About the Toolkit

This toolkit can help you reach out to single parents in the Hispanic community—and to let them know how child support can help their children.

Who Should Use It?

• Community-based organizations concerned with children, families, and child support.
• Child support enforcement offices.
• Other potential partners.

How Does It Help?

Past research has indicated a great need to raise awareness of child support services and its benefits to the Hispanic community.

As such, a national and grassroots campaign could extend the benefits of child support to even more little girls and boys across America.

This toolkit is intended to help child support enforcement offices reach out to the Hispanic community. Here are its goals:

• To increase awareness of child support enforcement services among Hispanic parents.
• To engage local stakeholders, leaders, and relevant experts at the community level.

It tells you how to address these barriers:

For Child Support Professionals:

• Lack of staff and funds for outreach.
• Limited marketing know-how.
• Lack of information about the Hispanic community.
• Lack of collaboration between community and faith-based organizations and child support enforcement offices.

For Hispanic Custodial and Noncustodial Parents:

• Low awareness and trust of child support enforcement offices.
• Lack of information about where to get help.
• Language difficulties: lack of English language skills and, in some cases, low Spanish literacy.
• Lack of education.
• Fears: of government, of reprisals by the father, of disapprovals from the community, etc.
• No contact with the noncustodial parent or knowledge of this person’s whereabouts.
• Feelings of inferiority, hopelessness, anxiety, etc.

The toolkit also enables professionals to embrace opportunities to…

• Provide materials and training on child support services to potential partners, who have demonstrated a significant interest in assisting States, Tribes, and local child support offices.
• Assist Hispanic custodial parents, who are open to beginning the child support process but need reassurances that the effort is worth it—and that there will be no negative repercussions.
• Improve States’ performance—for example, in increasing the number of court orders established.

 

How Does It Work?

This toolkit provides two types of information:

Outreach Tips: Read narratives that give an overview of various methods you can use to launch your Hispanic outreach project. Many sections include menus of ideas you can adapt to your own program.

• Communications
  • Advertising
  • Public Relations
  • Media Relations
  • Special Events
• Partnership Development
• Funding
• Training
• Resources

Outreach Tools: Outreach toolkit materials, such as print, radio, and TV ads, are included on a Hispanic Child Support Resource Center DVD to help your organization publicize child support services. The outreach toolkit materials in the DVD are also available online. To download these materials click here: OCSE Hispanic Outreach Toolkit. To request a copy of the DVD, contact your State or Tribal Child Support Office or the OCSE National Reference Center.

The link for State Offices is: http://ocse.acf.hhs.gov/int/directories/index.cfm?fuseaction=main.extivdlist

In Spanish: http://ocse.acf.hhs.gov/int/directories/index.cfm?fuseaction=main.extEspanolIVDAll

For Tribal Offices:
http://ocse.acf.hhs.gov/int/directories/index.cfm?fuseaction=main.tribalivd

OCSE National Reference Center
202-401-9382

These resources are written especially for Hispanic custodial and noncustodial parents. Many appear in Spanish and English.

• Tools

All are written in plain language and are easy to use. This comprehensive, practical, back-to-the-basics information can help you launch an effective Hispanic outreach effort.