| Vol. 5, No. 2 January 2001
|
Funding
Sources for Fatherhood Programs
Background
Since the passage of welfare
reform, many policymakers and practitioners have viewed programs that provide
services to noncustodial fathers as key to helping low-income children escape
poverty. Research has shown that
many low-income fathers are absent in their children’s lives because these
fathers lack the financial and/or emotional resources to provide for their
children. In response to this
need, many programs offer non-custodial parents services such as education and
training, job placement, counseling, legal and child development advice, and
parenting classes.
The 106th Congress considered
legislation that would provide funding to public and private grantees for
fatherhood programs. (For a comparison of the House and Senate versions of
this legislation, see “Fatherhood Programs: Comparison of Title V in H.R.
4678 and S. 3189,” at http://www.clasp.org/pubs/childenforce/Tables/3189fath10_13.htm.)
Several sources of funding for fatherhood programs are available.
They include Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)/Maintenance-of-Effort
(MOE) funds, state funds, Welfare-to-Work (WtW) grant funds, Child Support
Enforcement (CSE) funds, Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) funds, and
Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) funds.
Among these sources of funding, TANF and state funds are perhaps the
most flexible. Criminal justice
funds may also be used to provide services to noncustodial fathers who are in
prison or about to be released from prison and who are in particular need of
assistance. (For more
information, see the Welfare Information Network (WIN) publication “Support
Services for Incarcerated and Released Noncustodial Parents,” at http://www.welfareinfo.org/heidijune2.htm.)
This Resources
for Welfare Decisions describes the available sources of funding for
fatherhood programs and provides program examples and descriptions.
For more information on fatherhood programs, see the WIN publications
“Collaborations with Community Organizations to Promote Responsible
Fatherhood,” at http://www.welfareinfo.org/heidiresourceoct.htm,
and “Father-Child Relationships in Welfare Reform,” at http://www.welfareinfo.org/fatheris.htm.
Also visit the WIN Fatherhood web page at http://www.welfareinfo.org/fatherho.htm.
Resource
Contacts
Center on Fathers, Families
and Public Policy, 608/257-3148; or visit http://www.cffpp.org/.
National Center on Fathers and
Families, 215/573-5500; or visit http://www.ncoff.gse.upenn.edu/.
National Fatherhood
Initiative, 301/948-0599; or visit http://www.fatherhood.org/.
National Practitioners Network for Fathers and
Families, 800/34-NPNFF; or visit http://www.npnff.org/.
U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services, Fatherhood Initiative, contact Linda Mellgren, Office of the
Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, 202/690-6806; or visit http://fatherhood.hhs.gov/.
U.S. Department of Labor, Employment
and Training Administration, Division of Welfare-to-Work, 202/693-3910; or
visit http://wtw.doleta.gov/.
Publications
and Electronic Resources
National Conference of State
Legislatures, Advisory Committee on Responsible Fatherhood. Connecting
Low-Income Fathers and Children: A Guide to Practical Policies. Denver,
Colo.: National Conference of State Legislatures, June 2000. Available at http://www.calib.com/peerta/topics/connect.htm.
Pearson, Jessica, and Nancy
Thoennes. OCSE Responsible Fatherhood
Programs: Early Implementation Lessons. Denver, Colo.: Center for Policy
Research, June 2000. Available at http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/cse/rpt/process.htm.
U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services, Administration for Children and Families. A
Guide to Funding Services for Children and Families through the Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Program. Washington, D.C. Available
at http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/ofa/funds2.htm.
This document describes how TANF funds can be used for fatherhood programs to
further TANF’s goal of supporting the formation and maintenance of
two-parent families.
U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services. Toolkit for Fatherhood.
Washington, D.C. Available at http://fatherhood.hhs.gov/fi-tools.htm.
This web-based toolkit provides links to tools and information related to
fatherhood, including the Responsible Fatherhood Management Information
System, which helps fatherhood programs manage and assess their programs.
U.S. Department of Labor,
Employment and Training Administration, and U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services, Administration for Children and Families. Strategies
to Enhance the Recruitment, Referral, Eligibility Determination, and Service
Provision Processes between Welfare-to-Work, Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families, and Child Support Enforcement Entities. Washington, D.C., May 8,
2000. Available at http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/cse/pol/im-00-05.htm.
This publication includes strategies to enhance the recruitment, referral,
eligibility determination and provision of services to noncustodial parents
under the WtW program.
U.S. Department of Labor,
Office of Welfare-to-Work. Ideas that
Work: Working with Non-Custodial Parents. Washington, D.C., May 1999.
Available at http://wtw.doleta.gov/ideasthatwork/issue7.htm.
This issue brief examines strategies for targeting employment and training
opportunities to meet the needs of noncustodial parents.
What States
and Localities Are Doing
TANF Funds. TANF funds are perhaps the most flexible of the federal funding sources
states can use to support fatherhood programs.
Florida has allocated $3
million of its TANF funds to Florida’s Commission on Responsible Fatherhood,
a state commission that raises awareness of the importance of fatherhood,
identifies obstacles that prevent fathers from being involved in their
children’s lives and implements successful strategies, such as funding
programs, that help fathers become responsible and effective parents.
For more information, contact Matthew Munyon, Executive Director,
850/488-4952.
State Funds. States can combine flexible funding sources to offer
services to low-income fathers. The Parents’ Fair Share program in Missouri
is operated by the Division of Child Support Enforcement and is funded
primarily with TANF and state general revenue funds; some federal child
support enforcement funds also are used.
Case managers assess the needs of participating fathers and help them
obtain assistance with training for and finding a job, transportation costs
and work-related expenses, housing, medical coverage, and child support cases.
The program aims to increase the number of noncustodial parents who are able
to support their children and are involved in their children’s lives.
For more information, contact Dave Damico, Program Manager, Parents’
Fair Share, 816/889-5182 or ddamico@mail.state.mo.us.
Welfare-to-Work Funds. Welfare-to-Work funds, both formula grants to states and competitive
grants awarded to local providers, can also be used to provide services to
low-income fathers of TANF-eligible children, regardless of whether the
children actually receive TANF benefits.
The Institute for Responsible
Fatherhood and Family Revitalization has received two competitive WtW
grants for its multi-site program. The
program’s outreach specialists, who are married couples residing in the
community, provide one-on-one, home-based, direct services to help low-income,
noncustodial fathers become more involved in the lives of their children.
Intra-personal development is the core of the program’s philosophy.
Program participants receive intensive case management to help them
find the self-love, self-value, and self-discipline that will motivate them to
be responsible fathers. Building
on this foundation, case managers work with fathers to address other areas of
development—family responsibility, health and wellness, financial
management, education, employment and entrepreneurial thinking, and community
involvement. For more
information, contact Alan Inman, 202/293-4420; or visit http://www.responsiblefatherhood.org.
Child Support Enforcement (IV-D) Funds. A program in Bexar
County (San Antonio), Texas uses probation as a tool to help noncustodial
parents overcome the barriers that prevent them from supporting their
children. Fathers facing
incarceration for failure to pay child support are instead offered civil
probation with the Child Support Probation Unit, a department of the Bexar
County Juvenile Probation Office. Probationers
meet with an assigned probation officer to discuss their payment status and
the problems that prevent them from paying child support. The assigned
probation officer makes necessary referrals to community resources, such as
job training and development programs, employers who are seeking workers,
counseling programs (e.g., mental health treatment and parenting classes), and
organizations that can assist with vistiation issues. About 34 percent of program funds come from the county’s
general fund; the remainder comes from federal IV-D Child Support Enforcement
matching funds. For more
information, contact Michael Kopatz, Bexar County Child Support Probation
Unit, 210/335-2815.
Collaborative
Funding Efforts.
The Partners for Fragile Families demonstration projects are local
collaborations of community-based organizations, child support enforcement
agencies, and faith-based partners designed to help young fathers become more
involved with their children and to help mothers and fathers build stronger
parenting partnerships. Federal and private funding for this national
demonstration will total more than $15 million over three years. Project sites are located in Baltimore, Md.; Boston, Mass.;
West Chester, Pa.; Chicago, Ill.; Denver, Colo.; Indianapolis, Ind.; Los
Angeles, Calif.; Milwaukee/Racine, Wis.; Minneapolis, Minn.; and New York,
N.Y. The National Center for Strategic Nonprofit Planning and Community
Leadership (NPCL) is providing technical assistance for the demonstration.
For more information, visit http://www.npcl.org/program/pff.htm;
or contact Edwin Ridgway, Director of Site Development, 888/528-NPCL.
WIN
Staff Contact:
Michelle Ganow, 202/628-5790 or mganow@financeproject.org
The
Welfare Information Network is supported by grants form the Annie E. Casey
Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard
Foundation, the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the
Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services, and the U.S. Department of Labor.
Welfare
Reform & Beyond Initiative
Launch
Event
January
25, 2001 at 9:00 AM, Brookings Institution, Falk Auditorium
The
Welfare Reform & Beyond initiative will focus on synthesizing and
disseminating emerging research in preparation for the debate on
reauthorization of the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program
and related programs in 2001-2002.
The focus of the launch event will be: "The Politics of TANF
Reauthorization."
No prior registration is required for this event.
For more information, see http://www.brookings.edu/comm/events/20010125.htm
