June 2021 Child Support Report
- VOICE: Reducing Barriers to Fatherhood Involvement
- National Survey Results Help Shape Fatherhood Partnerships
- Michigan Uses IV-D Funds for Online Dispute Resolution
- Seasonal Messaging Resonates with Orange County Parents
- Resource Alert: Peer-to-Peer Learning for Fatherhood Practitioners
VOICE: Reducing Barriers to Fatherhood Involvement
James Murray, Senior Advisor, OCSE
The negative effects of an absent father on a child were so striking in the late 1990s that I started my professional career to help end the problem. I was concerned that research showed children had an increased likelihood for negative emotional, physical, and educational outcomes when their fathers weren’t present. Knowing the indispensable role that fathers play in their children’s growth, I wanted all kids to have both parents involved in their lives. I joined the staff of the National Fatherhood Initiative, a nonprofit that prepares organizations and communities to proactively engage fathers in their children's lives. I provided technical assistance to fatherhood programs to help them recruit, retain, engage, and serve fathers.
Helping children stay connected to their fathers is something that I’m still passionate about over 20 years later. There’s a clear nexus between the goals of the national child support program and the responsible fatherhood field: the well-being of children. The strategies to bring about that well-being just differ a little. Someone who knew that very well was Halbert Sullivan, founder of the Fathers & Families Support Center in St. Louis. We lost a true advocate in April 2020 when Hal passed away unexpectedly. It hit me hard and caused me to think a lot about legacy. Hal was a man who unapologetically spoke about the importance of paying child support and men being the best fathers they could possibly be. He didn’t see an either/or choice; he knew that both roles are necessary. His legacy to me is that fathers can do remarkable things when we simply give them the opportunity.
Building a legacy of collaboration
What comes to mind when you think of the legacy of the child support enforcement program? Or that of the responsible fatherhood movement? Both have done great things, no doubt; but how much more could they accomplish together? There’s no reason we can’t explore this partnership in greater detail for all levels of family service delivery.
ACF’s Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood Initiative provides $150 million per year in discretionary grants, contracts, research and evaluation, and other activities to strengthen families, promote responsible parenting, and improve family economic stability. There are also non-ACF funded fatherhood programs that work toward the same goals to promote parenting and improve the trajectory of families. What if child support and responsible fatherhood staffs cultivated clear and consistent partnerships for collaborative service delivery? It happens now in some state, local, and tribal programs. I believe that it’s something well within our collective reach to continue spreading to all programs. In this issue, you'll read about such efforts to build these kinds of partnerships from the Good+Foundation.
Research shows that most fathers want to be involved in their children’s lives even when they don’t live with them. Let’s be intentional about creating partnerships between the child support and responsible fatherhood programs to build a legacy that reduces barriers and supports fathers being involved in their children’s lives.
National Survey Results Help Shape Fatherhood Partnerships
After more than a decade of providing organizations with essential goods to support under-resourced families, the Good+Foundation conducted a program evaluation. We identified that our culture, policy, and social service providers were treating fathers as secondary, nonessential actors in children’s well-being. In 2010, we expanded programming to intentionally include fathers. Stronger fathers build stronger, more resilient families, which are the backbone of thriving communities. The more we invest in fathers and their capacity to be involved parents, the greater benefits we see for children and families.
Innovative practices from survey of state child support directors
Part of our expanded programming includes a partnership with Ascend at the Aspen Institute to address gaps in state-level child support policies that keep underserved families trapped in cycles of poverty. In August 2020, we published Centering Child Well-Being in Child Support Policy , a report and toolkit that highlights how programs can support noncustodial parental engagement and facilitate healthy co-parenting. To overcome tensions that can sometimes exist between communities and child support agencies, we hope to build alliances and work together toward a common goal. Through ongoing collaboration and training with child support agencies, we can create inclusive policies that center on children’s well-being, build opportunities to support and engage parents, and provide a framework for healthier children and families.
Trainings to develop strategic partnerships
One of the biggest takeaways we’ve identified so far is the need to forge strategic partnerships among:
- Child support agencies
- Community-based organizations
- State and federal partner agencies
- Judges, court staff, and private attorneys
To support these partnerships, we’re looking to provide training to child support agencies in:
- Effective father engagement
- Working with men of color
- Implicit bias
Our research and findings are only the beginning. True change only happens when we bring our collective strengths to the table and work together.
If you are interested in participating in national trainings about developing these skills and partnerships, email email@example.com.
Michigan Uses IV-D Funds for Online Dispute Resolution
The Justice in Government Project, American University School of Public Affairs
Karen A. Lash, Director; Karlee Naylon, Research Fellow; Anna deDufour, Research Associate
The civil court system can be confusing for parents who are creating, implementing, or modifying child support agreements. Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) is a highly effective tool in making civil court systems more accessible, effective, and efficient. By enabling parents to engage in conversations about parenting issues outside of a formal courtroom setting, ODR can facilitate more open communication, speedier resolutions, and greater accountability between parties.
Texts and hearing check-in system improve outcomes
In 2015, Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services had more than 850,000 active child support orders and over $6 billion in child support arrearages. To address these problems, court leaders in Ottawa County used Title IV-D funds to launch a set of ODR tools (PDF) in December 2016, which included:
- Text warnings to noncustodial parents about noncompliance with child support orders after 45 days of nonpayment. The texts also invited them to meet with Friends of the Court (FOC) investigators to discuss their inability to pay, changes in employment, and resources available for securing employment.
- Text reminders about upcoming show-cause hearings to connect directly with parents, rather than relying on postal notification.
- Hearing check-in system, a tool for parties to signal they are physically present, improving speed and effectiveness of prehearing settlement conferences with FOC investigators.
By 2018, these tools contributed to favorable outcomes for parents and courts in Ottawa County:
- 24% reduction in the number of show-cause hearings and 50% fewer days per month dedicated to show-cause hearings, freeing up judicial resources for other family court cases.
- 29% reduction in the number of monthly child support-related arrest warrants, equivalent to 50 fewer parents being subject to arrest and detention for failure to pay child support.
- 28% increase in child support collections, increasing the financial resources available to custodial parents and their children while also unlocking additional federal incentive payments to the county.
Ottawa County is also using data and sound research methods to evaluate the efficacy of ODR for parenting time agreements. Ottawa County courts are partnering with researchers to evaluate their ODR parenting time program to examine whether ODR is a better option than an in-person court process, and to assess litigants’ perceptions of fairness in the ODR process.
"The use of ODR technology in child support cases has been incredibly beneficial to parents and the 20th Circuit Court in Ottawa County. Our Court strives to be accessible and ODR is an effective method of making the judicial process more timely, more convenient, and more cost effective for the people we serve. Our initial success with child support cases caused us to create a litigant portal and expand the use of ODR for parenting time disputes. Soon we hope to further expand ODR to other case types."
Kevin Bowling, Michigan 20th Circuit Court Administrator, Ottawa County
Seasonal Messaging Resonates with Orange County Parents
Brandon Reed, Project Manager/Staff Specialist, Orange County Child Support Services
In 2020, Orange County residents were spending more time at home and on their phones, giving our Department of Child Support Services a perfect chance to increase digital engagement. We began our digital marketing outreach knowing that many of our customers delayed opening a case because they didn’t know about or understand our services. To focus on education and awareness, we launched our first two interventions as digital and audio advertisements on streaming platforms like Pandora and iHeart Radio. These ads targeted Orange County zip codes with underserved populations.
After using this strategy in two interventions, we diversified our advertising platforms and expanded our target area to the entire county for our third intervention. Using paid advertisements on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, websites, and mobile apps, we experimented with three messaging themes: the diversity of the families we serve, friendly and helpful staff, and back-to-school season. These advertisements targeted low-income, single parents ages 18 to 35 and focused on guiding potential customers through the child support process. Advertisements asked customers to complete an online form or call a hotline managed by our staff.
We learned three things from our third intervention:
- Our back-to-school message was effective in engaging new customers that fit our target audience and were “back-to-school shoppers.”
- Snapchat was the most effective social media platform in reach and overall cost.
- The number of form submissions was much lower than the number of customers visiting our landing pages. This indicates that we should focus on improving our landing page messaging and design to convert more website visitors to customers.
Our final intervention in spring 2021 is a similar campaign with a timely, seasonal theme and improved design and messaging on our landing page.
For more information about Orange County Child Support Services’ digital marketing campaigns, contact Brandon Reed at firstname.lastname@example.org.
Resource Alert: Peer-to-Peer Learning for Fatherhood Practitioners
The National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse’s Virtual Collaborative Community (VCC) gives fatherhood practitioners direct access to a network of other committed practitioners and fatherhood stakeholders. Learn about the community’s discussion groups, articles on best practices, and webinars in this VCC factsheet (PDF).
About Child Support Report
Child Support Report is published monthly by the Office of Child Support Enforcement. We welcome articles and high-quality digital photos to consider for publication. We reserve the right to edit for style, content and length, or not accept an article. OCSE does not endorse the practices or individuals in this newsletter. You may reprint an article in its entirety (or contact the author or editor for permission to excerpt); please identify Child Support Report as the source.
JooYeun Chang Acting Assistant Secretary for Children and Families | Linda Boyer Acting Commissioner, OCSE |
Crystal Peeler Acting Director, Division of Customer Communications | Andrew Phifer Editor, email@example.com |