Successful reentry is one of the greatest challenges facing America today and, especially the future of our children. The greatest predictor of whether a child will wind up in prison is whether his parent(s)— namely, the father—was in prison. Despite the many daunting challenges that fathers face upon their release, connecting them with their children and family is perhaps the most strategic one to address because it breaks the generational nature of crime and incarceration.
Brief
Low-skilled men, especially minorities, typically work at low levels and provide little support for their children. Conservatives blame this on government willingness to support families, which frees the fathers from responsibility, while liberals say that men are denied work by racial bias or the economy--either a lack of jobs or low wages, which depress the incentive to work. The evidence for all these theories is weak. Thus, changing program benefits or incentives is unlikely to solve the men's work problem. More promising is the idea of linking assistance with administrative requirements…
New York state implemented a pilot employment program from 2006 to 2009 for parents behind in their child support. These pilot programs, part of the Strengthening Families Through Stronger Fathers Initiative, provided employment-oriented services, fatherhood/parenting workshops, case management, and other support services to nearly 4,000 parents behind in their child support in four New York communities. Our evaluation shows that these programs successfully helped participants find work, increase their earnings, and pay more child support. These gains continued for at least a year after…
Brief
New York launched a pilot employment program to help parents behind in their child support in four communities between 2006 and 2009. The program was part of the state's Strengthening Families Through Stronger Fathers Initiative. Our evaluation found that the program's combination of employment assistance, case management, and other support services substantially increased the earnings and child support payments of disadvantaged parents who were not meeting their child support obligations.
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Journal Article This study examines the relationships between ethnicity-based variations in nonresident fathers' involvement and children's behavior. Using weighted least squares regression analysis, this study investigates nonresident father involvement and children's behavior based on a nationally representative sample of children in the National Survey of America's Families. After controlling for family context variables, nonresident father involvement through increased frequency of visits was positively associated with better child behavior. The payment of formal or informal child support by nonresident…
Part of a series of fact sheets that discuss how and why the child support program provides innovative services to families across six interrelated areas to assure that parents have the tools and resources they need to support their children and be positively involved in raising them, this fact sheet focuses on family-centered innovations to improve child support outcomes. The need for family-centered child support services is explained, child support program accomplishments are shared, and the evolving child support program policy agenda is described. The collaboration of the child support…
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This PowerPoint presentation describes lessons learned from past efforts to provide work-oriented programs for low-income parents behind in their child support payments. The presentation describes a New York state pilot program that substantially increased the earnings and child support payments of disadvantaged parents not meeting their child support obligations. The presentation was given at "The Child Support Connection: Giving Children a Brighter Future" conference hosted by the New York City Office of Child Support Enforcement on October 20, 2011 at the City University of New York…
This guide has basic information about paternity, custody,child support, and parenting time for unmarried fathers in Minnesota. Every state has different laws on family law. This guide is for Minnesota only. (Author abstract modified)
Other
The federal government's support of fatherhood initiatives raises a wide array of issues. This report briefly examines the role of the Child Support Enforcement (CSE) agency in fatherhood programs, discusses initiatives to promote and support father-child interaction outside the framework of the father-mother relationship, and summarizes the debate over whether fatherhood programs should include the promotion of marriage. (Author abstract)
Part of a series of fact sheets that discuss how and why the child support program provides innovative services to families across six interrelated areas to assure that parents have the tools and resources they need to support their children and be positively involved in raising them, this fact sheet focuses on ways in which the child support program can help prevent the need for its services by promoting responsible childbearing and parenting choices and by raising awareness--especially among teenagers--of the financial, legal, and emotional responsibilities of parenthood. Examples of how…
