By Shon Hart, Founder and Executive Director, InvolvedDad
Although it is sometimes a wearying fight, the moment a father can see, hold, and embrace his child for the very first time is worth every second. And, when the only thing standing in the way of a father and child’s relationship is helping him with his child support payment while he gets on his feet, it’s worth every penny. This is just one way that my organization serves fathers in the Flint area.
I was privileged enough to grow up with a father in the home, but I still struggled with feelings of inadequacy and unimportance. Those who grow up with less of a paternal presence often face harsher difficulties. There are a lot of reasons why fathers might be disconnected from their families. What was important to me was finding a solution to mend this two-generation disconnect and enhancing the lives of young people affected by father absenteeism.
IMPACT Program
In 2016, ID pursued partnerships in our program development and implementation, including strong pursuit of a partnership with the Genesee County Friend of the Court (Genesee FOC). Through this partnership, we created IMPACT, a program designed to help fathers reunite with their children by removing barriers, such as lack of parenting skills and insurmountable child support arrearages. Jack Battles, Genesee FOC Director, and Tony McDowell, Genesee FOC Deputy Director, were critical to the pilot program’s creation.
We received a $75,000 program grant from the Ruth Mott Foundation for ID to provide the following services:
- Responsible fatherhood education;
- Essential life skills for men;
- Activities to complete with the child;
- Referrals to job training programs;
- Payment of up to $100/month of participants’ child support during programming; and
- Communicating directly with the Genesee FOC on behalf of fathers in the program about opportunities available, including state arrears reduction/elimination upon program completion.
These IMPACT services are provided over eight months. All IMPACT cohorts begin with an orientation that includes administering baseline assessments to participants and introducing them to all community partners, giving them an opportunity to ask questions and set appointments on day one of programming. Orientation day also includes the participants' first face-to-face encounter with Genesee FOC staff, and in most cases leads to a review of the enforcement and modification of their child support case. This encounter dispels the preconceived notion that government agencies are “out to get them.” The program ends with a 6-week leadership course for fathers who successfully complete phase 1.
Through lessons learned over time, IMPACT has evolved. We have gone from bi-weekly to weekly meet-ups to decrease attrition, begun partnering with an organization that provides programming for women, and collaborated with local mediation and legal services agencies to help fathers resolve conflicts with the child’s mother and obtain parenting time orders.
The current IMPACT partners are: Genesee FOC, Community Resolution Center, Legal Services of Eastern Michigan, Mothers of Joy University, and the University of Michigan-Flint. Now in its 3rd rotation with the first cohort of 15 men, the IMPACT program has served nearly 100 households (fathers and children) and boasts the following results:
- A 47 percent increase in the collection of current child support payments from participants post program.
- 38 percent of participants obtained employment while enrolled in IMPACT.
- 33 percent of custodial parties reported that the engagement of the child’s father increased post program.
- 42 percent of fathers reported having an improved relationship with their child’s mother post program.
- $51,900 paid to participants’ child support obligations during their program participation.
- Total reduction in debt to participants’ households of $104,041.
The statistics say a lot for how much work the program is doing, but only the fathers’ stories show the true “impact” of our work.
Family Impact Stories
One father who hadn’t had contact with his child after a nasty divorce was able to reconnect. The mother agreed to allow him access to their child for IMPACT classes.
Another father had a warrant out for his arrest for eight years, with little to no access to his child, and no steady income. The child's mother would threaten him with law enforcement upon any disagreement. He often relied on donating plasma to make ends meet. IMPACT helped with his fear of communicating with the FOC, and he made arrangements for the warrant to be removed if he made a certain payment on his child support arrears. He was only able to come up with half of that amount on his own, but ID matched his payment because of his hard work and dedication to the program. Since the warrant was removed, he was able to attend court with his daughter on her truancy matter and stated his intent to gain custody of her to protect her safety.
Mothers of Joy University coached one mother to co-parent effectively and promote her child’s relationship with the father. The father is now working to gain physical custody because of concerns about the mother’s drug addiction. He also obtained employment and now provides financially for his child.
Sustaining Partnerships
IMPACT has catapulted InvolvedDad’s reach in the community, and enabled us to become a sustainable organization, satisfying our funder’s priorities without compromising FOC’s mandates. Tony McDowell of the Genesee FOC and I have continually worked hand-in-hand to make necessary program adjustments for maximum effectiveness from both of our organizations’ perspectives. We meet on a regular basis to make sure the partnership is effective and relevant. Tony says, “The partnership between the FOC and InvolvedDad has been incredibly valuable. It improves relationships between the fathers and the FOC, the fathers and their children, and also provides a much-needed service in the community that the FOC could not provide.”
Most recently, Tony and I held a live question & answer session on May 13, 2020, broadcast over Facebook Live. We took questions from the community about how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting parenting time and child support, like, "Why are dads' stimulus checks being garnished?" and, "Will dads have makeup days to see their children?" So far, that live Q & A recording has almost 1,100 views.
