OCSE Responsible
Fatherhood Programs
Early Implementation Lessons

[or how to switch custody,
end child support enforcement
&
click here for DHHS original report: provide cover for pedophiles]

Even though this evaluation of the Child Access Demonstration Projects revealed that although the interventions had only limited success in solving access problems among extremely disputatious and highly conflicted couples, they did assist many noncustodial parents in the resolution of their access problems, they continue to fund this custody switching scam. Fully 65 to 70 percent of those who attempted to mediate reached an agreement; mediation and other access interventions garnered high levels of user satisfaction from both custodial and noncustodial parents. [No doubt this is the 65 to 70 percent of abusers who win sole or joint custody -- cited by the American Judges Association.]  Despite these positive outcomes, access interventions had only limited impact on child support payment patterns, which tended to track with the financial resources of the noncustodial parent rather than his access situation (Price, et al., 1994; Pearson, et al., 1996; Pearson and Thoennes, 1997; Pearson and Thoennes, 1999).

Grants
$$$
How our money is misused to discriminate against women and children
 
http://www.statejustice.org/grantinfo/chifam.htm
http://www.rwjf.org/reports/grr/029319s.htm


 
Jessica Pearson, Ph.D.
Nancy Thoennes, Ph.D.
Center for Policy Research
1570 Emerson Street
Denver, Colorado 80218

303/837-1555

David Price, Ph.D.
Jane Venohr, Ph.D.
Policy Studies Inc.
999 18th Street Suite 900
Denver CO 80202
303/863-0900

June 2000

This report was prepared for the Office of Child Support Enforcement, Administration for Children and Families, and
the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation of the United States Department of Health and Human
Services,
Washington, D.C., under Contract No. HHS-100-98-0015 with Policy Studies Inc. In addition to support from
the Department of Health and Human Services, the Multi-site Evaluation and Synthesis of Responsible Fatherhood
Projects is supported by a grant from the Ford Foundation to the Center for Policy Research. The findings and
conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official positions or policies of
the Department of Health and Human Services or its agencies nor
the views of the Ford Foundation.

Executive Summary

In late 1997, the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) funded Responsible
Fatherhood Demonstration Projects in eight states. All of these programs attempt to improve the
employment and earnings of under- and unemployed noncustodial parents, and to motivate them to
become more financially and emotionally involved in the lives of their children. Although the
projects share common goals, they do not follow a single format or a specific model of service
delivery. [When they mention noncustodial, they mean fathers --not the thousands of mothers losing
custody of their children to abusers – this is gender specific. The main motivation is money. These programs,
designed by the father’s rights leaders, protect violent men from criminal prosecution by giving them sole or
joint custody, as you will see in the following report.]  http://fatherhood.hhs.gov/guidance01/ch6.htm

Future reports will focus on the outcomes the projects achieve with respect to employment, earnings,
parent-child contact, and the payment of child support. This report is an early implementation
analysis of the programs focusing on: (1) how they are administered; (2) the types of services they
deliver; (3) the coalitions they created with community-based organizations and state and local
service agencies;
(4) how they recruit program participants; and (5) how they monitor client progress.
Below, we summarize some of the key lessons to be learned from the early experiences of the
projects with implementation and operation.

[When they refer to “parent-child contact,” they are insinuating that fathers who get lots of visitation
with their children in the form of “shared parenting” or “joint custody” will be more willing to pay their
child support.  Their real agenda, is to obliterate child support payments through court ordered custody
switching away from the primary caretaker, usually the mother, to a “joint” situation so that neither parent
owes the other any money.  Mom still gets the brunt of expenses and Dad gets reimbursed for instigating
a custody fight.  http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/news/cswaivers.htm

The coalitions they build refer to attorney/evaluator associations in the form of an array of expensive programs: 
guardian ad ltem, Cooperative Parenting, Collaborative Law, Alternative Dispute Resolution, mediation, reunification
and threat therapy, which are paid by the parties into the court administrator’s account and funded through government
programs
.]  http://www.collabgroup.com/group.htm


Questions Raised About Court-Appointed Psychologist
Reporter: Valeri Williams | WFFA.com
Updated:
Feb 16, 2000 at 05:47PM

DALLASSome parents involved in bitter child custody cases allege that they have been victims of biased and erroneous reports that make them appear to be unfit -- or even crazy. The costs of most court-ordered evaluations start at about $1,500 to $2,000 for each parent, and can easily escalate from there.

Pasadena Star News, Judges Comeback Assailed, Watchdog group says Gold's lucrative work deal, conduct in cases improper, July 16, 2001, By Howard Breuer, Staff Writer

And John Clark of Topanga Canyon, the ex-husband of actress Lynn Redgrave, who spent his 68th birthday in jail after Gold, 69, complained Clark took too long to share his evidence with the other side.  And officials at the San Marino office of Judicial Watch, who are compiling a lengthy complaint documenting what they say are multiple examples of inappropriate judicial conduct by Gold. On May 22, hours before the champagne was uncorked at Gold's retirement dinner at the Omni Los Angeles Hotel, California Chief Justice Ronald M. George assigned Gold to return to hearing cases, effectively putting Gold back to work at $490 a day in addition to retirement income.  The wage represents 90 percent of a judge's pay but doesn't include benefits. Retirement also has enabled Gold to advertise his services as a private mediation and arbitration judge at an hourly wage comparable to the daily government wage. Gold says he's yet to be hired for a private gig.

Lesson 1: It is important for architects of programs seeking to increase income
and stimulate responsible fatherhood to serve a broad group of participants
, be flexible
about program design and recruitment, and generate services that match the needs
of participants. 

No matter how extensive the planning process is, there are always elements of surprise in
implementing a responsible fatherhood program. Targeted populations fail to materialize; others
appear. Services that are popular at some sites and with some participants are unappealing to others.
Programs that define the target population too narrowly or are rigid about the mix of services that
they offer experience problems with recruitment and attendance. Program architects should be
receptive to serving a wide range of participants, adapting services to accommodate their needs and
interests, and creating new services to fill in service gaps in the broader community.

[“Program Architects” are the fathers rights guys responsible for protective parents, primary caretakers, usually mothers losing custody to abusers.
http://www.calib.com/peerta/policies/pdf/aboutgui.pdf Their premise is, based on their own studies, that children need a father in their life.  There are a vast array of independent studies that refute this showing children need consistency and financial support, that obliteration of child support and moving in and out of homes every other week produces instability, but these program architects prefer to ignore this.]

Lesson 2: Programs should take advantage of collaborations with other community
agencies, but must be knowledgeable about eligibility restrictions imposed by other
programs and funding sources.

While all eight projects have stretched their resources by collaborating with a variety of public and
private agencies to recruit participants and provide services, they have problems with restrictive
eligibility requirements for some funding streams like Welfare-to-Work and TANF. It is important
for programs to know the eligibility rules for various programs so that they steer participants
appropriately, and to explore the feasibility of widening of program requirements so that more
participants can be served.

[They have problems with programs that can’t be easily twisted and wrenched from mothers and children.  This from the National Fatherhood Initiative, Don Eberley and Wade Horn, former President George Bush cronies, who were hiding out during the Clinton Administration, scarfing up federal funds and proselytizing against needy mothers and children getting welfare funds.  Now his son, President George Bush has reinstated them, in the Faith Based Initiative and the Department of Health and Human Services overseeing programs designed to help women and children.]

[There Must Be Fifty ways To Start A Family: Social Policy and the Fragile Families of Low-Income, Noncustodial Fathers, Ronald B. Mincy and Hillard Pouncy in The Fatherhood Movement; A Call to Action edited by Wade Horn, David Blankenhorn, Mitch Pearlstein and Don Eberley, (Posted 10/06/1999)  Technical Amendment to Welfare-toWork (WtW), Elgibility Criteria for Noncustodial Parents, Guidance from the Employment and Training Administration, DOL, Sept. 21, 1998, (Posted 10/06/1999)]

Lesson 3: It is important to "customize" and "personalize" services provided to
project participants by outside agencies to ensure that they receive adequate
attention and appropriate treatments.

While it makes sense for projects to refer participants to existing employment and community
services and thus avoid service duplication, participants often need more personal attention and
assistance than is normally given to the general public. Some programs hire staff to be present at
public employment agencies or use case managers to make sure participants do not get lost in the
general flow of agency cases. There is a need for personalized outreach when it comes to recruiting
and retaining program participants and cultivating potential employers.

CRC’s http://www.vix.com/crc/conf/ How to Obtain Access/Visitation Grants--David Arnaudo, administrator of the $10 million in annual federal access grants to the states, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, CRC chapter heads administering grants in IL, NY, MD, NE and D.C., and state officials,  How to Present a Court Case & more--Gerald Solomon and Ron Milko, domestic relations attorneys, Maryland

Lesson 4: Programs serving low-income fathers have identified important gaps in
employment services to be filled - apprenticeships, on-the-job training
opportunities, and jobs with wage growth. Parents with a history of incarceration
and other barriers face particular difficulties.

Although there are many employment programs that offer "soft" skills training like résumé writing
and interviewing skills, the programs are generally lacking in opportunities for paid apprenticeships
or more substantial training programs that lead to the acquisition of marketable skills. Programs also
need to develop employment opportunities for participants with a criminal background, limited
education, sporadic or limited work history, and other barriers. Developing marketable skills and
employing project participants at livable wages is central to the success of responsible fatherhood
programs.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FAMILYCOURTREFORM/message/7347 Wade Horn’s Incarcerated Fathers Initiative & Marketing Plan

http://www.fatherhood.org/articles/pr060801.htm   J Titled "Tarzan," the television PSA utilizes footage cut from classic 1939 Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan Finds a Son, to increase awareness of the critical importance of fathers. Set to upbeat music, the viewer sees Tarzan and his son, Boy, engaged in various father-son activities - Tarzan and Boy riding an elephant, swimming through a tropical lagoon and swinging on a vine.

Pennsylvania Fatherhood Initiative, Tom Ridge, Governor, V. P. Cheney’s next best friend, seen here with his two out of shape kiddos touting bogus stats and federally funded ads scarfed up by Wade Horn via his National Fatherhood Initiative during his pendency of his Senate approval as Assistant Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.  Can we say conflict of interest???

http://www.policyexperts.org/insider/2000/feb00/ofnote.html Development Director Sought by National Fatherhood Initiative
The National Fatherhood Initiative, a six year old national civic organization, is looking for a Director of Development. The candidate must have at least 5 prior years of development experience in a comparable organization and have the proven capacity to organize a professional fundraising department that can generate rapid financial growth. Salary negotiable. CONTACT: National Fatherhood Initiative, 101 Lake Forest Blvd, Suite 360, Gaithersburg, MD 20877, 301/948-0599, fax 301/948-4325, http://www.nfi.org/.

http://wch.dhhs.state.nc.us/2001man2.htm Third Annual Fatherhood Conference

The Renaissance of Fatherhood: Connecting with the Vision
Men Are Nurturers, Too!
June 14-15, 2001
Miller-Morgan Health Sciences Building, North Carolina Central University, Durham, NC

Georgians For Children -- 2002 Children's Agenda Ballot
This Survey Ends on
September 14, 2001.
Increase funding for programs designed to support fatherhood including expanding the Fatherhood Initiative statewide.
Assist families transitioning from welfare to work into the job market upon leaving the TANF rolls including job skills training, transportation, childcare, etc.

Lesson 5: Programs are collaborating with child support agencies in new ways to
educate parents about the child support program, understand their cases, and
explore their options. Staff at the programs would like the child support system to
be even more responsive to participants' needs and financial limitations.

All the programs have developed links with child support agencies that enable them to help
participants understand their child support situation, remedy errors in their case records, and pursue
requests to adjust their child support orders.
These are welcome developments but may not go far
enough in addressing the limited income and other financial obligations of program participants and
their motivational needs. Four of the programs have adopted more substantial accommodations,
including suspending current child support orders during job training and job search, reducing
monthly arrears payments
, avoiding license suspensions and bench warrants, and reducing child
support orders to below guideline levels
. Without minimizing the financial needs of children and
the importance of personal responsibility, case managers would like child support agencies to
consider adopting more flexible policies for low-income noncustodial parents. As it is now, case
managers at several sites must follow child support policies that leave them with a limited range of
incentives to offer participants.

[They can’t get more flexible than this, bending themselves into a court-ordered pretzel.  Don’t
want to pay child support?   Don’t want to pay for an attorney?   Don’t worry, turn your divorce
into a contested custody case and profit. 
In my case, my ex's lawyer in Texas told the judge
that my ex's lawyer in CA said, if my ex  didn't pay him that United Father's of America would...”

e-mail from a noncustodial mother.]
http://www.aaml.org/Articles/2000-6/Custody%20increasingly%20contentious.htm

Lesson 6: Legal information and assistance on access, visitation, and child support
has proven to be extremely popular at every site where it is offered.

With the rise in pro se divorce, the decline in government-funded legal services (especially for
noncustodial parents), and the growth in out-of-wedlock births, many parents have never had access
to a lawyer and are mystified about where they stand with respect to child support, custody,
visitation, and parenting time. Pro se filings are frequently too complicated for participants to
complete on their own. Furthermore, many participants have had negative experiences with the
criminal justice system, which makes them reluctant to view court staff as potential sources of help.
Every program that has offered participants legal information and assistance with legal filings has
found this service to be greatly appreciated and utilized.
[They’re giving free legal help to fathers, but not to mothers.]

Federal Funded Custody Switch Hitting,  DA nasty fathers rightster made a mistake and talked too much. He says the Pittsburgh fatherhood initiative grants deadbeats $5,000 support forgiveness if they reestablish relations with their children (go for custody).  In a message dated 7/24/01 5:22:48 PM Eastern Daylight Time, athompson3@cfl.rr.com writes:  << Studies in Pittsburgh and elsewhere have shown that a large percentage of these fathers simply go underground. They work odd jobs and try to keep one step ahead of the law. Is this the society we want? Fathers driven from their children by divorce and a bureaucracy that makes them a criminal simply for being a DAD? Fortunately in Pittsburgh there is a fatherhood initiative that grants $5,000 forgiveness on back child support if the fathers will reestablish a relationship with their children. >> 

http://www.dhhs.state.nc.us/docs/fathers.htm  North Carolina’s Responsible Fatherhood Initiative Program is a voluntary mediation program designed to help noncustodial/absent fathers establish or improve access and visitation privileges with their child(ren).

North Carolina - CSBG and Child Support Enforcement funds are being used to support the activities of the Helping Dads Initiative.  The goals of this initiative are to increase public awareness on the importance of the father's role in the family, promote father-friendly workplace policies, link unemployed fathers with job training and placement services, provide parenting education to incarcerated fathers, and assist local areas to implement fatherhood initiatives. (posted 11/16/00)

Family Outreach & Counseling center, Inc. (FOCC)
in partnership with
Responsible Fatherhood Access & Visitation Program
”MALES ONLY”
Free Dinner|
Child-care will not be provided
Dates:  Saturday, May 12, 19th,  26th, & June 2nd
Time: 
10:00 AM12:00 (noon)

Where: Greater Mt. Sinai Baptist Church1243 West Boulevard

FREE Continental Breakfast will be served at each workshop session

Workshop fee is based on your involvement with the Responsible Fatherhood Access and Visitation Program:

$15-20 per workshop depending on level of involvement

$50 per workshop if not involved with the program
**Please call (704) 358-6239 or (704) 333-2033 to determine the fee amount

Lesson 7: Peer support and case management help to cultivate the sense of
concern and dignity that participants appreciate experiencing.

Responsible fatherhood programs help participants overcome their isolation and marginalization by
helping individuals realize that they are not alone, by listening and according respectful treatment
to participants, and by demonstrating genuine concern for and trying to help participants. These are
new experiences for many participants, and they are powerful because they contrast so starkly with
the disrespectful treatment participants have often experienced in their normal interactions with
bureaucracies. Peer support and case management help programs communicate concern, help
participants overcome their isolation, and motivate participants to make pro-social changes in their
attitude and behavior.

["Dan Quayle Was Right," ? This was posted by “Manny Festo” no doubt John Knight aka Danial Amneus of the anti-Semitic Fathers Manifesto, and written by Rev. James Dobson. The long-awaited report from the U.S. Census Bureau was released May 15, reflecting population trends and living patterns during the 10 year period ending in the year 2000….and those led by single fathers grew by almost 62 percent…"Nuclear Family in Meltdown."… There are a few bright spots on this dark landscape, of course. For example, the president recently nominated Dr. Wade Horn to a top position in the Department of Health and Human Services. Some of you may recognize Dr. Horn as the president of the National Fatherhood Initiative, an organization that has long proclaimed the importance of the two-parent household and warned of the increased risks that children face without a father in their lives. If confirmed as assistant secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Dr. Horn would have authority over welfare policy, child care, child support, foster care, adoption, Head Start and refugee services.22 Not surprisingly, however, the National Organization for Women has already trained its guns on Dr. Horn, erroneously suggesting that, by supporting the view that stable families with two parents are vital to child development, he will actually be pressuring women to "stay married to men who abuse them.".

Children, of course, will be the first to suffer. Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, writing in her acclaimed article "Dan Quayle Was Right," said this about the stresses experienced by children when their families fall apart:

All this uncertainty [in a single-parent home] can be devastating to children. Anyone who knows children knows that they are deeply conservative creatures. They like things to stay the same. So pronounced is this tendency that certain children have been known to request the same peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich for lunch for years on end. Children are particularly set in their ways when it comes to family, friends, neighborhoods, and schools. Yet when a family breaks up, all these things may change. The novelist Pat Conroy has observed that "each divorce is the death of a small civilization." No one feels this more acutely than children.]

Father's Manifesto massive federal funding and their anti-Semitic tripe http://fathersmanifesto.org/ ,
signatories include CRC and ACFC's Stuart Miller, http://www.backlash.com/content/gender/1994/12-dec94/page9.html]

Lesson 8: There is no single formula for recruitment and retention; many strategies need to be used to attract various populations. Referrals from child support agencies and mandatory referrals are important sources and should not be overlooked.

Recruiting program participants takes a lot of energy, time, and initiative. Programs should use many strategies to attract different populations, including the use of mass media and referrals from public agencies. Even sites that actively cultivate community referrals rely heavily on referrals from child support technicians. The projects help technicians as well by giving them a new, more humane "enforcement" remedy. Mandatory referrals from child protective agencies, courts, jail diversion programs, and criminal justice agencies are also important at most of the sites and are believed to promote cohesion by ensuring a group of regular attendees. The dichotomy between "voluntary" and "mandatory" participants may be less meaningful than expected, with some mandatory clients becoming eager and whole-hearted participants and some voluntary clients dropping out. The key appears to be triggering an individual's internal commitment to the program and the plan of action it inspires.

Wade Horn and he National Fatherhood Initiative has received a $500,000 grant award to finance a targeted public education campaign throughout the year 2001. Funds will be utilized to write, produce, distribute, and market two new television public service announcements and to facilitate marketing, distribution, tracking, and follow-up activities conducted by the Ad Council and a prominent ad agency for the entire 2001 public education campaign. (posted 4/19/01) He got this $$$money$$$ while awaiting Senate approval for Assisitant Director of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Lesson 9: Recruiting young or new fathers has not been easy. Efforts based at hospitals have not been successful where they have been tried; programs are experimenting with school-based referrals.

To date, only two sites have aggressively pursued referrals from hospitals and other health facilities that serve newly delivering, unmarried parents. Despite considerable staff energy dedicated to recruitment, however, there have not been many referrals. Several factors make it difficult to do outreach in hospital settings: brief hospital stays, rival goals and concerns, and high staff turnover on maternity floors are but a few. Some of the same factors also affect outreach at postpartum settings, with fathers tending not to be on scene, and visiting nurses and other public health personnel being extremely preoccupied with immunizations, nutrition, and effective baby care. Some programs are exploring alternative ways to reach young fathers, and have begun to teach classes at local high schools and deploy younger staff members to do one-on-one recruiting at youth groups and churches.

http://www.fatherhood.org/psa_tv.htm

Lesson 10: Programs need to have dedicated and energetic staff who know about community services and are good at identifying resources.

The success of the Responsible Fatherhood Demonstration Projects appears to be tied to the commitment of the staff. Reaching alienated and disenfranchised populations and convincing them to change their attitudes and behaviors is hard work. It takes time, persistence, repeated contacts, fast action, patience, firmness, and endless resourcefulness. Programs need to recruit key program staff who are inspired and inspiring. They also need to be knowledgeable about community services in order to maximize opportunities for participants. First-hand knowledge is key. The best referrals are not made out of directories, but result from long-standing familiarity with community services, eligibility requirements, available resources, and relevant personnel. Dedicated, knowledgeable, and energetic staff can better counsel and steer parents into a course of action that makes them more financially and emotionally responsible for their children.

 

http://www.fatherhood.org/psa_radio.htm

Chapter I

 

The Context and Setting for the Responsible Fatherhood Programs

This is a preliminary analysis of the eight Responsible Fatherhood Demonstration Projects funded by the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) in late 1997. It focuses on how the programs are administered; the types of services each program delivers; the coalitions that have been created between the programs, community-based organizations, and state and local service agencies; how program participants are recruited; and how each program monitors client progress. This report covers the time period from initial start-up in late 1997 through December 1999. It documents the implementation of the projects and the major changes that have occurred at the sites with respect to program administration, goals, recruitment, and service delivery. Future reports will focus on the outcomes the projects achieve with respect to enhanced employment, education, access, parenting, and child support payments.

Historical Context of the Programs

Since OCSE's inception in 1975, Congress has gradually expanded the federal role in child support and given the program new tools so that it can more effectively handle increasingly larger caseloads and meet the more aggressive performance goals established by the passage of legislation in 1984, 1988, and 1996. The child support program now includes (Legler, 1996):

  • automated case management and information systems;
  • the Federal Parent Locator Service (FPLS);
  • rigorous paternity establishment performance standards;
  • expedited procedures to establish and enforce support orders;
  • the mandated use of uniform guidelines to determine award levels;
  • immediate and automatic use of wage withholding; and
  • use of tax intercepts, property liens, credit bureau reporting, and license revocations.

Case Management:

http://www.ancpr.org/caselaw.htm

http://www.fatherhoodcoalition.org/

http://www.infoline.org/Parents/Fathers/CTPrograms.asp

http://www.ncfm.org/readdiv.htm

Richmond, Doug, HOW TO DISAPPEAR COMPLETELY AND NEVER BE FOUND, (Paladin Press, Boulder, CO., 1994). Author: Doug Richmond. For most, the thought of changing names and jobs, cutting all ties and escaping to a tropical paradise is just a tantalizing daydream. This book will help you translate your dreams into action, as thousands of others have! Contains practical advice on planning a disappearance, getting money and a foolproof ID, who will start looking for you and the methods they will use and how to cope in your new environment under your new identity.

__________________________________________________________

1 While we recognize that either mothers or fathers may be noncustodial parents, most of the research being cited has been conducted with noncustodial fathers.  As a result, this section of the report uses the term “fathers.”

[What about the thousands of battered women and noncustodial mothers like Jeannie Wrightson, who make less than $20,000 per year, who was court  ordered to pay her wealthy securities analyst/international distributor/child pornographer husband child support, while his child support was exhonerated by the State of Georgia?] Creative Loafing "Losing Custody"

__________________________________________________________________


Enhancing the employment status and earning capacity of men at lower education and skill levels appears to be one of the most promising ways to encourage poor fathers to assume more parental responsibilities, including the payment of child support. Several studies support this conclusion. In a 1995 study, for example, Testa and Krogh found that single African American men with stable employment are twice as likely to marry the mother of the children they conceive out of wedlock. A 1990 study of 289 single teen-mother families on AFDC in Wisconsin found the father's work experience to be the strongest predictor of his remaining involved in the child's life (Danzinger and Radin, 1990). A 1996 study showed that unmarried parents who are employed are significantly more likely to acknowledge paternity on a voluntary basis (Pearson and Thoennes, 1996). Finally, several studies find that most parents who are not paying child support regularly attribute nonpayment to economic factors and unstable employment patterns (Pearson, et al., 1996; Haskins, 1985; Braver, et al., 1993). (In Dr. Sanford Braver's book [p. 210], Dr. Ralph Underwager estimates that in allegations of sex-abuse, 97.5 percent are false.) 

http://www.omsys.com/mmcd/courtrev.htm
An excellent study on the incidence of sexual abuse in divorce was done by Thoennes and Tjaden of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts Research Unit in Denver, with funding from the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect. Data was gathered from domestic relations court staff in eight jurisdictions, during a six-month period. Staff in these jurisdictions completed a questionnaire each time there was an allegation of sexual abuse in a custody or visitation dispute. More than 9,000 families in these areas had custody or visitation disputes. Of these 9,000 families, less than 2 percent had allegations of sexual abuse. Thoennes & Tjaden, supra note 1, at 153.

While it is popularly believed that all allegations of sexual abuse in divorce involved the mother accusing the father, that was not the case. Mothers accused biological fathers in only 48 percent of the cases. Stepfathers were accused by mothers in 6 percent of cases. Fathers accused mothers or mother’s new partner in 16 percent of cases and dads accused third parties in another 6 percent of cases. The remainder of accusations were made by third parties.9

Half of the allegations of sexual abuse among the custody/visitation dispute group, overall, were considered founded. In 33 percent of cases, no abuse was believed to have occurred and in 17 percent no determination could be reached.10 These figures are about the same as validation rates for cases reported to child protective agencies.11 Mother’s allegations against father were considered likely to have been accurate in 49 percent of cases and unlikely in 33 percent. Father’s allegations against mother were considered likely in 42 percent of cases and unlikely in 41 percent. The remainder of the cases were indeterminate.12

To get a different view of this issue, consider that approximately 1,000,000 divorces are granted per year. About 600,000 of divorcing couples have minor children, but only about 90,000 have custody disputes.13 If only 2 percent of disputed custody or visitation cases have allegations of sexual abuse, then only about 3 out of every 1,000 divorces involving children have allegations of sexual abuse. This is not an epidemic.

Research in
Australia has had similar findings. Allegations of sexual abuse were present in only 1.7 percent of custody or visitation dispute cases.14

In Canada, the hospital records of all children who were seen for suspected physical or sexual abuse were reviewed at a large hospital. In cases where sexual abuse was suspected, children who were involved in custody or visitation disputes had just as much physical evidence of sexual abuse as children who were not the object of a custody or visitation dispute. Interestingly enough, there was evidence of physical battering more often in children who were part of a custody or visitation dispute, than in children who were not.15

The beliefs that false allegations of sexual abuse in divorce are epidemic and that it is mothers who falsely accuse fathers are not supported by good, methodologically sound research.]

Enhancing the noncustodial parent's access to the child has often been suggested as another means of encouraging voluntary payment among obligors at all income levels. Although the research evidence is mixed (see e.g., Weitzman, 1985; Berkman, 1986), most studies do find a positive correlation between visitation and support performance. For example, more than two decades ago, Chambers (1979) found that fathers with little or no contact with their children after the divorce paid only about 34 percent of their child support, while fathers in regular contact paid 85 percent. A decade ago, Seltzer (1991) reached similar conclusions when she analyzed a national probability sample of adults in the United States. Two-thirds of those with frequent contact paid child support, while payments were made by only one-fifth of those with no contact. More recent census data show that noncustodial parents who owed child support in 1995 were more than twice as likely to have made payments if they had either joint custody or visitation rights (Scoon-Rogers, 1999).

Divorced Fathers Make Strongest Impact With Child Support, Penn State University, Dr. Valerie King, Divorced fathers help their children more by consistent payment of their child support than by the number of visits made to their children

Improving child support payment may also be a means of increasing access. It has been impossible to definitively discern a causal relationship because access and child support compliance are so interrelated and visitation is so difficult to accurately measure (Cabrera and Evans, 2000; Pearson and Thoennes, 1988). However, in her most recent analysis of the 1987-88 National Survey of Families and Households, Seltzer (2000: 56) concludes that paying "child support may have a small direct effect [on access], even after father's visiting patterns have been established." Similarly, Edin, et al. (2000) conclude that fathers who could not provide economically felt a sense of shame that often led them to withdraw from their children. Whether payment leads to contact, contact leads to payment, or both contact and payment are the result of other variables, such as a sense of commitment, it is clear that fathers who see their children do a better job of paying support.

In light of these findings, child support policies have increasingly moved toward approaches that emphasize ability and willingness to pay support. The Child Access Demonstration Projects were the first official steps that the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement took to support interventions aimed at addressing the issues of access and visitation. Implemented in seven different states, the project involved the use of mediation, parent education, counseling, and other measures to assist parents in communicating about the needs of their children following parental separation and divorce, and to increase the involvement of fathers in the lives of their children.

The evaluation of the Child Access Demonstration Projects revealed that although the interventions had only limited success in solving access problems among extremely disputatious and highly conflicted couples, they did assist many noncustodial parents in the resolution of their access problems. Fully 65 to 70 percent of those who attempted to mediate reached an agreement; mediation and other access interventions garnered high levels of user satisfaction from both custodial and noncustodial parents. Despite these positive outcomes, access interventions had only limited impact on child support payment patterns, which tended to track with the financial resources of the noncustodial parent rather than his access situation (Price, et al., 1994; Pearson, et al., 1996; Pearson and Thoennes, 1997; Pearson and Thoennes, 1999).

In a second demonstration project, the Parents' Fair Share Demonstration (PFS), the Administration on Children and Families (ACF), along with the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), the Department of Labor, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, experimented with a comprehensive approach to assist under- or unemployed noncustodial parents with becoming more financially and emotionally involved in the lives of their children. The model that was adopted at seven research sites included employment assistance, peer support, case management, and temporarily lowered child support orders. The findings reported to date indicate that offering services helps to distinguish between those who are unwilling to pay and those who are unable to pay (i.e., identifying unreported employment and resources, and raising child support payments). Although there was improved child support compliance, the services had little effect on improving earnings and employment for most participants (Martinez and Miller, 2000; Johnson and Doolittle, 1995; Doolittle and Lynn, 1998). The exception to this were the most disadvantaged fathers, who experienced moderate improvements in employment and earnings (Martinez and Miller, 2000).

Arguing that PFS's disappointing results were due to the fact that most clients were referred by the courts, had substantial child support debts, and had been separated from their children for a number of years, some researchers have urged PFS-like programs to focus on serving unwed fathers at the birth of their babies when they are attached to the mothers and their babies, and have high hopes for raising their children (McLanahan, 1999). This is the approach that will be employed by Partners for Fragile Families. Under this demonstration project, the National Center for Strategic Nonprofit Planning and Community Leadership (NPCL), with Ford Foundation support, (2) made awards to 10 states to implement demonstration projects requiring that child support agencies and community-based organizations collaborate to recruit and assist poor noncustodial parents for the purpose of promoting employment, paternal contact, and child support payment.

2        These projects were recently granted waivers to receive matching funds from the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement

Department of Health & Human Services, Fatherhood Initiative, HHS and its Regional Offices are working to coordinate fatherhood activities throughout the states and have sponsored a variety of forums to bring together local public and private organizations and individuals to support fathers… Access and Visitation. The District of Columbia provides a hotline for parents with access and visitation problems to provide them with education and information materials and service referrals that will help solve their parenting problems.  Want custody?  Tired of paying child support?  No problemo Amnesty Week 2000. As a spin-off of a Region III DC Metro Project, the District joined Maryland and Northern Virginia in Amnesty Week 2000, which occurred in September 2000. This initiative allowed non-custodial parents with outstanding child support warrants coming into local offices to start paying overdue support without the fear of arrest.  Need legal help to deal with that pesky ex-wife and needy children?  Access and Visitation. Maryland provides a mix of services through community-based organizations such as mediation, counseling, design of alternative custody arrangements, as well, as supervised and neutral drop-off and pickup sites. In some cases, these programs are used in conjunction with job services to provide comprehensive responsible fatherhood projects. Contact Donna Sims at (410) 767-7876.
Based upon the growing interest in increasing father involvement with their children, Congress included measures in its welfare reform legislation to address the access and economic problems of noncustodial parents. In 1997, 1998, and 1999, Congress appropriated $10 million to states to promote the development of a variety of programs designed to alleviate the problems associated with access and visitation. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act also requires states to have the authority to order noncustodial parents who are delinquent in child support into work activities if their children are receiving public assistance, and approximately 18 states have developed programs to provide employment and training services to low-income noncustodial fathers (Sorensen, 1997). Congressional interest has remained high, and in 1999, the House of Representatives passed the Fathers Count Act of 1999 (H.R. 3073), which proposes spending $140 million over four years to support and evaluate projects to help fathers meet their responsibilities as husbands, parents, and providers. To date, no corresponding bill has been passed by the Senate.

Support for demonstration projects promoting responsible fatherhood has continued at OCSE. In 1997, following a competitive process, the agency made multi-year awards to seven states to conduct demonstration projects that provide services to noncustodial parents designed to promote their financial and emotional participation in the lives of their children. In 1997, HHS also granted Washington State a waiver to receive matching funds from the federal child support enforcement agency for programs aimed at providing services to help noncustodial parents. These eight programs, collectively referred to as the Responsible Fatherhood Projects, are the focus of the present report. Below, we provide some basic background information about each of these demonstration sites, including information about each site's child support policies.

Chapter 2

Profile of the Programs

The following is a brief description of the responsible fatherhood programs operating at the eight sites funded by OCSE and their status as of December 31, 1999. Some elements of these dynamic projects undoubtedly have changed since then. Across the sites, the purpose of the programs was to explore ways of improving parental involvement among low-income noncustodial parents from both an emotional and financial point of view. Beyond this commonality, however, the sites had complete latitude in program design. The funders did not require the use of a single model of service delivery. Every site was at liberty to craft unique collaborations, select different clients, and offer different services. Highlights of the programs are summarized in Table 3 at the end of this chapter.


California

Administered by the child support enforcement agency in San Mateo County (known as the Family Support division), this project has two major components: services to promote contact between noncustodial parents and their children, and employment services. Services to promote contact are frequently referred to as access and visitation services, and include interventions like mediation and supervised visitation.

[1st Annual Fatherhood Breakfast  http://www.co.sanmateo.ca.us/cmo/annualreport2000/health.html

The Dads Count Breakfast was co-chaired by Supervisor Jerry Hill and Judge Phrasel Shelton and initiated by the Fatherhood Collaborative of San Mateo County to bring greater awareness and support of fatherhood issues in this county. Three organizations were honored for their father-and family-friendly work policies: PG&E, Rod-L Electronics, Inc., and the Sequoia Union High School District. The excellent attendance at this event and support from the Board of Supervisors and the public highlight the timeliness and importance of focusing attention on fathers and their concerns. Since the event, the Public Health Division and the Collaborative have been awarded $80,000 by the Peninsula Community Foundation to hire a full-time Fatherhood Collaborative Coordinator, who will develop and coordinate the Collaborative programs.]

The most commonly used intervention to resolve parental conflict after a separation or divorce and to promote parent-child contact is mediation. Mediation services are provided by a mediator at the domestic relations court, who was hired expressly under the grant to serve program clients. The court-based mediation program conducts divorce mediations for the court, but has traditionally served cases set for hearing. Thanks to the grant, all Family Support Division clients are eligible for mediation services at no charge to the parties, although participation is voluntary. Referrals are made by all types of child support personnel, including customer service representatives, attorneys, establishment technicians, and enforcement staff. Child support staff view the offer of free mediation as an effective way of responding to parents who mention access problems when discussing their non-compliance with child support. Staff refer clients regularly for mediation, and program staff report that about half of those referred follow through and attend a mediation session. Mediation is typically conducted in a single session, although clients can pursue additional mediation with staff at a community-based organization providing a variety of support services for families.

Employment assistance is available for parents who indicate that they are unemployed and consequently unable to pay child support. Staff make referrals to Success Central, the county vendor providing employment assistance to TANF clients. To date, very few noncustodial parents have taken advantage of this option.

Normally, there is no case management for project participants; most are served in a single mediation session. A fraction of clients, however, may be referred by mediators for case management, parent education, and/or supervised visitation services offered at the Family Service Agency. In addition, some families may avail themselves of these services directly as a result of public outreach campaigns conducted by both the child support agency and the Family Service Agency.

As part of its fatherhood project, the San Mateo County Family Support Division hired a half-time community outreach coordinator to improve both client and community knowledge about the child support program and the services available to assist clients of the Family Support Division. The Division's outreach activities have included:

  • Editing, printing, and distributing a newsletter to all Family Support Division clients highlighting the mediation and employment assistance services;

  • Developing and printing three new brochures for noncustodial parents in Spanish and English on child support, including paternity establishment and child support order modification;

  • Developing a summary brochure that lists all "father friendly" services in the county that is sent to new Family Support Division clients and fathers signing the in-hospital paternity declarations;

  • Providing in-service training programs for other county agencies and community-based organizations to educate them about the child support process;

  • Implementing a high school "child support and parental responsibility class" in a number of schools throughout the county;

  • Participating in numerous city, county, and community events to provide information about the Family Support Division services; and

  • Working with other county and community agencies to create the "San Mateo County Fatherhood Collaborative," which will promote and coordinate programs throughout the county that support fathers. [http://www.smhealth.org/pr/htspr00-05.html  Dads Count, Family Friendly Employer Awards, The Dads Count Breakfast is a part of the efforts initiated by the Fatherhood Collaborative of San Mateo County to bring greater awareness and support around fatherhood issues in this county. The excellent attendance at this event, and the support from the Board of Supervisors, Superintendent of Schools, local mayors and city council members, judges, county government leaders, businesses and the general public highlight the timeliness and importance of focusing attention on fathers and their concerns. Continued activity on these issues will occur through the Fatherhood Collaborative of San Mateo County.]

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[http://www.hewlett.org/grants/2000/fam_com00.htm 2000 Family & Community Development Grants as of December 31, 2000 2000 Family & Community Development Grants as of December 31, 2000

Responsible Fatherhood and Male Involvement

Alameda County Bar Association, Volunteer Legal Services Corporation, Oakland, CA
($90,000/1 year)
For the Family Advocates Law project

Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula, Menlo Park, CA
($15,000/1 year)
For the fatherhood program at the Center for a New Generation

Fairfax-San Anselmo Children’s Center, Fairfax, CA
($65,000/1 year)
For the Bay Area Male Involvement Network

Family Stress Center, Concord, CA
($40,000/1 year)
For the Proud Fathers program

Institute for the Advanced Study of Black Family Life and Culture, Oakland, CA
($65,000/2 years)
For the HAWK Federation program

Jewish Family and Children’s Services, San Francisco, CA
($180,000/2 years)
For the Fathers’ Support project

Male Advocacy in Pregnancy and Parenting Coalition, Richmond, CA
($75,000/1 year)
For general support

National Center for Strategic Nonprofit Planning and Community Leadership, Washington, DC
($400,000/3 years)
For the Bay Area Partners for Fragile Families project

The University of Pennsylvania, National Center on Fathers and Families, Philadelphia, PA
($350,000/2 years)
For Phase II of the Fathering Integrated Data System project

Princeton University, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing, Princeton, NJ
($200,000/3 years)
For the Oakland-based component of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study

Pro Bono Project of Santa Clara County, San Jose, CA
($90,000/1 year)
For the Family Law Advocates program

San Francisco Bar Association, Volunteer Legal Services Program, San Francisco, CA
($90,000/1 year)
For the Family Law Advocates program

Total: 12 grants totaling $1,660,000]


Project staff estimate that 300 clients received mediation services in 1999 and that 51 clients were referred for employment services. Project staff believe that the offer of employment services has had the effect of identifying previously undisclosed employment among some targeted clients. Among those referred, none had any payments in the 12 months prior to referral. After referral, about half made at least one child support payment. Staff also estimate that mediation stimulated payment among those who had made no child support payments in the six months prior to mediation, with the average increase in collections standing at $1,461 for each case that reached an agreement. The evaluators will be assessing these patterns in greater detail in subsequent studies of project outcomes.


Colorado

Administered by the El Paso County Department of Human Services in Colorado Springs, this project, called the Parent Opportunity Program (POP), targets unemployed and under-employed noncustodial parents for job training and placement, parenting education, access assistance, and child support help. It involves a collaboration among a variety of public and private agencies: the El Paso Department of Human Services, including its special Center on Fathering; Maximus, the privatized child support vendor; Goodwill Industries, the privatized employment vendor; and the Women's Resource Agency.

The project is staffed by a coordinator and one full-time and one half-time case managers, with specialized liaison workers at Maximus, Goodwill, and the Women's Resource Agency. During an intake interview with a POP case manager, noncustodial parents tell their story, develop a case plan (which results in a signed contract), and receive referrals to appropriate support services, including employment assistance and personalized child support interventions. Other agencies provide services on an as-needed basis, including mediation through the Office of Dispute Resolution in the Fourth Judicial District, and other community organizations for supervised visitation, counseling, drug and alcohol evaluations, and mental health treatment. The child support agency suspends child support obligations for eligible participants for up to three months and will review and modify orders. The Women's Resource Agency has been especially helpful in contacting custodial mothers to see if they are willing to mediate or agree to temporary support abatements. The Agency also offers supportive services to custodial parents, and stresses the importance of fathers in children's lives.

The majority of the 100 clients referred to the project by the end of 1999 were referred by child support technicians. In the first year of operations, each establishment technician at Maximus was instructed to send a specified number of cases to the program each month. This policy was subsequently revised, and both establishment and enforcement technicians have been asked to refer any relevant case to the program. Technicians convey their referrals directly to POP case managers so that project staff may make direct contact if individuals fail to make contact on their own. Over time, referrals from other sources have grown considerably. Non-child support referrals are routinely made by community corrections and parole officers, court-appointed special advocates in child abuse and neglect cases, and other community agencies.

The Center on Fathering, which is a special unit within social services, has provided a variety of services to POP participants, including (at various times) peer support interventions, classes on conflict resolution, and fathering/co-parenting classes.

Maryland

The OCSE grant to the Community Services Administration of the Maryland Department of Human Resources funds two Responsible Fatherhood Demonstration Projects. In Baltimore, the grant builds on the Young Fathers/Responsible Fathers Program (YF/RF), a state-funded initiative in operation since 1994. The OCSE-funded initiative is known as the Responsible Fatherhood Project (Baltimore RFP). The grant funds one staff member, but the project also draws on seven additional YF/RF staff members. The grant also affords the initiation of father-focused programming in Charles County, a suburban portion of the state.

One objective of Baltimore RFP was to expand the type of services provided by YF/RF to the southern quadrant of the city, which is economically distressed and geographically isolated. As part of that effort, Baltimore RFP collaborated with two key entities in South Baltimore: Harbor Hospital, which houses the project office and whose pediatric social work staff agreed to assist with recruiting new parents and pregnant teenagers; and the Southern Neighborhood Service Center, which has linkages to neighborhood associations and community groups in the area. Other major project collaborators are the Baltimore Urban League and the Baltimore Employment Exchange, which provide employment services and weekly employment development classes.

Baltimore RFP targets unwed or expectant fathers (including those who are in intact families) ages 14 to 45 who "are at risk of forsaking their parental responsibilities . . . due to social and economic disadvantages." Clients meet with case managers for an intake assessment, during which they identify their needs, capabilities, and goals.


All clients are instructed to attend six months of weekly, two-hour parenting/peer support sessions. Baltimore RFP uses the Responsible Fatherhood Program curriculum developed by the National Center for Strategic Nonprofit Planning and Community Leadership (NPCL), which includes parenting, life skills, and relationship components. Those who attend at least 80 percent of the class sessions receive a certificate at a formal graduation ceremony. Graduates may participate in an "After Care Program" for continued group support. To promote attendance, participants receive two free bus tokens and a $4 MacDonald's gift certificate each time they come to Baltimore RFP for a class or meeting with a case manager. They also get a stipend of $50 at graduation and an interim stipend of $50 if they attend regularly for the first four months.


In addition to the parenting/peer support component, clients w