ERIC ED437481: Fathers' Fair Share: Helping Poor Men Manage Child Support and Fatherhood.

259 Pages·1999·3.3 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
UD 033 276
ED 437 481
Johnson, Earl S.; Levine, Ann; Doolittle, Fred C.
AUTHOR
Fathers' Fair Share: Helping Poor Men Manage Child Support
TITLE
and Fatherhood.
Manpower Demonstration Research Corp., New York, NY.
INSTITUTION
Department of Health and Human SerVices, Washington, DC.;
SPONS AGENCY
Pew Charitable Trusts, Philadelphia, PA.; Russell Sage
Foundation, New York, NY.; Kellogg Foundation, Battle Creek,
MI.; Mott (C.S.) Foundation, Flint, MI.; Department of
Agriculture, Washington, DC.; Annie E. Casey Foundation,
Baltimore, MD.; Department of Labor, Washington, DC.; Smith
Richardson Foundation, Inc., Greensboro, NC.; Ford
Foundation, New York, NY.; North Carolina Governor's Highway
Safety Program.; Northwest Area Foundation, St. Paul, MN.
ISBN-0-87154-411-3
ISBN
1999-00-00
PUB DATE
258p.
NOTE
CUP Services, P.O. Box 6525, Ithaca, NY 14851 ($45). Tel:
AVAILABLE FROM
607-277-2211; Fax: [phone].
Reports - Descriptive (141)
Books (010)
PUB TYPE
MFO1 /PC11 Plus Postage.
EDRS PRICE
Blacks; *Child Support; Father Attitudes; *Fathers; Hispanic
DESCRIPTORS
Americans; *Parent Participation; Parent Role; *Parenting
Skills; *Poverty; Unemployment
African Americans
IDENTIFIERS
ABSTRACT
This book examines the experiences of 32 men paticipating
in Parents' Fair Share (PFS), which was designed to help them get better
jobs, pay child support, and become more involved with their children. All
participants were low-income, noncustodial fathers who were not paying court
mandated child support. Most were African American or Latino and lived in
inner city, low-income neighborhoods. Data came from semi-structured
interviews, informal conversations, and observations. Participants offered
their opinions of and reactions to PFS and discussed whether it helped them
lives
become consistent child support payers. They also discussed their
outside of PFS, articulating obstacles encountered when trying to become more
active parents. Eight appendixes present sample data and research
family
methodology; maps; lists and descriptions of peer support sessions;
tree; personal shields; profiles of two participants deciding how to use
their money; profiles of selected participants; questions for noncustodial
references.)
(SM)
parents in PFS; and profile of interviewees. (Contains 60
Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made
from the original document.
1 4
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been reproduced as
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or organization
received from the person
originating it
been made to
Minor changes have
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improve reproduction
this
opinions stated in
° Points of view or
necessarily represent
document do not
policy
official OERI position or
(V)
466,
and
Ann Leiiineer
Doolittle-
Fr
C.
AVAILABLE
BEST COPY
to
air
ne of the most challenging goals for
welfare reformers has been improving
the collection of child support payments
from noncustodial parents, usually fathers.
Often vilified as "deadbeats" who have
dropped out of their children's lives, these
fathers have been the target of largely puni-
tive enforcement policies that give
little
consideration to the complex circum-
stances of these men's lives. Fathers' Fair
Share presents an alternative to these mea-
sures with an in-depth study of the Parents'
Fair Share program. A multi-state interven-
tion run by the Manpower Demonstration
Research Corporation, the program was
designed to better the employment and life
skills of nonpaying fathers with children on
public assistance, in the belief that this
would encourage them to improve their
level of child support. Chronically unem-
ployed or underemployed, undereducated,
and often earning their money on the
streets, the men chosen for the program
bore the scars of drug or alcohol abuse,
troubled family lives, and arrest records.
Among those of African American and
Hispanic descent, many felt a deep-rooted
distrust of the mainstream economy. The
Parents' Fair Share program offered these
men the chance not only to learn the social
skills needed for stable employment but to
participate in discussions about personal
3
(continued on back flap)
FATHERS' FAIR SHARE
4
FATHERS' FAIR SHARE
Helping Poor Men Manage Child
Support and Fatherhood
Earl S. Johnson, Ann Levine, and Fred C. Doolittle
A Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation Study
RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION / NEW YORK
The Russell Sage Foundation
The Russell Sage Foundation, one of the oldest of America's general purpose foundations, was
established in 1907 by Mrs. Margaret Olivia Sage for the "improvement of social and living con-
ditions in the United States." The Foundation seeks to fulfill this mandate by fostering the devel-
opment and dissemination of knowledge about the country's political, social, and economic
problems. While the Foundation endeavors to assure the accuracy and objectivity of each book
it publishes, the conclusions and interpretations in Russell Sage Foundation publications are
those of the authors and not of the Foundation, its Trustees, or its staff. Publication by Russell
Sage, therefore, does not imply Foundation endorsement.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Peggy C. Davis, Chair
Neil J. Smelser
Jennifer L. Hochschild
Alan S. Blinder
Eugene Smolensky
Timothy A. Hultquist
Joel E. Cohen
Marta Tienda
Ira Katznelson
Thomas D. Cook
Eric Wanner
Ellen Condliffe Lagemann
Robert E. Denham
John S. Reed
Phoebe C. Ellsworth
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Johnson, Earl (Earl S.)
Fathers' Fair Share: helping poor men manage child support and fatherhood/
Earl S. Johnson, Ann Levine, and Fred C. Doolittle.
p.
cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-87154-411-3
2. Child supportGovernment
1. Child welfareGovernment policyUnited States.
4. Fathers
3. FathersServices forUnited States.
policyUnited States.
5. Poor menServices forUnited States.
Employment forUnited States.
7. Children of single parents.United
6. Poor menemployment forUnited States.
StatesEconomic conditions.
I. Levine, Ann.
III. Title.
II. Doolittle, Fred C.
98-47551
HV741.J63
1999
CIP
3627'1dc21
The Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation's preparation of this volume was supported
by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Pew Charitable Trusts, W. K. Kellogg
Foundation, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Annie E. Casey
Foundation, U.S. Department of Labor, Smith Richardson Foundation, Ford Foundation,
McKnight Foundation, and Northwest Area Foundation. The findings and condusions presented
herein do not necessarily represent the official positions or policies of the funders or the states par-
ticipating in the Parents' Fair Share Demonstration, which are listed in this document. Interested
readers may wish to contact the states for more information on the program.
1999 by Russell Sage Foundation. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of
Copyright
America. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmit-
ted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Reproduction by the United States Government in whole or in part is permitted for any purpose.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National
Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials. ANSI
Z39.48-1992.
RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION
112 East 64th Street, New York, New York 10021
To our parents
7
CONTENTS
Foreword by Mercer L. Sullivan
ix
Acknowledgments
xiii
Chapter 1
Introduction
1
Chapter 2
The Participants
18
Chapter 3
The World Outside PFS: An Insider's View
58
Chapter 4
The Noncustodial Parents' Perspectives on Child
85
Support and the Child Support System
Chapter 5
The Only Game in Town: Walking Through
104
the Doorway of Parents' Fair Share
Chapter 6
The Employment and Training Component of PFS:
133
Job Club/Job Search
Chapter 7
Conclusion
151
Sample, Data, and Research Methodology
Appendix A
176
Maps
Appendix B
185
Appendix C
List and Description of Peer Support Sessions
192
8
viii
FATHERS' FAIR SHARE
200
Family Tree
Appendix D
204
Personal Shields
Appendix E
207
Profile of Two Participants Deciding How to
Appendix F
Use Their Money
209
Profiles of Selected Participants
Appendix G
213
Questions for Noncustodial Parents in PFS
Appendix H
217
Profile of Interviewees
Appendix I
222
Notes
228
References
233
About the Authors
234
Index
FOREWORD
This book is about unknown men. More than forty years after Ralph
1 Ellison's (1952) great imaginative evocation of the invisibility of all
African Americans and more than thirty years after Elliot Liebow's
(1968) classic ethnography of streetcorner men, men like those por-
trayed here are still seen by most people, if they are noticed at all,
through the distorting lenses of stereotyping, scapegoating, and, at
best, condescension.
To say that is not to deny that many children with noncustodial
fathers could be lifted out of poverty if their fathers provided ade-
quate financial support or that this lack of paternal financial support
is not a major social problem. Effective and reasonable child support
policies need to be devised and implemented. Despite considerable
recent attention by policymakers to this issue, however, we are a long
way from having such policies. There are many reasons for this fail-
ure. One of the most important is that policy is so poorly informed
about the men it seeks to change, especially men like these who have
the least ability to provide support. When the policy alternatives are
defined on a spectrum that runs from patronizing neglect to tough
love to just plain tough, as they have been, it should not be surprising
that efforts to force men who have trouble supporting themselves to
bail their children out of poverty are not very productive.
A few years ago, Fred Doolittle called me from the Manpower
Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC) to invite me to a meet-
ing with a young researcher named Earl Johnson who had just been
hired to do ethnographic research with participants in the Parents'
Fair Share program (PFS). Having done qualitative studies with non-
custodial fathers and having been involved with MDRC's early efforts
to design the program, I looked forward to the meeting with interest
and curiosity. Subsequently, I have had many conversations with Earl
about his efforts to engage and build rapport with PFS participants
ix