In August 2020, OCSE awarded funding to eight state child support agencies through the Charting a Course for Economic Mobility and Responsible Parenting (PDF) demonstration grant. In July 2021, we awarded funding to a second cohort (PDF) of child support programs in seven states and two tribes. Cohort 2 expands outreach to tribal youth, community college students, and rural youth populations.
For this three-year demonstration, grantees will use the child support program’s responsible parenting expertise to motivate teens and young adults to postpone parenthood until after they complete their education, start a career, and have a committed relationship. Grant recipients will develop programs that educate teens and young adults about the financial, legal, and emotional responsibilities of parenthood. They’ll also collaborate with youth job development programs, foster care transition services, juvenile justice agencies, teen pregnancy prevention programs, community colleges, and public schools to integrate child support and responsible parenting education into a wide range of youth centered systems.
For more information, contact the Division of Program Innovation at OCSE.DPI@acf.hhs.gov.
Disclaimers:
These are not OCSE publications. The reports are produced using funds from the grant awarded by OCSE to the state or tribe. These publications are in the public domain. Permission to reproduce is not necessary.
The views expressed in these publications do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of OCSE, the Administration for Children and Families, or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Cohort 1
Trailbuilding: A Youth Produced Approach to Independence
Colorado’s Division of Child Support Services (DCSS) is embarking on an innovative approach to educate youth and young adults about its services. Through this project, DCSS is working with several partners: the Colorado Sexual Health Initiative, Colorado Youth Move VISTAs, Division of Youth Services, Connected Health Solutions, Spearca Communications, and the Center for Policy Research. Through planning and advisory board discussions, DCSS is committed to sharing the diversity of youth voices from across the state. DCSS will take a regional approach to employ youth ages 13-25 to create social media content at four implementation sites and work with counties and organizations in the Western Slope, Northern Colorado, and Denver/Metro areas. One site will also feature the voices of justice-involved youth in collaboration with the Division of Youth Services.
Contact: Anna Wendt | 720-591-8402 | anna.wendt@state.co.us
Child Support Report Article: Using Storytelling to Inspire Colorado Youth (10/2023)
Colorado Report #1 (PDF): Life. As Told By Youth Overview
Videos:
Website: https://www.lifebyyouth.com/latby
Responsible Parenting Program
Georgia aims to provide information on the financial, legal, and emotional responsibilities of parenting to youth in or aging out of foster care. Specific information will include ways a child support order can affect the parent's budget and the legal process related to child support. The target population will be youth ages 13-25 primarily in five metropolitan counties: Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton, and Gwinnett.
Contact: Anna Wall | 912-722-1004 | anna.wall@dhs.ga.gov
Parenting: It’s a Life (PIAL)
Iowa has a successful parenting program in partnership with Iowa State University called Parenting: It’s a Life (PIAL), targeted to middle and high school youth. The overarching goal is to empower Iowa youth and young adults to be good stewards of their decision-making responsibilities across their lifespan. This grant project will examine the efficacy of the PIAL curriculum, expand PIAL to serve young adults in community college, and engage future teachers and human service professionals to implement PIAL components in their classrooms and organizations.
Contacts: Harold Coleman | 515-242-5511 | hcolema@dhs.state.ia.us or JoAnn Lee | 515-294-9061 | jllee@iastate.edu
Child Support Report Article: Iowa’s Student Parent Simulation (10/2022)
Parenting: It's a Life Webpage: https://childwelfareproject.hs.iastate.edu/research#pial
Reports:
Iowa PIAL Report # 1: (PDF) Overview
Iowa PIAL Report #2: (PDF) College Simulations
Iowa PIAL Report #3: (PDF) Expansion
Toolkits:
Iowa PIAL Toolkit #1 (PDF)
Iowa PIAL Toolkit #2 (PDF)
Iowa PIAL Toolkit #3 (PDF)
Empower You
Empower You is a community-based program being developed through a partnership between the University of Louisville’s Kent School of Social Work and the Commonwealth of Kentucky’s Cabinet for Health and Family Services. Empower You provides youth ages 16-24 with the skills and tools to make positive decisions regarding their education, career exploration, sexual health, and romantic relationships, including becoming a parent, to optimize their future economic stability. The program will be delivered through group-based workshops and individualized success coaching.
Contact: Armon R. Perry | 502-852-3234| arperr01@louisville.edu
Child Support Report Article: Supporting Youth Through the Empower You Program (1/2023)
Kentucky Report #1: (PDF) Introduction to the Empower You project
Minnesota Paths to Parenthood 1.0
The Minnesota Child Support Division is partnering with the Minnesota Department of Corrections to develop Minnesota Paths to Parenthood, a parenthood preparation curriculum for young adults who are currently or at risk of becoming justice-involved. The curriculum will increase knowledge about the financial, legal, and emotional responsibilities of parenthood, and increase students’ motivation to delay parenthood until they have completed their education, started their careers, and entered a committed relationship.
Minnesota Report #1 (PDF): Paths to Parenthood
Contact: Rowzat Shipchandler | 651-431-4604 | rowzat.shipchandler@state.mn.us
Future Leaders Program
Missouri’s Future Leaders (FL) program aims to help pre-teens and young adults gain the knowledge, skills, and access to resources likely to lead to success in pursuit of life goals, economic mobility, and responsible parenting. The program curriculum covers 13 units of personal development, financial literacy, and child support information. Future Leaders teaches middle school students to think about the choices they make about relationships, finances, and parenting. The program incorporates evidence from successful youth development, peer education, health promotion, cognitive and behavioral education, and workforce development models.
Contact: John Ginwright | 573-751-4995 | John.Ginwright@dss.mo.gov
Reports:
Missouri FL Report #1 (PDF): Intervention Design
Missouri FL Report #2 (PDF): Implementation Lessons
Missouri FL Report #3 (PDF): Intentions for Delaying or Sequencing Parenting for Optimal Economic Self-sufficiency
Missouri FL Report #4 (PDF): Knowledge of Emotional, Social, Legal, and Financial Realities and Responsibilities of Parenting
Parenthood Can Wait Program
The goal of the Parenthood Can Wait (PCW) program is to help youth in the custody of the Department of Youth Services or enrolled in alternative high schools. The program offers various personal development, parenthood curricula, independent living skills, child support education, financial literacy, and mentoring services to help youth gain invaluable knowledge and skills necessary to become self-sufficient and maintain healthy relationships through adulthood.
Contact: John Ginwright | 573-751-4995 | John.Ginwright@dss.mo.gov
Child Support Report Article: Charting a Course for Responsible Parenting in Missouri (12/2022)
Reports:
Missouri PCW Report #1 (PDF): Intervention Design
Missouri PCW Report #2 (PDF): Implementation Lessons
Missouri PCW Report #3 (PDF): Intentions for Delaying or Sequencing Parenting for Optimal Economic Self-sufficiency
Missouri PCW Report #4 (PDF): Knowledge of Emotional, Social, Legal, and Financial Realities and Responsibilities of Parenting
No Kidding Ohio
The No Kidding Ohio (NKO) program uses peer-to-peer educators to deliver the intervention in classroom and community settings. Structured as a 3-day program, it focuses on 1) peer educators who share personal stories and struggles of being a young parent; 2) fatherhood and establishing paternity; and 3) child support and financial matters. Participants will learn about the success sequence and be encouraged to postpone parenthood until they have completed their education, started a career, and are in a committed relationship.
Contacts: Leslie Owens | 614-752-2918 | Leslie.K.Owens@jfs.ohio.gov or Amy Rice | 614-752-2603 | Amy.Rice@jfs.ohio.gov
Child Support Report Articles:
Ohio Hosts Summer Institute and Engages Partners to Promote Responsible Parenting (12/2023)
Ohio Uses Peer Educators to Encourage Responsible Parenting (5/2023)
Podcast: NCSEA On Location with the Ohio No Kidding Program's Peer Educators - Tim Lightener (CGI) and Michael Hayes (OCSE Project Officer) talk with No Kidding Ohio's peer educators Jazmin, Kyle, and Chevy about their experiences as young parents, how they became interested in the No Kidding Program, and how child support professionals can help young parents. (3/1/2023)
Ohio NKO Report #1 (PDF): Intervention Design and Implementation
Parenting and Paternity Awareness (p.a.p.a.)
The Texas Office of the Attorney General is enhancing its p.a.p.a program by leveraging existing partnerships with the Department of Family Protective Services’ Nurse Family Partnership that supports first-time parents. We will also work with a secondary partner that works with young adults transitioning out of foster care. The goal is to provide these populations with information they need to develop healthy relationship and communication patterns and make informed decisions about the realities of parenthood.
Contact: Korissa Felan | 512-460-6260 | korissa.felan@oag.texas.gov
Cohort 2
Blackfeet Nation Responsible Parenting Project
The Blackfeet Child Support Program, the Blackfeet Teen Pregnancy and Parenting Coalition, and the Blackfeet Manpower One-Stop Center are partnering to develop a culturally based curriculum that elevates youth voices and participation. The target population is the public-school system that serves youth on the Blackfeet Reservation. Youth will use social media for advocacy and integrate culturally responsive interventions that empower youth to lead on issues related to preventing teen pregnancy.
Contact: Agnes Black Weasel | 406-338-3802 | ablackweasel@blackfeetnation.com
Child Support Report Article: Promoting Responsible Parenting in the Blackfeet Nation (11/2023)
Podcast: Charting a Course for Economic Mobility (Episode 2) - Jayla Wells of Blackfeet Nation joins host Mariellen Keely (VA) to talk about the project and the importance of Blackfeet Nation youth developing a strong cultural identity. (11/1/2023)
Economic Mobility Project
This project will fund new research to elicit the social, cultural, emotional, and cognitive factors among a student population ages 18-25 that will increase the efficacy of the Parental Responsibility Education Program and provide building blocks to update the curriculum. The project will incorporate behavioral economics to create an environment that will “nudge” students toward decisions that will support their educational goals. These updated materials and messaging will then be positioned to be disseminated throughout the California Community College system.
Contact: Sidney Burt | 916-464-6791 | Sidney.Burt@dcss.ca.gov
My Empowerment (M.E.) Project, My Life, My Journey, My Choices
Sacramento County’s project will target youth who are at higher risk of adolescent pregnancy and educate them about the responsibilities of parenthood. The Department of Child Support Services will work with community partners to provide education and support for youth so they can make informed decisions about success sequencing, a series of milestones that help young adults achieve self-sufficiency and avoid poverty. Specifically, the program will focus on a subpopulation of Black and Hispanic youth who have the highest rates of adolescent birth in Sacramento County.
Contact: Courtney Watts-Cole | 916-464-6567 | Courtney.Watts-Cole@dcss.ca.gov
Podcast: Charting a Course for Economic Mobility-Episode 1 - Mariellen Keely (VA) talks with Shaun Edwards (CA) and Gabrielle Brown-Morgan (LA) about their efforts to encourage young adults to postpone parenthood. (8/2/2023)
Sacramento M.E. Report #1 (PDF): Design Highlights
Sacramento M.E. Report #2 (PDF): Implementation and Outcomes
Tribal Youth Productions (TYP)
Tribal Youth Productions is a youth-produced, media-based approach to promoting economic mobility and responsible parenting for urban American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) youth in the Denver Metro Area. TYP will partner with local AIAN organizations to recruit leadership cohorts of youth to participate in a transformational process of learning, creating original content, and engaging peers to increase understanding of the importance of economic mobility and responsible parenting. Youth will create agency-branded social marketing materials to be shared within the target population and the community.
Contact: Anna Wendt | 720-591-8402 | anna.wendt@state.co.us
The Good Life Vision
The Good Life Vision (GLV) brings the Lac Courte Oreilles (LCO) Tribal Child Support Program together with community partners to preserve, strengthen, and renew Ojibwe values in LCO youth by providing opportunities to learn about their culture’s history, values, and practices to support Good Life parenting and reduce the negative effects of generations of cultural trauma. We will develop culturally relevant and sustainable curricula and other tools for middle school, high school, and college students and young parents as well as LCO Cultural Camp.
Contact: Sue Smith | 715-634-8934 ext. 295 | Sue.Smith@lco-nsn.gov
Child Support Report Article: The Good Life Vision: Connecting Youth to Culture (11/2022)
Podcasts:
The Good Life Camp Part 1 - LCO Child Support Specialist and camp project lead Melinda McKevett-Isham talks about the goals of the camp and the impact it's had on youth and the community at large. The Good Life Camp is a product of the Good Life Vision project. (9/4/2022)
The Good Life Camp Part 2 - Andy Bachmann, director of partner Camp Highlands, shares why its mission worked so well with that of the Good Life Vision project. He also reflects on the project's impact, and what he sees for the future of this program. (9/26/2022)
The Good Life Camp Part 3 - Dr. Nell O’Donnell Weber, curriculum developer for the Good Life Vision project, talks about her research on parenting in the US and internationally, and how that background led her to the project. She discussed the impact of culture in parenting, which is a key component of Lac Courte Oreilles' work on the grant. (10/24/2022)
Report: Lac Courte Oreilles GLV Report #1 (PDF)
Videos:
The Good Life Vision Presents the Good Life Camp
Choosing to Live a Life in Color: Paula's Story
Bringing in the Dawn: Katrina's Story
Stepping Up to the Plate: Richard's Story
Educate, Stimulate, Graduate Initiative (ESGI)
Louisiana’s Educate, Stimulate, Graduate Initiative will help teens and young adults gain the knowledge, skills, and access to resources likely to lead to success in their pursuit of life goals, economic mobility, and responsible parenting. Partnering with Louisiana State University and Southern University New Orleans, ESGI will work with university students to serve as peer educators for teens and young adults to discuss the benefits of delayed parenthood. Discussions will also focus on challenges and hardships young parents face and services the Child Support Enforcement program provides.
Contact: Gabrielle Brown | 225-219-7792 | Gabrielle.Brown.DCFS@la.gov
Podcast: Charting a Course for Economic Mobility-Episode 1 - Mariellen Keely (VA) talks with Shaun Edwards (CA) and Gabrielle Brown-Morgan (LA) about their efforts to encourage young adults to postpone parenthood. (8/2/2023)
Minnesota Paths to Parenthood 2.0
The Minnesota Child Support Division (CSD) is developing a parenthood preparation curriculum titled Minnesota Paths to Parenthood 2.0. CSD will partner with the University of Minnesota, the Department of Corrections (DOC) and Native American community partners to develop a parenthood readiness curriculum for individuals ages 16-25 that is responsive to the unique circumstances of indigenous youth and young adults. Curriculum facilitators will include staff from CSD and DOC as well as Native American community partners.
Contact: Rowzat Shipchandler | 651-431-4604 | rowzat.shipchandler@state.mn.us
No Kidding Ohio
The No Kidding Ohio program uses peer-to-peer educators to deliver the intervention in classroom and community settings. Structured as a 3-day program, it focuses on 1) peer educators who share personal stories and struggles of being a young parent; 2) fatherhood and establishing paternity; and 3) child support and financial matters. Participants will learn about the success sequence and be encouraged to postpone parenthood until they have completed their education, started a career, and are in a committed relationship. Participants in this cohort 2 will participate in peer learning opportunities with Cohort 1.
Contacts: Leslie Owens | 614-752-2918 | Leslie.K.Owens@jfs.ohio.gov or Amy Rice | 614-752-2603 | Amy.Rice@jfs.ohio.gov
Child Support Report Articles:
Ohio Hosts Summer Institute and Engages Partners to Promote Responsible Parenting (12/2023)
Ohio Uses Peer Educators to Encourage Responsible Parenting (5/2023)
Fostering Responsible Parents in Virginia
The Division of Child Support Enforcement plans to bring a responsible parenting curriculum to high-need populations in Virginia through two targeted interventions. The first involves working with partners at the Division of Family Services and the Department of Juvenile Justice to collaborate with a vendor to adapt an existing responsible parenting curriculum. The team will bring the curriculum to youth aging out of foster care and youth who are justice-involved. Second, the team will engage with another vendor to create a mobile or online game that will target young adults and gamify learning about responsible parenting. We plan to support interventions through a digital marketing campaign.
Contact: Mariellen Keely | 804-726-7923 | mariellen.keely@dss.virginia.gov
Economic Mobility and Responsible Parenting
The project will use the Parenting: It's a Life (PIAL) curriculum with young adults in and associated with high school Graduation, Reality, And Dual-Role Skills programs for pregnant teens and young parents. In partnership with the Washington State Interagency Fatherhood Council, the project will also encourage forming and strengthening local fatherhood supports through groups, mentoring, classes, and online parenting education.
Contact: Emily Conner | 360-764-0057 | emily.conner@dshs.wa.gov
Reports:
Washington PIAL Report #1: (PDF) Description and Project Plan
Washington PIAL Report #2: (PDF) Implementation