Program Narrative
Project Summary/Abstract
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE), pursuant to the authority granted to it by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, also known as the “Welfare Reform Act,” provides Grants to States for Child Access and Visitation Programs. The purpose of the Access and Visitation Grant is to establish and administer programs to support and facilitate non-custodial parents’ access to and visitation of their children, by means of activities including mediation, counseling, education, development of parenting plans, visitation enforcement (including monitoring, supervision and neutral drop-off and pickup), and development of guidelines for visitation and alternate custody arrangements.
In FY 2001, according to the Administrative Office of Courts (AOC), approximately 35,201 child support cases were filed, representing an increase of 1,640 from FY 2000. During this same period, there were 24,630 recorded divorces (Alabama Center for Health Statistics). According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the profile of general demographic characteristics for Alabama in 2000 revealed that there were 246,466 female head of households (no husband present). Non-traditional family units represent 30.0 percent of all households in Alabama.
Pending approval of FY 2002 access and visitation funding, the Administrative Office of Courts (AOC) plans to expand mediation services to those parents who are unable to fund or have access to resources to settle their differences through the Domestic Mediation Program.
Currently, pursuant to Rule 42, Alabama Rules of Judicial Administration, counties are authorized, with permission of the Administrative Office of Courts, a Judicial Volunteer Program consisting of either or both of (1) Juvenile Conference Committees (JCC) and/or (2) District Court Mediation. Volunteers of both programs are carefully screened, interviewed, trained and sworn under an Oath of Confidentiality before their direct involvement in the judicial system.
The Juvenile Conference Committees are comprised from the community who informally hear juvenile complaints that are referred by the juvenile court judge. The JCCs are primarily concerned with preventing future misconduct of young people and is specifically designed for first-time nonviolent offenders.
The District Court Mediation Program is comprised volunteers from the community to co-mediate small claims and/or district civil cases. The mediator’s role is to assist those parties involved in the dispute communicate with each other, thereby allowing them to resolve the dispute themselves.
Authorized by the Alabama Supreme Court, this
Grant will be used to develop an expansion of the Judicial Volunteer Program. The Domestic
Mediation program will utilize
citizen volunteers who are carefully
screened, trained and sworn under
an Oath of Confidentiality to co-mediate visitation issues to divorced, separating, and never-married
parents. A desired outcome of the Domestic
Mediation program is the
development of a consensual informed parenting plan agreement.
There are few programs existing in Alabama that are designed specifically to assist non-custodial parents who encounter problems gaining access to and visitation of their children. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 provided for funding to be distributed to all states, attempting to address this need on a national level. Under Grants to States for Access and Visitation, prior funding has enabled the Alabama AOC to establish four viable pilot programs within its Unified Judicial System (UJS). These successful pilot programs provide limited services, in selected jurisdictions across the state. In years past, services, which vary by site, include parenting education services, mediation, and supervised visitation. Two of the four pilot programs were continued for funding in FY 2001. A description of their services provided, contact information and demographics follows.
FY 2001 Organizations Funded
Lowndes County Both Parents Program
The Lowndes County Both Parents Program provides education through a parenting education class with the desired outcome of an informed parenting plan agreement. The class is taught in two sessions to educate parents concerning their roles and responsibilities as parents and to assist them in reaching an agreement concerning their parenting time. If a mediation agreement is reached, the agreement will be incorporated into an enforceable court order.
Contact Information:
The Honorable Terri L. Bozeman
District Judge, Lowndes
P.O. Box 455
Washington Street
Hayneville, AL 36040
(334) 548-2591
Geneva County Both Parents Program
The Geneva County Both Parents Program provides mediation of visitation issues by a certified mediator in an effort to resolve these issues before going to court. If a mediation agreement is reached, the agreement is incorporated into an enforceable court order.
Contact Information:
The Honorable Charles W. Fleming Jr.
District Judge, Geneva
200 North Commerce Street
P. 0. Box 758
Geneva, AL 36340
(334) 684-5630
Demographic Information Comparison Both Parents Counties
|
White |
African |
Births to |
Persons below
poverty, |
Children below |
|
|
Alabama |
7 1.1% |
26.0% |
11.5% |
16.2% |
23.8% |
|
Lowndes |
25.9% |
73.4% |
18.3% |
31.5% |
39.4% |
|
Geneva |
87.1% |
10.6% |
9.4% |
18.7% |
28.5% |
Source: U.S. Census 2000, Alabama Kids Count 2001 Data Book
As a result of the rising number of divorces, separations, and paternity establishments in Alabama, a striking number of families are classified as non-traditional, headed by one custodial parent. According to the U.S. Census, the profile of general demographic characteristics for Alabama in 2000 revealed that there were 246,466 female heads of households. Non-traditional family units in this state represent 30.0% of all households. According to the Alabama Center for Health Statistics, in FY 2000, there were 24,630 recorded divorces. In FY 2000, approximately 33,581 child support cases were filed in the courts of Alabama, representing an increase of 1,947 from FY 1999 (Administrative Office of Courts).
In collaboration with the Alabama State Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Board and Judicial Volunteer Program Juvenile and Family Court Judges, the Administrative Office of Courts noticed there was a need for mediation services for divorcing, never-married and separating parents. To meet this need, the Administrative Office of Courts is pursuing the most economical and viable means of acquiring the necessary human resources. Citizen volunteers will be specially recruited, selected, trained and sworn under an Oath of Confidentiality to participate in the already-established Judicial Volunteer Program.
Authorized in Rule 42, Alabama Rules of Judicial Administration, the Judicial Volunteer Program can be utilized to provide a continuous resource of well-trained and highly motivated facilitators. This drastically reduces the human cost factor associated with this program and making the goal of implementing programs in every juvenile and/or family court feasible.
Under the umbrella of services the Judicial Volunteer Program offers, the Domestic Mediation Program is designed to (1) provide mediation services to divorcing, separating and never-married parents to resolve visitation issues in the development of a informed and consensual parenting plan that is in the child(ren)’s best interest; and (2) to reduce the relitigation of custody and visitation disputes. The program offers the services of carefully screened, interviewed, and trained citizen volunteers to serve as mediators, in teams of two, to assist parties in negotiation consensual informed parenting plan agreements. Volunteers are sworn under an Oath of Confidentiality before their direct involvement in the judicial system. Currently, there are four counties that have been established as Domestic Mediation programs.
The purpose of the Access and Visitation grant is outlined in the following goals and objectives:
GOAL 1
To encourage and promote the active participation of both parents in the lives of their children, except for those instances where such involvement would not be in the best interest of the children, such as cases involving domestic violence, substance abuse, child abuse or neglect, etc.
This goal was developed with the following objectives in mind:
a. Encouraging and enabling parents to develop parenting plans through mediation setting
forth parental decision-making, parenting time and residential arrangements for the child(ren).
b. Educating both parents concerning their role in providing the best interests of their children through the use of informational materials, i.e. brochures and videos.
Improving the service array in Alabama on Access and Visitation issues.
This goal was developed with the following objective in mind:
a. Standardizing and streamlining policies and procedures concerning access and visitation issues in all Alabama counties for consistency and best practices.
The Alabama Access Visitation Program seeks to enhance all non-custodial parents’ access to and visitation of their children which will ultimately benefit all residents of the State, particularly the families and children with one parent; with parents who have never been married; and with parents undergoing divorce or separation.
The number of people to be served by the program will vary. Initially four sites have been established, with a possibility of seven to be implemented by the end of FY 03. These factors are also dependent upon final determination of funding available by the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement.
The Alabama Administrative Office of Courts will establish and administer programs to support and facilitate non-custodial parents’ access to and visitation of their children through the use of volunteers in mediating visitation. Mediation will be provided in both urban and rural communities. According to the Alabama Center for Health Statistics, this population produced 6,817 finalized and recorded divorces for 2000. In addition, there were 4,787 births to unmarried women in 1999 for these counties.
The project to be implemented includes:
Domestic Mediation Program - Enabling parents mediation services to make informed decisions about their child(ren). The program will assist the judge by reducing their time on visitation issues, allowing them more time to decide on other serious cases that affect the family. Citizen volunteers will be specially recruited, selected, and trained to participate in the program. These volunteers are ordinary citizens who unselfishly give of their time to make difference in their own community and to contribute to a better life for all. They save the court valuable resources and bring the courts and communities together in a collaborative effort to achieve well-being. Both the courts and communities benefit directly from this program.
In addition to the Domestic Mediation Program, the Administrative Office of Courts proposes to provide statewide administrative services which make available additional services to the people of the state.
Administrative/Research - The staff
of the Access and Visitation Program will continue to work through the Administrative Office of Courts’ Family
Court Division, as well as the Advisory
Committee and other committees
and
organizations to enhance state policies and
procedures as they relate
to custody and visitation issues.
Education - The development of informational materials that can be disseminated state wide to parents and children regarding access and visitation issues.