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CFFPP engages in a wide spectrum of activities. Staff members are currently working on six primary projects. These six projects are:
Policy Analysis and Advocacy   CFFPP provides policy analysis and advocacy and public education on matters related to public support and family policy affecting low-income families. We are particularly concerned with how federal and state policies actually play out in practice and with translating policies to community-based programs on a practical level. The Center provides policy analysis and advocacy in regard to each of its projects. In addition we provide national and state policy advocacy through our policy briefings and through WisCLIF. Policy Briefing: The Center provides national policy analysis through the monthly policy briefing. The briefings, begun in 1999, provide summaries of current research, policy developments, and practice in the fields of economic support, criminal justice, child support, child welfare, and others that affect low-income families. The briefings are intended to provide timely information that is of use to both policy advocates and practitioners in their advocacy for low-income families. The briefings are distributed nationwide by fax and email, and are also accessible through the Center’s web site. WisCLIF: As a part of our Wisconsin state policy advocacy, the Center helped create the Wisconsin Coalition for Low-Income Families, or WisCLIF. Initiated in fall 2000, the coalition’s membership includes advocates for low-income men and fathers and for low-income women and mothers, child welfare advocates, poverty lawyers, advocates against domestic violence, and community activists. The overarching objective of WisCLIF is to advocate for family and public assistance laws and policies that are supportive of low-income families and individuals within Wisconsin and to create awareness of the effects current laws and policies are having on low-income families.  One of the primary activities of the Center is the provision of technical assistance to community-based organizations that serve low-income families. The Center provides policy and legislative analysis, legal education, and program implementation evaluation, with particular attention to the areas of paternity establishment, child support, and other support and reimbursement costs (e.g., Medicaid-assisted birth costs, foster care costs), child welfare policy, and other family and public support policies affecting low-income families.  In collaboration with other national organizations, the Center is addressing the issue of domestic violence and its intersection with fatherhood policy. In a joint undertaking with the Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF) and the Institute on Domestic Violence in the African American Community (IDVAAC), supported by the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW), the Center is conducting an initial two-year technical assistance project directed at OVW grantees and other leaders in the fatherhood and domestic violence fields. The project entails national cross-training discussions and targeted technical assistance seminars that aim to (1) provide information on fatherhood issues to domestic violence programs, (2) expand the scope of current domestic violence education and prevention resources for use by fatherhood programs, and (3) address these issues from a perspective that foregrounds the situations of low-income families and communities. In summer 2005 the Center will host a summer institute on domestic violence and its intersection with fatherhood issues in conjunction with IDVAAC and FVPF.  Conference Proceedings (doc)  This project examines the criminal justice system and its intersection with issues (particularly, child support policy) that affect low-income noncustodial parents and their families. When a noncustodial parent with a child support order is incarcerated, it is generally very difficult for that parent to have his or her order modified during incarceration. Consequently, upon release, the parent generally faces very high arrearage debts , which can quickly become insurmountable, particularly when coupled with the difficulty of finding employment with a criminal record. A second issue that has come to exacerbate this situation is the increasing frequency with which states are prosecuting the nonpayment of child support as a criminal offense. While the intent of the laws is to enable states to enforce support from parents who are able but unwilling to pay, it can have devastating consequences for low-income noncustodial parents who do not have the resources to pay and whose future employment options are further curtailed by a criminal record. The project examines how these policies and laws are affecting low-income noncustodial parents and their families, and advocates for innovative state and local efforts to address these issues and reduce barriers faced by noncustodial parents in both the criminal justice and child support systems.  This project has emerged in part as a result of the 1997 passage of the federal Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA), which accelerates the process of adoption for children in the child welfare system. With the purpose of decreasing the amount of time children spend in foster care, the law requires state child welfare agencies to develop and implement permanency plans within a year of a child’s entry into the system. The Center first became involved in this issue as it appeared that noncustodial parents (particularly noncustodial fathers) who were precluded from being with their children for that time (e.g., if they were incarcerated) were increasingly being faced with the termination of their parental rights as child welfare agencies sought alternative permanent placement for their children. While accelerated termination appears to be one repercussion of the law, another effect has been a more general effort among child welfare agencies to seek out noncustodial parents (primarily fathers) as they develop permanency plans. The purpose of this effort may be either termination of parental rights or potential placement for the child; however, in both situations child welfare agencies are developing means to seek out noncustodial fathers, a process with which many agencies are not familiar. Through affiliation with the National Resource Center on Foster Care and Permanency Placement, the Center provides assistance to states upon request in the following areas: (1) national-level analysis and education on fatherhood policy and its intersection with the child welfare system, particularly for families who are also involved with the public welfare or TANF system; (2) specific information related to improving the integration of low-income noncustodial fathers in the state child welfare system. The Center’s activities include (a) identification of barriers to father involvement, specifically as it pertains to location of absent fathers, incarceration issues, and child support and employment; (b) cross-trainings for fatherhood and child welfare staff and identification of fatherhood programs and services in local communities; (c) focus groups with custodial and/or noncustodial parents in order to discern their ideas on connecting fathers and their families with their children; and (d) creation of state- or agency-specific training materials for staff training and organizational planning around these issues.  The Center provides national- and state-level analysis and advocacy on public support policies and legislation affecting low-income families, including such areas as welfare or TANF policy, child support policy, and food stamp and Medicaid programs. This represents a central part of the Center’s policy advocacy efforts. The Center is also conducting a project to develop a model program to work with low-income noncustodial parents on financial literacy training, debt reduction (particularly as it pertains to child support debt), and asset development. While there are many programs that provide financial literacy education and debt management services, there are currently no national programs that directly address the situations of low-income mothers and fathers who are struggling with child support issues. Involvement with the system of child support fundamentally affects the ability of individuals to develop savings, establish financial plans, or gain good credit standing. The Center’s project will create the first national model that addresses these issues as it seeks to help low-income noncustodial parents attain greater financial stability and be in a better position to support themselves and their families. |
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