administrative Enforcement in Interstate (AEI) tax refund offset referrals.
State and federal tax refunds provide a large source of child support collections. While OCSS collects Oklahoma state and federal tax refund offsets using an automated process, the intercept of Oklahoma state tax refunds is not automated for other state and tribal IV-D programs without a full-service interstate referral on a case-by-case basis. Further, tribal IV-D programs cannot automatically collect federal tax refunds without the collaboration of a state IV-D program. The lack of automation is a significant barrier to the efficient collection of child support between state and tribal governments.
OCSS refers approximately 100,000 of its own obligors to the Oklahoma Tax Commission (OTC) and collects approximately $4.5 million annually. Approximately one million Texas cases are eligible for the Oklahoma state tax refund offset program. If Texas cases result in Oklahoma state tax refund offsets only one-tenth as often as OCSS cases that alone is expected to double the amount of federal incentive funding to both OCSS and the Texas IV-D program. It is also anticipated the Chickasaw Nation IV-D program will collect $660,000 in federal tax refund offsets and $75,000 in state tax refund offsets annually from this project. The long-term impact of this project will result in millions in new annual child support collections for interstate and tribal families.
It is anticipated that child support collections will increase and arrears management will improve for the Texas and Chickasaw Nation IV-D programs. This will benefit children and families by providing a reliable source of support from noncustodial parents. OCSS and the Texas IV-D program will also have increased federal incentive funding as a result of increased child support collections.
Grant Number: 90FD0167
For Information, contact: ACFOCSEGrantsinfo@acf.hhs.gov
Project Period: 9/30/2010 – 9/29/2013
Tennessee
State of Tennessee
"Building Assets for Fathers and Families in Tennessee"
Funding Opportunity: "How OCSE Grantees Can Support “Building Assets for Fathers and Families" (BAFF)
This grant will involve collaborations of the Department of Human Services (DHS), Child Support Enforcement Division; MAXIMUS, the local provider of child support services in Shelby County (Memphis); and the RISE Foundation, a current AFI program grantee.
These agencies will help approximately 500 noncustodial parents (NCPs) per year, and their custodial counterparts, build assets by referring them to and enrolling them in financial literacy classes, counseling sessions, and assisting eligible parents to open individual development accounts (IDAs). The agencies will also offer participation incentives to NCPs start asset building, manage child support debt, and budget for and meet their child support obligations. Parents will be educated about budgeting and finances; assisted in the development of parenting plans; enrolled in relevant benefit programs; and referred to career centers to address barriers to payment. Participant recruitment will be conducted at the child support agency, the Juvenile Court, fatherhood programs and other community-based organizations. Incentives will be provided to encourage participation in financial literacy classes; parenting plan development; and counseling on budgeting, benefits, and referral to workforce programs.
This project allows the child support agency to assess the impact of adding financial education to the mix of services that it offers to parents in their caseload. The project also expands the range of families that AFI grantees serve. Parents will learn about and receive assistance in creating budgets; asset building; matched savings accounts; parenting plans; and all aspects of child support. By providing on-site services at the child support agency, the court and community based organizations parents will experience the removal of barriers payment, visitation, budgeting, employment and benefits. Teaching NCPs about budgeting and money management promises to be an effective way to address underlying family stability and self-sufficiency problems.
Grant Number: 90FD0171
For Information, contact: ACFOCSEGrantsinfo@acf.hhs.gov
Project Period: 9/30/2010 – 9/29/2013
Texas
Texas Office of the Attorney General
"Urban Fathers Asset Building Project"
Funding Opportunity: "How OCSE Grantees Can Support "Building Assets for Fathers and Families"(BAFF)
Intervention with young low income fathers will commence immediately prior to and following the birth of their babies in order to educate and assist them in building assets and financial literacy to become more economically self-sufficient and help improve child well-being for the long term. The OAG will lead a state-level collaboration with Resources, Assets, Investments, Saving, Education (RAISE) Texas [the statewide association of Assets for Independence (AFI) grantees in Texas] and a local-level collaboration with Harris County (Houston) Precinct One, Baylor College of Medicine’s (BCM) Young Fathers/Bootstrap project, and AFI grantee Covenant Community Capital Corporation (CCCC), to develop and test innovative practices to increase young fathers’ access to and use of asset-building programs.
The project will focus local program services in a densely populated, primarily minority city center, using the capacities of partners with fatherhood and workforce recruitment and case management experience, financial education and matched savings resources, and child support and paternity establishment services. The project will engage young men through connections to health clinics serving new parents, capturing their attention when they are eager to learn about parental responsibility and before they have incurred child support debt.
The ultimate goals are to strengthen families and reduce the need of the child support program to enforce legal and financial orders. The state-level collaboration will adapt lessons assembled from the local project to build capacity of AFI grantees across Texas to engage low-income men in asset building and to increase the coordination of the State IV-D agency with AFI grantees.
Grant Number: 90FD0169
For Information, contact: ACFOCSEGrantsinfo@acf.hhs.gov
Project Period: 9/30/2010 – 9/29/2013
Washington
Washington State Department of Social and Health Services, Division of Child Support
"Building Assets for Fathers and Families"
Funding Opportunity: “How OCSE Grantees Can Support “Building Assets for Fathers and Families” (BAFF)
The Division of Child Support is partnering with the Washington Asset Building Coalition (WABC) and two Assets for Independence (AFI) grantees – Lower Columbia Community Action Program (CAP) and the Spokane Neighborhood Action Program (SNAP).
Noncustodial parents and their families in Southwest and Eastern Washington State (Cowlitz, Clark, Lewis, Wahkiakum, and Spokane counties) will be provided with education on building eligible specified assets, through existing IDA programs, financial topics such as managing bank accounts and bank products, accessing credit and credit repair strategies, debt management including support order management, the importance of and strategies for increasing savings, and information about lending and credit terms and services. Participants will also be provided information on Earned Income Tax Credit and free tax preparation services. When appropriate, participants will receive referrals and information on housing, employment, and educational services while receiving intervention services from the Department of Child Support (DCS) staff to help them manage their child support obligations. SNAP and Lower Columbia CAP has staff co-located and operated in partnership with job search providers, where issues of unemployment or underemployment are addressed on an individual basis with referrals for direct program enrollment when appropriate.
The main goals of this grant are to strengthen collaborations between DCS and AFI grantees to leverage existing strong relationships through recognition of shared goals, caseloads, operational integration, and institutionalization of sustainable collaborative gains beyond the BAFF grant. Additionally, the grant administrators intend to help families achieve financial stability by enhancing NCPs’ understanding of financial options, improving their ability to meet child support obligations, feel more fluent and confident in financial matters. This collaborative project between some of Washington State’s leading asset building organizations is an exciting opportunity to provide greater support for children.
Grant Number: 90FD0172
For Information, contact: ACFOCSEGrantsinfo@acf.hhs.gov
Project Period: 09/30/2009-09/29/2013