I’ve never been in Alabama. However, a certain grant caught my attention, obviously (see bottom of yesterday’s post).

From the wonderful Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), we can see for FY 2011, a BLUE slice of the pie representing “ACF” -under which is the Child Support Enforcement sector (OCSE).  (Run it yourself, here; select a year).  The pie chart to the right is “RECOVERY” grants.

We can see clearly below that the Administration for Children & Families is the 2nd largest “OPDIV” of this organization, second only to “CMS”

FY 2011 Total Awards By OPDIV   (Non-ARRA, left side, enlarged):  

“Administration for Children and Families”

ACF  includes welfare, medicaid, child support, and of course marriage, fatherhood, abstinence promotions — as well as many wonderful projects supporting hospitals, medical research and other topics relating to our health.   So “ACF” is definitely an ‘OPDIV‘ to watch, as to our national budget, particularly as so many of the privately-contracted child support enforcement companies have been caught in defrauding the public (and overbilling the gov’t etc.), which (alas) doesn’t always prevent them from going on to get the next whopping grant somewhere else — in a different state, or for a different purpose, etc.).

Child Support Enforcement is so important it has its own Program Office designation, which is “OCSE.”  Under OCSE (I see, when I just ran a report) there are only 4 “CFDA’s” showing up:   93.563 (basic enforcement), 93.564 (“Research”),  93.597 (Grants to states for “Access and Visitation” @ $10 million/yr since 1996), and 93.601 (“Demonstrations and Special Project”)

“CFDA” = “Category of Federal Domestic Assistance”

The ACF funds (2011) child support enforcement — especially as it is evolving and expanding, and seems intertwined with fatherhood promotion, which then-President Bill Clinton, by Executive Memo, said should be intertwined throughout the Executive Branch (which any President is, naturally, the CEO of) — a little harder to track down.  Not to mention, the people administering some of the child support at the state level continue to declare that child support enforcement shouldn’t just be about, well, child support enforcement — but (like all the rest of our ruling institutions) — should “EVOLVE” (aka “expand,” infinitely).  Add to this an open invitation from then-President George Bush (Junior), also by Executive Order, to the faith-based component, the sky, apparently, is the limit on research and demonstration “Isn’t-that-Special“? [See SNL’s “Church Chat“]projects to transfer money from noncustodial parents (AKA Dads — it’s still basically presumed that mothers are not noncustodial, by and large, and not working, I guess) — to the households on welfare because Dads weren’t paying up.

. . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . .

The problem is when something gets lost in transit (“Undistributable Child Support Collections”) as well as translation.  If one thinks of it simply as water — and a plumbing system — it’s clear there are a lot of leaks (unintentional), but then others seem to enjoy tapping into the flow for various purposes, including Family (re)Design.

Of this, it looks like ALABAMA got $5 billion from HHS (of course states get grants from other Departments, notably DOJ, DOE, etc.)

Search Criteria:
Fiscal Year = 2011
State = ALABAMA

Yesterday I looked at the “CFDA 93.601” (Special Improvement) portion of the OCSE’s approximately $4 billion/year enforcement agency.  I was particularly gripped by a certain state — Alabama, which got $100,000 for a Co-Parenting class.  Hmmm.  That, combined with the words “Family Resource Center” definitely caught my attention, and I spent hours examining nonprofit names, boards of directors (per their tax filings), and a good amount of time on the Alabama Secretary of State’s Business Search Site.  Some of the information I emailed to friends/colleagues.  Particularly after running across an older blog:

HERE (no years selected) is CFDA 93601 for ALABAMA:

Now, yesterday, I was looking up a group in Marshall County, on which a founding incorporator was a judge; and this just also was apparently on a Child Policy Council

The “Child Abuse & Neglect Prevention Board” is tied to “The Children’s Fund” apparently;

http://ctf.state.al.us/Programs.htm

LIST OF PROGRAMS:

PROGRAMS FATHERHOOD TRADITIONAL CBCAP CHILDREN FIRST   GRANTEE SUPPORT PROGRAM MCOP MENTORING PROGRAM JEFFERSON COUNTY PILOT PROJECT CRIBS FOR KIDS MENTORING NEW MOMS PREVENT CHILD ABUSE ALABAMA For the Program Year 2010-2011, CTF funded approximately 179 community-based child abuse prevention programs across the state. The programs provide services to children and families. The types of programs included: Parent Education and Support, Fatherhood, Home Visitation, Community Awareness, Respite Care, School-based, Non school-based/After School and Mentoring.  These programs are supported by State and Federal dollars through four main funding streams.

HISTORY

The Martin-Aldridge Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Act

Alabama’s Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Act, or ACANP, was adopted by the Alabama Legislature in 1983 to address the state’s growing problem of child neglect and maltreatment. While several state agencies already existed to deal with different aspects of child abuse, none of these agencies specifically focused on solving the problem before it occurred. It was clear that Alabama needed to create a state agency with its own board, funding and staff to be dedicated solely to preventing child abuse. To address the problem at it’s origin, instead of merely addressing the symptoms of what could have beenprevented The ACANP Act established The Children’s Trust Fund. These state dollars are intended to provide annual funding of community based prevention programs throughout the state as well as create a self-sustaining pool of funds to provide for funding these programs in the future. As Alabama’s ONLY agency designated to prevent child abuse and neglect, it will be our goal to encourage and support each community in this state in their efforts to find new and effective solutions for preventing child abuse before it occurs, and ultimately strengthening Alabama families to prevent this tragedy in the future.

This includes a “Fatherhood Forum” under the links:

OR, CFDAs under which “visitation” and “Fatherhood” might occur (I chose only 2011 through 2010, Alabama):

Entity ID	Entity Name	City	Type	Status
224 – 147	The Hive Creative Group, Inc.	DOTHAN, AL	Domestic Corporation	Exists
1

 @ 113 North Herring, Dothan, AL Incorporated in ab. 2002 by David McCormick and Mary Palo.  Here’s the street address (per map) (photos are approximate location, but it’s a residential neighborhood).  The “HIVE” is obviously a reference to BeeHive.… how sweet:  Self-described as “over 30 years in marketing, PR, advertising, graphic design and program development..enjoy working with nonprofits . . . . a leader in designing quality  literature for abstinence programs…  In 2006 they were awarded a “HEALTHY MARRIAGE INITIATIVE GRANT” through the HHS called “Just the Facts   . Straight Talk About Marriage.”      Their Products page (check it out) has 6 hyperlinks — the bottom 3 relate to abstinence — exclusively — the top one, delivery (having babies) and the 4th one, I can’t tell, but it’s aimed at high school seniors.     The links simply show their media products…. T’shirts, posters, etc. FREEDOM, WHY WAIT, and STATs…

Mission Statement TOP empowers people to achieve their full potential. We provide resources to promote self-sufficiency, strengthen families, adn prevent child abuse and neglect thus improving the quality of life for all members of our community.

Family Resource Center, Inc. (Tuscaloosa’s One Place [TOP]) Tuscaloosa, AL
“Co-Parenting with Responsibility (CPR)”
“Funding Opportunity: “Family Centered Services”

CPR is a comprehensive program designed to educate and involve both parents in the child support enforcement process as well as coordinate services that promote family strengthening and support. Partners include Tuscaloosa Department of Human Resources, Family Court, Drug Court, Bradford Health Services, Workforce, and others. The project will target low-income, unwed parents who are involved with child support enforcement (CSE) in Tuscaloosa. Participants may enter the program voluntarily or through court order from CSE, family, or drug courts, and will include both custodial (CPs) and noncustodial parents (NCPs). The program also will provide comprehensive services to both parents. The family court judges plan to order both CPs and NCPs to participate in CPR and plan to hold additional dockets requiring participants’ appearance.

TOP will assign a Family Support Specialist who will serve as CSE/court liaison as well as case manager for CPR families. The Program Coordinator will assist with teaching activities, complete all evaluations and help participants get needed services.) All work will focus on improving the consumer’s understanding of the child support process, increasing child support collections, and improving parental involvement and family relationships. TOP will serve 80-100 families per year. Clients will enter the program the beginning of each month and will receive information related to child support, parental rights, basic parenting skills as well as communication and relationship skills. TOP also will provide job search, résumé preparation and will link with the Career Development Center (non-CSE services will be paid from other than grant funds). Referrals to other agencies (such as Alabama Employment Services) will be made for other services not offered by TOP. The project team will meet monthly.

Goals:

Knowledge of CSE will increase by 30%
20% improvement in parent cooperation and commitment to cooperate with CSE
20% increase in CSE collections
25% of participants will find employment
Improved custodial/noncustodial relationships
Mediation services for parents will increase by 20%
50% increase in visitation between NCP and his/her child
Long-term outcome includes strengthening the relationship between CSE and other stakeholders to improve services to families.

Grant Number:90FI0108
For Information, contact: ACFOCSEGrantsinfo@acf.hhs.gov
Project Period:09/01/10 – 08/31/2013

 I’ll be back tomorrow… to finish connecting the dots.