 |
 |
| |
 |
|||
Region 4 Home
Page
Alabama, Florida,
Georgia, Kentucky,
Mississippi, North Carolina,
South Carolina, and Tennessee
Robert Richie
Program Manager
Child Support and Developmental Disabilities
Administration for Children and Families
Sam Nunn Atlanta Federal Center
61 Forsyth Street, SW, Suite 4M60
Atlanta, Georgia 30303-8909
Phone: 404-562-2958
Fax: 404-562-2985
Juan Gordon
Financial Operations Specialist
Head Start Branch
Administration for Children and Families
Sam Nunn Atlanta Federal Center
61 Forsyth Street, SW, Suite 4M60
Atlanta, Georgia 30303-8909
Phone: 404-562-2869
Fax: 404-562-2984
May 10-12, 2005, ACF Region IV hosted Framing the Future: A Fatherhood and Healthy Marriage Forum at the Winshape Retreat Center in Rome, Georgia. This discussion exploreed the challenges and opportunities in building a strong Fatherhood-Healthy Marriage partnership that can result in building stronger children, families and communities. Both the Fatherhood and Healthy Marriage Initiatives view improving child well-being as a mutual goal, and identifying efforts for collaboration may make a significant positive impact on the status of at-risk children throughout the nation and serve to educate and inform a wide spectrum of audiences.
Access and Visitation. The grant, administered by the Alabama Administrative Office of Courts (AOC), has provided divorce mediation and child issues and parenting plan mediation training for Judicial Volunteer Program coordinators in four judicial circuits in Alabama. This enables coordinators to train citizen volunteers to mediate visitation issues and to assist with development of visitation parenting plans with parents before they go to court. In an effort to work with the Alabama Fatherhood Initiative, the AOC has developed two workbooks, one for parents and one for children. Both workbooks are designed to encourage divorced or never-married parents and their children to work together to facilitate communication between them and to explain good ways to handle living apart. Contact David Williams of the AOC at (334) 242-0333.
TANF. The Alabama Fatherhood Initiative (AFI) is a statewide network of many agencies and organizations working together to provide programs and services to help non-custodial parents financially support their children and have greater and more constructive involvement in the lives of their children. A statewide Fatherhood Coordinator, funded with TANF dollars, is housed in the Alabama Department of Human Resources (DHR) Family Assistance Division.
The Children's Trust Fund of Alabama, in partnership with the State Department of Human Resources, has funded 32 fatherhood programs throughout the State of Alabama. DHR funding comes from TANF. Programs continue to target several areas:
Upon seeing the need to provide more employment related and other supportive services to non-custodial parents (NCPs), DHR partnered with the Alabama College System to add short-term skills training to the existing Alabama Fatherhood Initiative. The goal of the AFI Skills Training Pilot Project is to help non-custodial fathers develop and maintain positive relationships with their children and to enhance their ability to support their children by providing counseling, education, training, and employment opportunities. The project is particularly interested in assisting underemployed and unemployed non-custodial fathers receive education and short-term skills training to obtain dependable jobs and to meet their child support obligations. The Chancellor of the Department of Postsecondary Education (DPE) selected several Alabama College System institutions to participate in the pilot program, currently operating at six sites. The DHR Fatherhood Coordinator and state staff in Child Support Enforcement, the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA), the AOC, Children's Trust Fund and the DPE worked together to develop the short-term skills training model.
The Alabama Fatherhood Resource Directory was first published to pull together information on all of the fatherhood programs across the State so that non-custodial parents can find the services they need in their local communities. http://www.dhr.state.al.us/large_docs/Fatherhood%20Directory.pdf.
Partnering with the Alabama Fatherhood Initiative and faith and community organizations, the National Initiative for Human Development was instrumental in convening the first Alabama Fatherhood Conference in June 2004. A state fatherhood conference is now an annual event in Alabama with the next conference scheduled for June 8 - 10, 2005. State Contact: Martha Cantrell at (256) 340-5996.
Child Support Enforcement: The Orlando, Florida, Child Support Enforcement office, working with the Orange County Corrections Department, the judiciary of the Ninth Judicial Circuit, Orange County Workforce Development, Orange County Probation, Orange County Legal Aid, Headstart, Healthy Families, DCF, and several community partners, implemented an educational and outreach project that targets incarcerated and formerly incarcerated non- custodial parents. The program is entitled Low-Income Non-custodial Parent Outreach Service (LINOS). The Orlando CSE Service Center has three designated staff members that meet weekly with the inmates. CSE staff had to gain the inmates trust to change the NCP's perception that CSE was interested only in putting them in jail. The Orlando CSE staff was very successful in making it clear to inmates that CSE was there to educate them about CS issues so they could make informed decisions when they left the jail environment. Only 20 inmates attended CSE's first session; currently more than 500 inmates have been provided general CS and LINOS information.
The LINOS brochure contains information on all the service providers and telephone numbers. The brochure and large LINOS posters are displayed in CSE service center lobbies, the courthouse, the jail, and many other community partners distribute the LINOS brochure and display the poster. CSE tracks enrollees in the LINOS program on payment history, scheduled appointments with community partners and job referral information. There is a designated DOR CSE LINOS liaison for NCPs to contact once released from jail. The LINOS program is a good example that improving relationships with NCPs, establishing strong community partner networks, and innovative actions result in a winning combination for all, especially for children and families.
Contact:
David Gillen
Revenue Service Center Manager
Florida Department of Revenue
Child Support Enforcement
400 West Robinson Street
Hurston South Tower, Suite S609
Orlando, FL 32801-1782
407-245-0103
The Florida Fatherhood Coalition will be sponsoring a conference (dates as yet undetermined) under Governor Bush's Fatherhood Initiative.
(State of) Georgia Fatherhood Initiative
Scott Stapleton, Manager
P.O. Box 1427
360 Bay Street, Suite 300
Augusta, Georgia 30903
Phone: 706-721-7139
Fax: 706-721-7151
Email: scottstapleton @ dhr.state.ga.us
Head Start and Child Support — In the last of four Parent-Mentor events in Region IV, NCFL and Head Start parents met in Atlanta for a great weekend of training and discussion of fatherhood ideas.
During the closing session on Sunday, remarks by several participants attested to the positive, effective efforts made. One father said, "A lot of times men don't feel like they can really talk or express themselves in groups like this. But I think we all opened up and connected this weekend. Our trainers made us feel like it was okay to be ourselves and they showed me how important I really am to my kids. I think we all realized we are in this together...we got to help each other out."
Another Dad said, "I am a changed man. I am going to be a better Dad now. You got to tell somebody up there who makes the decisions that we need more of this kind of stuff for parents. I am so glad I took this chance and gave it a try." Many similar comments assured that wonderful things happened and the hard work putting it together was worth the effort.
Sunflower Humphrey's Counties Progress, Inc. Fatherhood Initiative: Activities include Dad's Day with Kids; Boys to Men Fatherhood Conference; Character Building: What I Think About Me; Sporting Events; Breakfast with Dad; Art in a Suitcase (dad's and kids participate in art, music, poetry, dancing and other activities)
Yazoo City Community Action Agency Head Start:
Washingon County Head Start:
Western Carolina Head Start: A music teacher from Mexico has led a fatherhood group teaching fathers how to make instruments and has a singing group which performs informally. Other projects include nutrition and sessions on child abuse and sexual abuse of children by relatives, spousal abuse, death, depression, and homelessness.
Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina Fatherhood Initiative. The Sisters of Charity Foundation provides grant funds, technical assistance and other resources for community and faith-based groups, organizations and other non-profits whose efforts address the fundamental causes of poverty in South Carolina. The Foundation has embarked on a statewide Fatherhood Initiative to strengthen the role of fathers and fragile families in the state. They have information and resources available to the community on the importance of fathers in families, the impact of absent fathers, and other fatherhood programs.
The Sisters of Charity Foundation and SC Center for Fathers and Families currently fund 10 fatherhood programs at 12 sites in the state including community based, alternatives to incarceration, and prison based programs. A large proportion of funding for the fatherhood programs comes from the SC Department of Social Services (DSS), primarily TANF money. The SC Center for Fathers and Families was founded in 2002 by the Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina. Its mission is to develop and support a statewide infrastructure to strengthen relationships between fathers and families. The Center provides resources, leadership and education to fatherhood programs associated with the Fatherhood Initiative. The South Carolina Fatherhood Practitioners Network, Inc. was founded to foster communication, professional development, education, and collaboration among service providers. The Network has conducted several practitioner conferences in the State. For more information, contact Patricia Littlejohn at (803) 254-0230
Access and Visitation. The Child Support Enforcement Division (CSED) has initiated a pilot project called Visitation Involvement Parenting (VIP), in which the CSED provides mediation services for the parents to establish a plan for access and visitation so that the child will have the benefit of both parents taking an active role in their life. The VIP Program also provides employment and training services for the non-custodial parent so that he/she can adequately provide financial support for the child and the VIP Program will provide instruction to both parents on how to request help from the Family Court to enforce the visitation order. This program is available in four counties. In order for the VIP Program to be available, both parents must live in one of the counties or the non-custodial parent must live in one of these counties and the custodial parent must agree to travel to the county where the non-custodial parent lives for any classes or mediation sessions. For more information contact Linda Cook at (803) 898-9350.
| Previous | Around the Regions, Main Page | Next |
[ HHS’ Fatherhood Initiative Home Page ]
[ What’s New | Overview | Improving Opportunities for Low-Income Fathers | Caring for Young Children | Fathers & Children’s Health | Toolkit for Fatherhood | Around the Regions | Federal Interagency Forum on Child & Family Statistics | Research | Program Evaluations ]
[ ASPE Home Page | HHS Home Page ]
Last updated June 29, 2005
 |