An outreach team in Riverside County wants to be the “new face of child support.”
As a unit of the Riverside County Department of Child Support Services, the team educates parents on child support initiatives, while providing “immediate services for immediate needs.”
This summer, the team is hosting a series of resource fairs throughout the county. The pop-up fairs are held at community centers, with the team using metrics to determine where vulnerable families exist within pockets of wealth.
Jade Pernell is part of the outreach team for the department. Their work focuses more on the whole family, and less on enforcement, Pernell said. “We are bringing immediate resources that address food insecurities, health and immunization needs, and the need for diapers, among other things.”
These critical needs vary across the county. Pernell said resources—to tackle issues from housing insecurity to immunizations to vision and dental exams for kids—are targeted for maximum impact. In the eastern Coachella Valley, for example, there’s a large population of migrant workers in the region, so translators are on hand to assist Spanish-speaking clients.
“We want to create positive interactions with child support, and we also want to dispel a lot of myths,” Pernell said. “Child support has been around since the (Great) Depression, so we’ve gone through quite a bit of change, and we’ve (continued) to evolve. We are still child support; we still do have the child’s best interests at heart. So yes, we enforce child support, but we’re also into wraparound services.”
The Coachella Valley was chosen for the first series of resource fairs. The RCDCSS partners with local agencies to support these “Community Connection events.”
“We get with organizations that have boots on the ground, that really understand and are interconnected with the community,” Pernell said. “We try to make sure that we’re in places that the community already feels comfortable in, and already has a vested interest in going to begin with.”
Anybody can attend the fairs. When participants arrive, they answer a short survey to determine if they have immediate needs, like food or health concerns. The team steers them to specific resources based on their answers, and attendees can visit provider booths to sign up for childcare, job-training or low-cost health insurance, among other services.
Parents can also start a child-support case or re-activate a dormant case onsite.
“The goal,” Pernell said, “is to make this process as seamless as possible, because we’re dealing with very sensitive things—like children and money. Our first goal is to educate parents both on their rights and on the resources that are available, and how seamless the process can be.”
The team will hold the next resource fair at Olive Crest in Palm Desert on Saturday, July 20, before shifting their focus to the Inland Empire.
Each fair is set up in the same way, with a vast amount of resources, but the types of resources at each are different, depending on the area’s needs.
“For instance, in the Inland Empire, we’re having a huge issue with rent right now, of finding places to live, or rent that’s affordable, and then making sure that we don’t have multiple families living in two- and three-bedroom apartments,” Pernell said. “When we ask particular vendors to come, it isn’t haphazard; it’s based upon research showing that these particular things are of need in that community.”
Karla Flores Rosas is the community outreach specialist with the John F. Kennedy Memorial Foundation. The agency offers classes in parenting and referrals to Ophelia’s Project, an empowerment program for teen girls.
At the Family & Farm Workers Service Center in Mecca, Rosas said the fairs are accessible for people who may be reluctant to seek help.
“When people hear any county (agency) name, they’re already afraid as it is,” Rosas said. “Being able to have these resource fairs really brings in that light that, ‘Hey, they’re not here to take my children away. They’re not here to charge me for child support only. They’re here to support the community to ensure that they get those resources that they need.’ Sometimes (child support is not paid due to) just a lack of resources. For a lot of these families, it’s not necessarily them not wanting to provide for their children or not wanting to support them.”
The RCDCSS works with workforce development and the housing division of the county’s Department of Public Social Services to help participants get on their feet.
“We have a very close relationship,” Pernell said. “We can refer and do warm handoffs. If an individual calls us and says, ‘Hey, I know I owe child support, but I also cannot find a job, or I’m having food and housing insecurity,’ obviously we want to address the child support issue—but child support isn’t going to be the first call they make if they have all these other insecurities looming.”
Changes in the System
Marquese Howard is the marketing, media and communications coordinator at the RCDCSS. He said the resource fairs are getting the word out about new programs to lessen negative stigmas and help parents make good on child-support payments.
Recent legislation created the “pass through” program. Previously, if families received cash assistance through the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program, child support payments went to the state to repay that assistance; now, those payments go to the family.
A debt-reduction program is also available for participants with payments that are in arrears. It’s based on a calculation of income to debt ratio—as well as a stipulation to never miss a payment.
The agency also makes sure communication goes both ways. When a case is opened, or when any modifications are added to a file, both parents are notified immediately.
“The child support (structure) you knew 10 to 20 years ago is not the child support of today,” Howard said. “Many people are still going on the stories they were told from past generations.”
These changes began in 1999, when the state removed child support jurisdiction away from the counties’ district attorney’s offices. Still, Pernell said, the public needs to be constantly educated on their rights and responsibilities. She said the outreach team is seeing changes, albeit gradually.
“The first part of that separation from the DA’s office was a lot of rebranding and re-educating the community, which we continue to do now,” Pernell said.
Case managers today have more autonomy, and with that comes the ability to create relationships and bonds with participants, said Pernell. “By having those bonds, it allows us to humanize child support—to walk (people) through the process, to be a team member, as opposed to someone who’s just overseeing their case.”
Roger De Leon is involved in such a case. In a testimonial video, DeLeon thanked the program for the resources that allowed him to get back on track with his payments—and his life. He describes his joy in watching the department transform over the years.
“One of the biggest things that I hear out there with dads in the community is, ‘How do they expect me to pay for my child support if I can’t go to work because I don’t have a license, and something happens?’” De Leon said. “(It’s great) being able to see that program come to life, and seeing fathers who walk in a bit defeated … then walking out excited: ‘Wow, this was different. I got my driver’s license back.’”
Howard said the outreach team recently celebrated DeLeon with a proclamation at a fatherhood event.
“As part of his journey of being a father, he changed his life around and began working for Riverside County,” Howard said. “He continues to be an advocate, (talking) with local fathers who might be in this same situation.
A Month of Events
August is Child Support Awareness Month, and the outreach team will hold a month-long series of surprise pop-up events. These “daily acts of support” are designed to surprise and celebrate the many community partners that help get resources out to families. Howard said the team could show up with ice cream or special prizes.
Saturday, Aug. 10, will be a landmark event for anyone who wants to see the RCDCSS in action. That’s when Open Saturdays merges with Child Support Awareness Month. The Iowa Avenue branch of Riverside County Child Support, in Riverside, is open every second Saturday of the month to accommodate parents who can’t make appointments on weekdays. Sign-ups are available for in-person and virtual appointments.
The team will amp up August’s Open Saturday event with music, food and giveaways.
“We are small but mighty,” Pernell said. “… We are trailblazing in the child support arena. I think the best way we’re doing that is through our outreach team (providing) positive interactions with child support. We’re there to do wraparound services. We want to educate, and we want to meet those needs.”
The Riverside County Department of Child Support Services will hold a Community Connection Resource Fair from 2 to 6 p.m., Saturday, July 20, at Olive Crest, 39830 Portola Ave, Suite A, in Palm Desert. Admission is free. Sign-ups are recommended. To sign up or for more information, visit rivcodcss.com.
Edited on July 18 to clarify Jade Pernell’s position within the department.
