Unfortunately, we are way behind on our current strategy. We need your support and participation for our 2008 strategic initiative. Please contact us via our website http://www.protectfathersrights.org/ . This is an opportune time to act as we enter a political year.
We had sent a letter to the governor of Alabama requesting information on how federal money provided to the state was being used, as provided by the Social Security Welfare Reform Act Title IV-D, for the enforcement of visitation rights for the non-custodial parent. We received confirmation from the Administration of Children and Families that the state was receiving the money. The governor's office directed us to the Children's Trust Fund, and the Fatherhood Initiative. After two weeks of phone calls, no one has yet to return a single phone call. Currently we have found no evidence that the Fatherhood Initiative is helping the fathers of Alabama. There is also no evidence that your tax dollars are properly be used in accordance with this act. Meanwhile, families are being torn apart in family courts. The losers being the children and both parents. The winners being the lawyers, state and local government. Something must be done to stop this injustice. After all, this is still America. We as Americans must stand together for families. Join us now!!!!
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The fact of the matter is this: Child support legislation at both the federal level (Title IV-D of SSA) and the state level assumes right off the bat that all child support cases involve a parent who has financially abandoned their child(ren). It is also assumed that the other parent is therefore left to provide financially for the child(ren), and that the government has been asked to step in to enforce the financial responsibility of the abandoning parent to their child(ren) in order to prevent the remaining 'family' from facing poverty and reliance on government and the welfare system to self-sustain.
In a nutshell: It's automatically assumed in all child support cases, regardless of reality, that one parent does not want to be involved... period. That's why time spent with the paying parent is called 'visitation' - because it's assumed that they only 'visit' their kids, not take financial responsibility for them.
So, with this information, when someone is trying to look for programs that use funding from Title IV-D to promote the involvement of both parents - it should be blatantly obvious that promoting any involvement whatsoever would be extremely counterintuitive to a program that pays states the most only when the most families are destroyed.
Any funding that comes from IV-D (approx. $50M/year - nationwide) is going to be absolutely minimal compared with the BILLIONS spent enforcing support orders - because it's just a hand-out given to appease people who complain. By attempting to go after how the states use this small amount of funding in an effort to ensure proper use of it - focus is lost on the big-picture. Quite frankly, the funding for fatherhood and visitation programs is simply a red-herring designed to get people to spend limited resources on something that will eventually not be very productive - as evidenced by the lack of returned phone calls.
The child support and family court system only works when families fail. Encouraging families in crisis to stay together would have a huge impact on the federal funding that states currently receive when families are destroyed instead. States have come to rely on IV-D funding to remain fiscally solvent. Any impact on this funding could potentially bankrupt a state.
Regardless of your organization's current strategies (I haven't looked at them yet...), if the main one isn't focused on changing IV-D legislation to disallow middle- and upper-class families from participating in the child support program - then some reorganization and re-prioritization may be necessary.
With sympathy and regret,
Ken Rosebriar
kenrosebriar@comcast.net
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