U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services
370 L'Enfant Promenade, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20447
Sample Models / Employment
Below are sample collaborations with employment agencies.
Milwaukee County Children First Program
In Milwaukee, the Children First program operates at local one-stop job centers and is in collaboration with local nonprofit agencies that run the TANF program. It is funded out of Maintenance of Effort (MOE) funds that come from the State.
This program is a community service provided by the…
Noncustodial parents who are not working or cannot make all of their child support payments are assigned to a Children First Agency for up to 32 hours per week, for 16 weeks of assistance.
The agency requires the parents to participate in assigned activities that will help them find and keep work. These may include the following:
The program helps noncustodial parents…
Participants who find work will be able to begin paying child support. Those who do not participate still owe the full amount of their child support, plus interest, and the child support agency may ask the court to find them in contempt of court, punishable by a jail term of up to six months.
Trabajo Andale, El Paso, Texas
Noncustodial Parent (NCP) Choices model is straightforward: Non-compliant noncustodial parents are given the choice of paying their child support, participating in workforce services, or going to jail. The primary distinguishing features of NCP Choices are mandatory participation and clear choices—pay, play, or pay the consequences.
The project is referred to generally as the Noncustodial Parent Choices Initiative, though in some sites, local partners have given their project a distinctive name of its own, such as El Paso’s Project Trabajo Andale. The NCP Choices program targets its efforts on unemployed noncustodial parents with unpaid child support orders in cases managed by the OAG’s Child Support Division that were associated with custodial parents who currently or previously had received Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Medicaid, or Food Stamps benefits. The noncustodial parents also had to reside in the geographical area served by the participating local workforce boards.
In 2005, the Texas Office of the Attorney General (OAG) partnered with the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) on a demonstration project referred to as the Noncustodial Parent Choices Initiative (or NCP Choices). The Office of Family Initiatives and local judiciary are partners in this project as well.
The project links child support (IV-D) courts responsible for child support issues, OAG child support staff, and local workforce development boards to encourage workforce development of unemployed and/or underemployed noncustodial parents with unpaid child support orders, whose children either currently receive public assistance or have previously received public assistance.
It operates in five sites in six large, urban counties with high TANF caseloads.
Choices participants, in the absence of the NCP Choices program, would consist only of custodial parents. Participation begins with a workforce orientation for applicants (WOA) as their introduction to workforce center services. The initial activities provided to the Choices participants include both job readiness and job search.
When participants cannot find immediate employment, they participate in community service requirements. Those participants actively pursuing employment are also eligible for support services, including child care, transportation assistance, work-related expenses, and other support services to help in employment efforts. Some training opportunities are made available as well. Those failing to participate without “good cause” suffer sanctions and discontinuation of benefits.
Finally, Choices participants are granted post-employment services to assist in “job retention, wage gains, career progression and progression to self-sufficiency.” Given this model, the NCP Choices program was developed as a complementary pilot project to serve noncustodial parents.
The program helps solve several barriers to compliance that these parents face: language barriers, lack of a high school diploma, and poor work history. Some want to comply with their child support orders, but do not think that they can. Going to jail does not help them; this program gives them options.
Results:
Workforce providers, child support agencies, and nonprofit community-based organizations had previously engaged in efforts to connect unemployed noncustodial parents with employment services so that those individuals could better support their child financially. The outcomes or impacts from most of these projects were modest, generally resulting in only slight increases in earnings among participants and some gains in child support paid.
Programs with the best outcomes—that is, higher and more consistent child support payments—“were those that linked a strong judicial order to participate in employment services, close monitoring of noncustodial parent program participation by workforce staff, reports of non-participation back to the courts, and ‘swift and certain consequences’ for non-participation (in other words, jail time!)” (OAG, 2005).
This program recognizes that difficult-to-employ noncustodial parents need a different service approach than “universal” workforce customers.
Results prove that this program works:
Choices Participants |
Control Group |
|
|---|---|---|
| Percent of time child support collections have been made | 44.8% |
28.5% |
| Consistent child support payment, at least two of three months | 45.7% |
27.3% |
| Monthly average child support collections | $186 |
$127 |
| Custodial parent receiving TANF at any time following program entry | 10.3% |
11.5% |
| Child support payment rate increase after services | 57% |
13% (Parent’s Fair Share) |
