CSDA LCSA Activities Archives - CSDACA | CHILD SUPPORT DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION of California

By Baljit Atwal

Acting Director, Stanislaus County DCSS

Imagine a child support agency partnering and collaborating with numerous agencies to assist non-custodial parents (NP’s) remove the barriers they face in paying reliable and consistent child support. That’s the vision we had in Stanislaus, which we are slowly turning into reality as we close out our final year of enrollment for the National Child Support Parent Employment Demonstration (CSPED) project. Locally known as PASS (Pathways To Self Sufficiency), this national demonstration project has changed the lives of many local families, due to the enhanced referral processes and connections established between Stanislaus County Department of Child Support Services (SCDCSS), the Stanislaus County Superior Court, the Stanislaus County Alliance Worknet (AWN – the local employment development agency), the Center for Human Services (CHS -a local non-profit serving youth and families), and the Haven Women’s Center (HWC- another local non-profit agency). Throughout the project, an unemployed NP’s journey looked a little like this:

Qualified unemployed (or underemployed) NP’s were provided enhanced child support services. At the same time, their dedicated Child Support Officer contacted both a job developer at AWN and the parenting class facilitator at CHS for following up with work skill assessments, work search and parenting classes . The Court Commissioner, being highly supportive of the project, worked closely with our Chief Attorney who both established a calendar specifically for PASS participants. Women’s Haven Center provided domestic violence awareness training to not only the child support staff, but also the partner staff assigned for PASS participants.

Enrollment into PASS began in October 2013. Being such a new concept, it took time for customers to agree to participate, as they were wary. Persistence of the child support staff, consistent outreach, and eventually, once the program was established, word of mouth within the community, all contributed in overcoming the initial wariness and reluctance of NP’s to join the program. Fast forward to the present, as of September 1^st 2016, a total of 1,311 participants had enrolled. By design, half of these participants received extra services and therefore the full array of services available. Approximately 87% of the group has received some form of employment related support, with 46% of the group having become employed since enrolling. We learned that not all NP’s were so eager to join parenting classes, but about 29% still did attend.

With enrollment into the demonstration project ending, what do similar opportunities look like for our community? And how could other child support agencies offer similar services? Earlier this year, the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) requested that each CSPED grantee write a Sustainability Plan to address post-grant services. In Stanislaus, we identified additional potential partners who could expand the reach of our services within the community. Not surprisingly, regardless of geographic location, each CSPED award grantee came up with very similar lists. These included the local IV-A agency, the local behavioral health services agency, the local probation department, local Veterans’ agencies, the supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Employment and Training (SNAP E&T) program, parent resource centers, local agencies offering immigration services, one-stop centers for victims of abuse, and agencies who assist former prisoners with transitioning back into society.

Understanding that child support rules and regulations remain the same and that no additional funding would be available, sustainability efforts will focus on maintaining the existing relationships while building new partnerships to be able to refer customers to specific services that appear to be needed in each individual case. In addition to referrals, SDCSS anticipates enhancing child support education and outreach throughout the community, as allowable. If interested in hearing more details about our sustainability planning, please contact me at BAtwal@stancodcss.org.

We have built momentum and solidified relationships with agencies by educating them on the services the Child Support program offers to families, while at the same time learning about the services they too offer. Like us, our existing partners wish to maintain the momentum, and therefore we are developing agreements for continued initiatives. At the same time, we look forward to better serving our shared customers by joining forces with new partners. Step by step, we are getting closer to providing an environment where families can obtain assistance on not only child support from us, but also some direction on whom to seek services from in order to address life issues that may be getting in their way of engaging with the child support program.

Previous Article | Return to Newsletter | Next Article

By Monica Moore

Program Manager, San Joaquin County DCSS

monicamoore Each year, the San Joaquin County Department of Child Support Services (DCSS) engages in an agency wide summer campaign designed to bring staff together, promote awareness of performance goals, and develop new ideas and tactics to achieve those goals.Past summer campaigns include the 2014 Summer Surf Challenge that was designed to promote customer interaction via email and increase enrollment in eDocs. T he 2014 campaign resulted in the collection of 1629 new email addresses and 2380 new enrollments in eDocs.

The 2015 World Traveler summer campaign focused on the exploration of new territories for customer collaborations and achieving collection goals. The 2015 campaign not only tracked negotiated payments, but it also tracked the efforts made to create relationships with customers. During this challenge, 304 customers were contacted and 172 payments were negotiated.

The focus of the 2016 summer campaign is the Performance Management Plan –the theme is all fun and games! The Dazzling Carnival Summer Spectacular 2016 (DCSS ‘16) is designed to give each functional team an opportunity to have some fun while working toward performance goals. Teams display their projects keeping with the carnival theme, using clowns, games, rides and attractions. The halls and walls of the DCSS office are decorated with creative team campaigns in support of Performance Management Plan objectives and strategies. All program areas join the fun showing their creativity!

Case Initiation Team goal is to increase the number of new cases opened.

The Case Initiation Strength Tester Game, staff is striking high with all those who apply.

Establishment Team goal is right sized orders by encouraging stipulations.

The Stipulation Derby will set the pace; the one with the most stipulations will win the race.

Post Order Team goal is to increase collections through follow up on new order payment requests.

The Popcorn Popper just won’t stop, for every collection a kernel pops.

Grant Management Team focus is obtaining stipulations from grant participants.

Stippo the Clown will fly away soon, for every stipulation filed, he gets a balloon.

Intergovernmental Team wants to improve case management efficiency by imaging case files.

Breaking States Instead of Plates – imaging case files reduces paper piles.

Enforcement Teams focus is on the three C’s: Collect-Correct-Close

Collect: The Strength Tester reveals – How strong are your collections skills?

Correct: Data the Clown puts a smile on our face, every time we correct a case.

Close: As the balloon popping game shows – performance improves as cases close.

Legal Teams will shorten the timeframe for legal actions by increasing stipulations and reducing continuances.

Stippy the Clown collects a buck each time a Stipulation agreement is struck.

As the Super Slide of Continuances will show, timely support orders will grow.

Specialized Enforcement Team will increase collections and decrease uncollectable arrears through COAP outreach and targeted COAP calls.

The COAP Miner rides are on track to increase collections and decrease uncollectable arrears.

Financial Team focus is to work on suspended collections and cashiers to ask for additional payments.

The Arrears Meter shows how the payment total grows.

Program Improvement Team expands education and outreach to employers by creating an online employer workshop.

The Employer Workshop Wheel goes around and around where employer information can be found.

Support Staff goal is to increase the amount of case actions processed.

The Strong Man is lifting a ton, to show how much document processing is done.

The 2016 summer campaign will run through September, which coincides with the end of the Federal Fiscal Year. At the conclusion of the campaign, each team will tally up their accomplishments and showcase their results.

To cap off the campaign, the entire staff will join together “under the big top” for a carnival celebration filled with fun, food and focus on how the teams’ individual projects contributed to the achievement of agency performance goals. This year, San Joaquin County DCSS is on target to accomplish its goals set out in the 2016 Performance Management Plan and is projected to achieve four out of five Federal Performance Measure goals.