FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday, March 29, 2000
Contact: Michael Kharfen, (202) 401-9215
HHS AWARDS CHILD SUPPORT WAIVERS
TO HELP PROMOTE RESPONSIBLE FATHERHOOD
HHS Secretary Donna
E. Shalala and Vice President Al Gore today announced the approval of
waiver demonstrations for 10 states to improve the opportunities of young,
unmarried fathers to support their children both financially and emotionally.
The projects will
test new ways for state-run child support enforcement programs and community-based
organizations, including many faith-based organizations, to work together
to help young fathers obtain employment, make child support payments and
learn parenting skills.
"These demonstration projects will test innovative new strategies
to help low-income, unmarried mothers and fathers work together for their
child's good," said Secretary Shalala. "We hope these child
support agencies and family support organizations will learn new ways
to work together, so that children receive the regular financial and emotional
support they need and deserve."
The projects approved
today will test approaches to serving young, never-married, non-custodial
parents who do not have a child support court order in place and may face
obstacles to employment. Activities will include promoting voluntary establishment
of paternity; educational services and career planning; fatherhood and
parenting workshops; promoting the formation or continuation of a supportive
relationship between parents; financial planning and skill education;
"team" parenting for both mother and father; substance abuse
and anger management services; awareness of domestic violence issues;
transportation assistance, and regular child support enforcement services.
Some of the projects
will provide direct services for custodial parents, and all will provide
for referral of custodial parents to child support services and other
services as needed. The demonstrations will also test a new cooperative
working relationship between child support enforcement and non-governmental
agencies. The demonstrations will total $15 million in combined federal
and private funding over a three year period. The demonstrations will
be in Baltimore, Md.; Boston, Mass.; Chester County, Pa.; Chicago, Ill.;
Denver, Colo.; Indianapolis, Ind.; Los Angeles, Calif.; Milwaukee/Racine,
Wis.; Minneapolis, Minn.; and New York City, N.Y.
"We know that
most fathers want to be good parents for their children, including providing
regular child support payments," said Olivia A. Golden, HHS assistant
secretary for children and families. "We also recognize for some
fathers that services to enhance their economic prospects and parenting
skills are needed to improve the life prospects of their children. Through
projects such as the ones we are approving today, we will learn what works
best for these young fathers."
Promoting responsible
fatherhood has been a top priority for the Clinton/Gore Administration.
In 1999, $15.5 billion was collected for children by the child support
enforcement program, nearly doubling the amount collected in 1992. Most
recently, the President announced in his 2001 budget proposal new improvements
to the child support program that focuses on increasing payments to families
and making the child support system work better. These measures include
increasing pass-through payments to families on assistance, simplifying
the distribution system to assure that more families leaving welfare receive
their child support payments, booting the cars of delinquent parents,
assuring states have procedures in place to encourage non-custodial parents
to work, and requiring more frequent updating of child support orders.
Additionally, the Administration's budget also proposes $255 million for
the first year of a new "Fathers Work/Families Win" initiative
to help low-income non-custodial parents and low-income working families
work and support their children.
The waivers announced
today enable states to use federal funds for a broader set of activities
than those usually funded under the child support enforcement program.
The project sites will leverage a variety of existing resources in addition
to the child support enforcement funds. There will be an independent evaluation
of the demonstration sites.
Generous support
for the projects is also provided by: The Ford and Charles Stewart Mott
Foundations; the Lilly Endowment; and the Community Foundations in Philadelphia
and Indianapolis. Technical assistance for the sites is being provided
by The National Center for Strategic Nonprofit Planning and Community
Leadership.
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Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are
available at http://www.hhs.gov/news.
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