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| Promoting Responsible Fatherhood | Federal Resource Site |
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Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Guam, Trust Territory of Pacific Islands, and American Samoa
Emily Hughes
Program Analyst
90 7th Street, 9th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94103
Phone: 415-437-8412
Fax: 415-437-8444
Rachel Freitas
Program Specialist
90 7th Street, 9th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94103
Phone: 415-437-8408
Fax: 415-437-8444
Regional staff continue to share information with State CSE, TANF, Head Start, and Child Welfare agencies, and other interested parties (Fatherhood projects, Faith and Community based coalitions, etc…) about training conferences, competitive funding/grant announcements related to fatherhood, family formation, healthy marriage, mentoring children of incarcerated parents and positive youth development.
Access and Visitation: Arizona provides pilot grants to a number of counties. Maricopa County, for example, provides a wide range of access and visitation services for cases in the courts following or during divorce or paternity establishment including mediation, negotiation of compliance with court-ordered access, and visitation enforcement through a parental conflict resolution class. Drug testing, supervised visitation, and related services are also provided. The program has also developed two videos for parents who are court-ordered to participate in the Parental Conflict Resolution class, a course designed specifically for parents in persistent high-conflict after separation or divorce or parents who are non-compliant with Court-ordered parenting time (visitation). The two videos are available for a nominal cost to cover expenses for reproduction, shipping and handling:
In addition, the program also developed a video specifically for judicial officers called Family Ties and Knots: Children of Divorce — A View for the Bench. The video will be used specifically to inform Family Court judges about mild, moderate, and severe forms of parental alienation. For further information regarding Arizona's Access and Visitation program, contact Pama Tucker at (602) 241-9613 ext 6305 or at pamatucker@azdes.gov.
Fatherhood: The goal of the Arizona Division of Child Support Enforcement's (DCSE) Fatherhood Program is to assist low-income, non-custodial parents attain self-sufficiency and become financially and emotionally responsible parents.
DCSE began its partnership with the collaboration of agencies known as the Arizona Fatherhood Network (AFN) in July 1998. AFN is committed to providing a service delivery system that empowers men and strengthens families to ensure a transformational and sustainable quality of life. AFN's vision is accomplished through collaborations, mentorships, education, and employment.
The organizations that DCSE partners with are dedicated to improving the lives and futures of low-income, fragile families and their children. DCSE can be instrumental to each of the organizations by assisting non-custodial parents with paternity establishment, establishment of an order to pay child support and modification of existing child support orders.
For further information, contact Marjorie Cook, DCSE Community and Special Initiatives manager at (602) 274-1482 ext 4973 or at mcook@azdes.gov.
Parenting Academy: The funding awarded by the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement to the Arizona Department of Economic Security (DES), Division of Child Support Enforcement (DCSE), for the Arizona Fatherhood Parenting Academy (Academy) has ended. However, Child & Family Resources, one of the Academy partners, has continued many of the Academy concepts via their Choices Fatherhood Program. The funding they receive for this program is administered via the DES Division of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program. For further information, contact Marjorie Cook, DCSE Community & Special Initiatives Manager, at (602) 274-1482, ext 4973 or MCook@azdes.gov.
Choices Fatherhood Program: Child and Family Resources, a private non-profit organization, provides the Choices Fatherhood Program with funding from Title IV-B subpart 2 Promoting Safe And Stable Families. The program provides group seminars for fathers under the age of 35 in metropolitan Phoenix. The seminars cover life skills and parenting education, substance abuse, anger management, family planning and paternity and child support. Individualized case management is also offered. For further information, contact Wendy Sabatini, Regional Director, at (602) 234-3941 or wsabatini@cfraz.org.
Adelante Responsible Parent Program: Catholic Community Services' Adelante Program currently assists fathers with child support modification and financial education workshops. It also provides fathers with other assistance that is open to all of our clients, such as free income tax preparation, emergency assistance, and workforce development. For further information, contact Liz Thomey, Program Director, at (520) 388-9153 ext 122.
Fathers Inside: Several years ago, the Department of Child Support Services (DCSS) implemented a pilot project at San Quentin State Prison, California. The pilot project (Incarcerated Parent Project) provided inmates with forms, an information package about available child support services and contact information. The goal of the project was to reduce child support arrears, by stopping child support debt from accruing during periods when a parent had no ability to earn, and to increase the likelihood that incarcerated parents would be able to meet their child support obligations upon release from prison.
Based on the experience with the pilot project, it was found that in order to improve program effectiveness, there was a need to establish child support program credibility through regular visits and face-to-face interviews with inmates. Further, the inability of many inmates to read and understand the letters and documents provided created a tremendous barrier to program participation.
Subsequently, Fathers Inside was established to conduct outreach directly to the inmate population. The project has been a collaborative effort between the Solano County Department of Child Support Services (DCSS), Marin County DCSS, Marin County Family Law Facilitator, a non-profit, faith-based organization located at the prison, and several other Local Child Support Agencies (LCSAs). The California Department of Corrections supports the project by accommodating the program inside San Quentin.
The collaboration has included workshops with groups of inmates permanently housed at the prison. The workshops include an overview of child support services and information about specific legal processes. Inmates are informed of their rights to request a modification of their current child support due to their change in circumstances, and given the opportunity to complete forms that are forwarded to the appropriate LCSA.
The Solano County DCSS is pursuing opportunities to enhance these services to include inmates being processed through a prison Reception Center. This group of inmates is an important target as it would allow for the earliest opportunity to educate and inform inmates of their right to seek a modification of their child support order. Efforts in this area would also focus on tracking the progression of their requests, measuring the outcome of this intervention, and produce a Best Practices Procedures Manual for use in Reception Centers throughout the California prison system.
Contact is Cheryl Stewart, California Department of Child Support Services Regional Administrator, at (916) 464-2522.
Compromise of Arrears Program (COAP): The California Department of Child Support Services' (DCSS) Compromise of Arrears Program (COAP) was developed to manage child support arrears in California while assisting non-custodial parents (NCP) in meeting their child support obligation. The goals of COAP are to increase support collected for families and the State General fund, and to reduce arrears owed to the State. COAP allows the acceptance of a NCP's offer to compromise a portion of their permanently assigned arrears in exchange for partial payment of a delinquent child support debt. Only arrears owed to the government are available for compromise; any areas owed to the custodial parties are addressed through negotiations with those parties. After 18 months of piloting, COAP was implemented statewide in July 2005. In the first seven months of State Fiscal Year 2005/06, COAP has helped resolve arrears for approximately 450 NCPs.
To qualify for COAP an NCP must meet certain criteria. These criteria include owing at least $5,000 in debt to the government; being able to make the agreed upon repayment, while meeting any current child support obligation; as well as having all child support cases within a single county.
There are also criteria that will disqualify an NCP from the program. An offer in compromise is disqualified if the NCP has stopped paying child support in preparation of making an offer in compromise; concealed or misrepresented his or her income and/or assets; recently been convicted, or had a contempt finding for failure to pay child support; recently had a compromise agreement denied or rescinded; or can pay all of the debt within three years.
The contact is Laura Choate, DCSS, COAP Unit Manager, at 916-464-5881.
Access and Visitation: California provides a regional approach featuring parental education during the time of family disruption in an effort to increase parenting skills as a means for minimizing conflict and encouraging the development of parenting plans. Group counseling is provided to both parents and children on how to solve parenting problems. Other services, such as supervised visitation and neutral drop-off and child exchange services are provided to families during the litigation of a divorce or custody dispute. Contact Shelly La Botte at (415) 865-7565.
Memorandum of Understanding: The Guam Child Support Enforcement (CSE) Program negotiated a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with its sister Agency for Human Resources Development (HRD). The purpose of the MOU is to have the CSE Agency refer low-income non-custodial parents to the HRD for evaluation for assistance under the Workforce Investment Act for enhanced educational and vocational skills.
Access and Visitation: The current provider is Inafa Maolek Conciliation. Inafa Maolek is a mediation center that provides families with conflict resolutions involving visitation and custody. Inafa Maolek provides these resolutions through mediated agreements with divorced or separated parents. The children benefit from this mediated visitation through continued relationship with their Fathers and Mothers and increased child support collections. Inafa Maolek monitors each case and makes monthly and quarterly reports for Office of the Attorney General, Child Support Enforcement Division. Contact is John B. Camacho at (671) 475-3360, ext 620.
Access and Visitation: The program provides supervised child visitation and exchange services on two sites, one of the island of Oahu and the other on the island of Hawaii. Services are designed to assist families with a history of domestic violence and other high conflict cases. Contact is Maureen Kiehm at the First Judicial Circuit Court at (808) 539-4406.
Fatherhood: The Hawai`i Coalition for Dads (HCD), launched in 1998 under the umbrella of Parents And Children Together (PACT), is a group of individuals and organizations (including ALU LIKE, Good Beginnings Alliance, Healthy Mothers/Healthy Babies, Kamehameha Schools' Extension Education Division, PARENTS, and Pearl Harbor Fleet and Family Support Center) that shares information about services to fathers and promotes involved, nurturing, responsible fatherhood.
Grants from the Hawai`i Children's Trust Fund for 2003, 2004, and 2005 have enabled HCD to employ a Fatherhood Network Coordinator to help implement a pilot Nurturing Fathers/Play and Learn project for father-inmates (three, 13-week series have been carried out at the Waiawa Correctional Facility by The Institute For Family Enrichment with Play+Learn groups by the Good Beginnings Alliance), a media and special events campaign, collaborations with Aloha United Way's 211 and The Parent Line referral lines, consultations with agencies to implement more father-inclusive policies and programs, and the expansion of the Hawai`i Coalition for Dads throughout Hawai`i.
In the past seven years, Hawai`i Coalition for Dads activities have included: sponsoring community education events like Dads' Day at the Capitol (April) and CELEBRATE FATHERS Day at Windward Mall and Pearlridge Center (June); having the Governor and Mayor proclaim June as Fathers' Month; participating in the New Baby Expo (May) and Children and Youth Day (October); and sponsoring the Champions for Children and Youth Inspirational Clinic at the University of Hawai`i's Stan Sheriff Center and Appreciating Fathers Conference at Kamehameha Schools Kapalama Campus.
Hawai`i Coalition for Dads successful public policy initiatives include establishing a State Commission on Fatherhood in the Lt. Governor's office (Act 156-2003), requiring State employers to provide at least four hours per year paid leave for employees for parent-teacher conferences (Act 108-2003), establishing a Hawai`i Legislature awards program to recognize businesses with parent-friendly policies (SCR 130-2003), and State legislation that prohibits the preference of one parent above another in the State's programs, services, and contracts (Act 301-2001 and Act 162-2002). These laws are designed to insure that fathers are included, not forgotten, in public and private services that government provides to children and families.
For more Hawai`i Coalition for Dads information, contact Greg Farstrup, Coordinator, at (808) 841-2245 and at HawaiiDads@pacthawaii.org
Employment and Training: The Employment and Training programs are operating in both Clark County (Las Vegas) and Washoe County (Reno). Low income non-custodial parents (NCPs) are referred by the Courts to work enhancement programs to assist the NCPs in improving their employment skills, with the goal of enhancing/increasing their ability to pay child support. Contact is Leslee Arnold at (775) 684-0690.
Access and Visitation: The $100,000 Access and Visitation Grant, funded by the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement, is divided by two vendors. The Second Judicial District Court, Family Mediation Program serves the Reno area and the Eighth Judicial District Court, Family Mediation Center serves the Las Vegas area. Most referrals are made from child support hearing masters during court hearings for child support and paternity issues. Typically, both parents voluntarily agree to explore family mediation services. The program appears to be successful to those parents who choose to participate. Survey results suggest that parent communication is enhanced through the mediation process. Additionally, most parents believe that the parenting plans and agreements developed have been adhered to over time by the other parent. A majority of the custodial parents indicate that child support payments were paid regularly after mediation. Contact is Rose Ramos at (775) 684-0695.
Last Revised: July 31, 2007
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