Transforming Colorado’s Child Support Services to a Two-Generation Approach
The Colorado Department of Human Services implemented in a pilot project to change its approach to delivery of child support services from enforcement to multi-generational. This report combines the implementation findings, which have already been released, with the findings of the impact study. The main goal of the project was to direct parents to employment…
Read MoreTransforming Colorado’s Child Support Services to a Two-Generation Approach: Lessons Learned from Implementing an 11-County Pilot Study
The Child Support Services Division of the Colorado Department of Human Services made a conscious decision to change its service delivery method from an enforcement approach to a two-generational (2Gen), family-centered approach. Eleven counties have participated in a pilot project, the 2Gen Child Support Services Transformation Project, to implement the 2Gen approach.
Read More2Gen Procedures Integrating a two-Generation Approach to Child Support Services Colorado’s Service Level Approach
In 2013, Child Support Services Division (CSS) of the Colorado Department of Human Services began an agency shift its philosophy of providing services. CSS wanted to provide services in a way that would benefit the entire family.
Read MoreStates Leading the Way: Practical Solutions That Lift Up Children and Families
This is a link to Ascend at The Aspen Institute website where this report can be downloaded. The report “profiles effective solutions from Ascend partners throughout the United States and the work driven by leaders in Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, Tennessee, and Utah. It contains recommendations on processes that lead to better outcomes…
Read MoreIntegrating A Two-Generation Approach to Child Support Services: Colorado’s Service Level Approach
In 2013, the Colorado Department of Human Services, Division of Child Support Services began a shift in culture toward a family-centered, two-generation (2Gen) approach. As part of this effort, the child support program implemented services across generations within families. This document, prepared for the Colorado Department of Human Services, provides guidance for establishing and implementing…
Read MoreLife After Welfare
This report, which includes a chapter on child support, examines outcomes of Maryland families who left cash assistance, focusing on their characteristics, employment and earnings outcomes, and the receipt of other public benefits. The main findings indicate that families’ financial situations improved after exiting Maryland’s Temporary Cash Assistance (TCA) program, compared with their circumstances before…
Read MoreChild Support Collections to Offset Out-of-Home Placement Costs: A Study of Cost Effectiveness
Families that experience out-of-home placement (OHP) of a child in the child welfare or juvenile justice system are disproportionately poor, and the reasons for OHP often stem from poverty. Because OHP is expensive, and society values parental responsibility, federal and state laws require that parents be referred to the child support system to help offset…
Read MoreLow-income and Never-Married Families: Service and Support at the Intersection of Family Court and Child Support Agency Systems
This report describes the challenges child support enforcement agencies face with respect to the adversarial nature of their processes, and the poverty, unemployment, and other barriers to the economic security of poor and never-married parents who comprise the child support caseload.
Read MoreA Blueprint for Economic Security
This paper explores the intersections of the work-related experiences of men and fathers, child support enforcement policies and practices and support services for fathers with low-incomes. Consideration is given to the historical factors that are complicating efforts to end poverty. The Blueprint also proposes changes to child support enforcement efforts and support services for low-income…
Read MoreIf I Had Money: Black Fathers and Children, Child Support Debt, and Economic Security in Mississippi
This is a link to a report prepared for The Coalition for a Prosperous Mississippi (CPM), which supports a policy agenda to increase economic security for Mississippians. One major economic barrier for young black men is child support, particularly child support that is owed to the State as a result of their children receiving Temporary…
Read MoreWhat We Want to Give Our Kids: How Child Support Debt Can Diminish Wealth Building for Struggling Black Fathers and Their Families
This is a link to a study of black fathers and their child support debt using focus groups of 35 black fathers in 6 U.S. cities. It describes how child support debt prevents poor noncustodial parents, who are often struggling black fathers, from becoming financially stable and accumulating assets. This child support debt often contributes…
Read MoreDon’t Forget Dad: Addressing Women’s Poverty by Rethinking Forced and Outdated Child Support Policies
This is a link to an article in which the author explores the linkage between poverty among women and low income men, and posits that harsh and adversarial child support enforcement policies polarizes the parents, and have negative impacts on the father, mother, and children. The author proposes transforming the “current uniformly applied punitive policies…
Read MoreWelfare, Research, and Poverty Status of Female-Headed Families with Children 1987-2013 Congressional Research Service
This report focuses on trends in the economic well-being of female-headed families with children, the principal group affected by the replacement of Aid for Dependent Families with Children (AFDC) with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Female-headed families and their children are especially at risk of poverty, and children in such families account for well…
Read MoreIn Hospital Paternity Acknowledgment: A Portrait of Father Involvement and Support in the First Three Years after a Non-Marital Birth
This is a link to a report prepared by the Texas Child and Family Research Partnership for the Texas Office of the Attorney General, Child Support Division (OAG). It contains recommendations regarding ways to expand paternity education, increase or sustain federal performance of paternity measures, and reduce the incidence of rescissions of paternity establishments. Ultimately,…
Read MoreWhen Father Doesn’t Bother: Conditioning the Failure to Establish Paternity In-Hospital on Fathers’ Presence at the Birth
This is a link to a working paper in which the authors examine the failure to establish paternity in the hospital, where parents are offered an opportunity to voluntarily acknowledge the child’s paternity at the time of the child’s birth. Most fathers who are present at the time of the birth acknowledge paternity in hospital,…
Read MoreTo What Extent Do Children Benefit from Child Support?
Child support provides a significant source of income for poor families. Child support also reduces the number of poor children by a half million and lessens income inequality among children eligible for it. Unfortunately, about 70 percent of poor children eligible for child support were not getting it in 1996.
Read MoreThe Implementation of the Partners for Fragile Families Demonstration Projects
This report describes the design and implementation of the Partners for Fragile Families (PFF) demonstration projects.
Read MorePartners for Fragile Families Demonstration Projects: Employment and Child Support Outcomes and Trends
The Partnership for Fragile Families Demonstration projects, operating in 13 sites across the country, provided a range of services aimed at increasing the capacity of young, economically disadvantaged fathers in becoming financial and emotional resources to their children and sought to reduce poverty and welfare dependence. As part of a multi-component evaluation, this report examines…
Read MorePromising Antipoverty Strategies for Families
In this paper, researchers review changes in family structure, the relationship between family structure and employment, and early evidence on differential impacts of the recession on families.
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