Keeping Michigan Families ‘Safe and Together’

By Tiffany Martinez, LMSW, Project Director, Michigan Domestic and Sexual Violence Prevention and Treatment Board

In 2015, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) entered into a formal contractual relationship with the Safe & Together Institute™ for the purposes of adding a domestic violence enhancement to the current child welfare practice model known as MiTEAM. In addition, the MDHHS is supporting certified Safe & Together trainers to provide training and support related to the MiTEAM Domestic Violence Enhancement to all public and private children’s protective services and foster care staff within the state.

Kent County Friend of the Court Creates Programs to Address Community Concerns

By Dan Fojtik, Director, Kent County Friend of the Court

During the past year, the Kent County Friend of the Court (FOC) experienced important changes starting with the assignment of two sheriff’s deputies to handle child support warrants.  That prompted objections from some community members, voicing concern about deputies making door-to-door arrests in the inner city.

Kent County FOC Responsible Parent Program caseworker Deb Martis
helps a payer navigate job searching at a designated work station.

Legal Corner - July 2018

"The Legal Corner" provides a summary of recent Michigan Supreme Court and Michigan Court of Appeals decisions relevant to the child support program, as well as recently released state memoranda.

Working Together to Improve Outcomes for Incarcerated Parents

Erin Frisch

Every year, the partners of Michigan’s child support program gather for “Partner Forum,” where representatives from friends of the court, prosecuting attorneys, the Office of Child Support, and the Friend of the Court Bureau (collectively, the “partners”) discuss, brainstorm, and strategize about key issues. On Wednesday, November 15, 2017, the partners met in Lansing at the Hall of Justice and spent the majority of the day talking about the overlap between corrections and child support – a topic that historically has not received much attention. 

The Office of Child Support director, Erin Frisch, welcomed everyone and set the tone by relating her own journey on the topic of incarcerated parents. Her view evolved from a feeling that incarcerated and formerly incarcerated parents should not receive special attention – to a realization that within this population lies an opportunity for the child support program to significantly improve upon its mission of “engaging parents to improve children’s lives.”

Cross-Court Obligation to Ensure Justice for Families

[Editor’s note: This is the second article in a three-part series focusing on continued improvements to cross-court understanding between state and tribal courts through education and collaboration.]

The first article in this series discussed how tribal courts can operate differently from state courts, the overlap in child support responsibilities between tribal and state courts, and profiled two tribal court chief judges who collaborate with nearby friend of the court (FOC) offices.

Retired Michigan Supreme Court Justice Michael Cavanagh said, “Our state courts can benefit greatly from becoming familiar with tribal court procedures and practices and the peacemaking model.”[1]

Following that wisdom, this article delves deeper into how tribal courts interact with their litigants and then explores one example of a strong partnership between a tribal court and a state court on child support matters.

Students Bring a Fresh Perspective to FOC Basics

By: Julie Vredeveld, Operations Unit Manager, Kent County Friend of the Court

Like many offices, we have struggled to find ways to provide parents with information about often complicated friend of the court (FOC) processes early in their case. We think we have found the answer by partnering with Grand Valley State University (GVSU) and Grand Rapids Public Schools (GRPS) to create a series of short animations that explain complicated FOC processes in a fun and easy-to-understand way. The animated videos are accessible from our Kent County FOC YouTube channel and posted on our website homepage, www.accesskent.com/foc.

GRPS middle school students share their final work product with their classmates. Also pictured: Kent County FOC Director Daniel Fojtik and Operations Unit Manager Julie Vredeveld (back row, center), GVSU Film & Video Production professor Suzanne Zack (front row, second from right), and GRPS teacher Jen Hall (front right).

Modernization Upgrade to Intergovernmental Child Support Forms

By: Andrew Moore, Intergovernmental Policy Analyst, Michigan Office of Child Support

Andrew Moore

Prior to this year, intergovernmental child support forms had not been revised substantially since 2000. In September 2014, Public Law (P.L.) 113-183, the “Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act,” passed, requiring states to enact any amendments to the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act “officially adopted as of September 30, 2008 by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws,” (UIFSA 2008).[1]

The federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) accepted public comments regarding possible forms revisions and subsequently convened a federal-state work group in 2014 to analyze options for revising the forms. The work group primarily sought to ensure that revisions to the intergovernmental forms comport with UIFSA 2008 as required by P.L. 113-183. The work group also identified several important opportunities for improvement – gleaned from public comments. These improvements included: protecting personally identifiable information; addressing modern family structures, such as a couple in a same-sex marriage, by changing terminology where practical (e.g., establishing parentage instead of paternity); and reflecting advancements in communication methods and technology.

Legal Corner - March 2018

"The Legal Corner" provides a summary of recent Michigan Supreme Court and Michigan Court of Appeals decisions relevant to the child support program, as well as recently released state memoranda.

Michigan Child Support Uses Agile Approach to Strategic Planning

By Maureen Leif, J.D., President, Grays Peak Strategies 

Partner agencies collaborate in
the Michigan Child Support Program.

Often the mention of strategic planning elicits a nonenthusiastic sigh. It can be difficult to get excited about strategic planning. Typically, a lot of work is done at the executive level, and a plan is developed and rolled out to all levels of the organization for everyone to follow. 

The Michigan Child Support Program[1] (“Program”) wanted to approach its new strategic plan differently and began a process of revamping the plan this year. The Program Leadership Group (PLG) decided that the new plan would be a three-year plan and take the program through 2020. Grays Peak Strategies was hired to help facilitate the process and recommended Agile strategic planning.[2]