The State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) announced yesterday that it wil be allocating $2.7 million in funding for its Strengthening Families Through Stronger Fathers Initiative- A State-wide child support and fatherhood-engagement initiative aimed at helping noncustodial fathers (primarily low-income) become more involved with their children’s lives, financially and emotionally. Two New York City organizations - Seedco and STRIVE - will receive close to $1 million of this funding to continue work that they began as part of a State-funded pilot fatherhood initiative four years ago.
The Strengthening Families Through Stronger Fathers Initiative was enacted by the NY State Legislature in 2006. It is essentially a child support initiative, utilizing a two-part approach to helping low-income noncustodial parents (nearly all of whom are fathers) pay their child support in full. The first provision of the State’s legislation facilitated the development of pilot programs to provide intensive employment
and other supportive services to low-income noncustodial parents. Both Seedco and STRIVE participated in one of these three-year pilot programs, which ended last fall. The second provision established a state refundable earned income tax credit (EITC) for noncustodial parents with low earnings who pay the full amount of their current child support obligation in a given year. OTDA began unrolling the Non-custodial parent EITC in 2008.
The organizations funded through this initiative will provide participants with parenting, education and employment services, among other supportive services. The three-year pilot programs demonstrated there is great demand for these services. The pilot organizations served over 2000 individuals, the majority of whom were highly disadvantaged. Nearly all of the clients that participated in the pilot initiatives were unemployed or working less than 20 hours per week at enrollment, 79 percent had no more than a high school education, and 60 percent had an arrest record.
OTDA’s continued investment in these fatherhood programs, even as the State struggles to navigate one of the largest budget deficits in its history, and funding for services from mental health to housing are being slashed, evinces an underlying ideological position -- child support is a critical vehicle for low-income children’s ultimate economic and emoitional support. This was articulated by Kristin Proud, OTDA’s Deputy Secretary for Human Services, Technology and Operations:
This initiative will help low-income fathers to not only better meet their child support obligations, but to better connect with their children. This is integral to our core mission as studies continually show that children who have the emotional and financial support of both parents are more likely to experience success later in life.”
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