In January, the Michigan Judicial Institute (MJI) teamed up with the Friend of the Court Bureau (FOCB) to provide an annual training event for friend of the court (FOC) staff. Over 140 FOC staff from counties across the state participated in this educational event, which is record attendance for this seminar!
The first day of the training was designed to address the needs of newer FOC staff and included presentations on:
- Functions of the Friend of the Court Office
- Professionalism and Ethics
- Child Support Formula Overview
- The Basics of Custody, Parenting Time, and Child Support Enforcement
Almost 50 new friend of the court staff participated in this portion of the seminar.
The second and third days of the seminar were designed for all FOC staff. In addition to plenary sessions on domestic violence, medical and recreational marijuana, and the future of the FOC, there were 15 workshops covering issues relevant to FOC staff. Topics ranged from Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), Secondary Trauma, Implicit Bias, and several sessions on Advanced Child Support Issues and Advanced Custody and Parenting Issues. As a bonus, several of the sessions qualified for credit towards annual required Customer Service Training hours.
Feedback from the seminar was very positive. Almost 90 percent of participants rated the seminar as “above average” to “excellent.” Some of the encouraging comments included:
- “The information obtained is invaluable and very informative.”
- “I gained much-needed knowledge.”
- “It was beneficial to have sessions on parenting time and custody issues in addition to child support.”
- “I can honestly say this is one of the best conferences I have attended.”
- “A really good seminar with lots of good information.”
If you attended this seminar, we sincerely thank you for your participation and feedback.
MJI and FOCB are already looking forward to, and will soon be planning, the 2020 FOC seminar. If you have ideas for next year’s training topics, please contact any of the FOCB analysts directly or e-mail focb-info@courts.mi.gov or MJI at mji-info@courts.mi.gov.
