Best Practices / Child Education
Child Support, Child Care, and Head Start Collaboration: Innovations & Ideas
The Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement funded six demonstration grant projects in 1997-2000 to promote collaboration between the State child support, child care, and Head Start programs. Grants went to the following:
Recognizing the story behind Alaska’s number—a relatively small, culturally diverse population, living hundreds of miles from the State agency, and with transportation between towns possible only by boat or plane—Alaska designated a far-reaching collaboration with a sweeping range of State, local, and community agencies and organizations.
Connecticut took this leap and invited the Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund (CWEALF), a community-based organization with strength in women’s issues and advocacy, to coordinate the State’s demonstration project, piloted at three ethnically diverse sites. It focused on fatherhood initiatives as well as on increasing low-income family participation in child support services.
To enhance the economic security of non-TANF families, Maryland’s collaborations were expanded to reach parents not receiving TANF or POC, encouraging them to establish paternity and collect child support to stay off welfare.
The organizations involved envisioned a sophisticated system designed to provide a seamless delivery of services to families. A core team of State staff supported the resulting collaboration—each assigned to one of the project’s four regions—and implemented a formal relationship of cross-training, information sharing, and outreach efforts among all the programs.
Parenting Corners provide literature and information to help teach parents about child support, child development, child care, primary health care, and other services. They serve as centers where parents can establish paternity, obtain health screenings, and receive referrals to service providers. They also serve as staging areas for positive parent/child activities intended to involve both custodial and noncustodial parents.
Kids in the Middle Educational Program – San Mateo, Calif.
An educational program operated by the county Family Service agency linked with the child support office, this bilingual (Spanish or English) educational program includes bilingual mediators. It is designed to help parents focus on their children’s needs while the family is going through divorce, separation, or other family transition.