Toolkit: Child Support Collaborations to Engage and Assist Veterans
IM-17-03
INFORMATION MEMORANDUM
IM-17-03
DATE: November 3, 2017
TO: State and Tribal IV-D Agencies
SUBJECT: Toolkit: Child Support Collaborations to Engage and Assist Veterans
We are pleased to announce that the Veterans Toolkit is available on our website. The toolkit highlights Child Support Collaborations to Engage and Assist Veterans with their child support issues.
In 2010, the Department of Health and Human Services through the Office of Child Support Enforcement, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and the American Bar Association (ABA) collaborated to address homeless veterans’ child support issues to help remove barriers to housing and employment. They established nine pilot sites in cities across the country that offered services through a partnership among the local child support agency, a legal provider, and either the VA or a veteran service provider. Other jurisdictions have also established child support initiatives focused on veterans. Based on their experiences, the toolkit identifies components of an effective outreach program for veterans. It also provides information about services provided through the VA.
Although the target audience is the child support program, the toolkit includes suggestions for legal providers who want to target services to veterans with child support issues, and for VA partners or partners who are veteran service providers.
The toolkit has several components including:
- Practical “how-to” information based on the service models used by the pilot sites;
- Online components consisting of PowerPoint presentations, sample forms and templates; and
- Lessons learned, promising practices, and information that is helpful for establishing effective collaborations to serve at-risk veterans.
INQUIRIES: Contact the Division of Program Innovation, OCSE.DPI@acf.hhs.gov.
Scott M. Lekan
Commissioner
Office of Child Support Enforcement