Chautauqua County is part of a 12 county coalition that will be participating in a pilot program focused on ensuring safe access to child support services.
The New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance and Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence announced that more than $350,000 has been awarded to implement comprehensive services for victims and survivors of domestic violence who need assistance accessing child support.
The funding will enable the State’s Child Support Services program to work with New York City and 12 counties on developing and testing new approaches to ensuring all New Yorkers can safely pursue child support.
New York was one of 13 sites nationwide to recently receive funding through a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families’ Safe Access for Victims’ Economic Security (SAVES) demonstration grant. The overall goal of the grant is to increase safe access to child support and related services for victims and survivors of domestic violence.
With this funding, several critical stakeholders will be brought together to develop revised policies, processes and training that ensures all parents, especially domestic violence survivors, can safely seek child support services.
The pilot program will implement and test the effectiveness of the revisions over the next five years.
This effort will involve the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance and experts from the Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence, working collaboratively with local partners and others to help develop and implement comprehensive policies and procedures for:
– Establishing paternity
– Implementing child support and visitation orders
– Modifying and enforcing existing orders
– Connecting victims/survivors to essential support services
– Identifying and mitigating disparities in access caused by victimization
– And adopting case management strategies to manage interactions with parents who have used violence
The selected counties will then implement these changes as part of a pilot project to test their effectiveness and make further adjustments as needed.
Find more information on New York’s Child Support Services program at https://childsupport.ny.gov.
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