CRFCFW - Community Forum on Fatherhood

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Welcome and Introduction
Reverend Calvin O. Butts III, Dr. Ronald Mincy and Joyce Thomas

Child Support Panel
Scott Cade, Frances Pardus-Abbadessa, Thomas Quiñones, Clive Bryant, Gorge, and Alicia Crowe

Community Question and Answer Period

Conclusion
David Hansell, Helen Mitchell and Reverend Calvin O. Butts

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Clive Bryant is the proud father of four children, a 12 year old son, an 11 year old son, as well as a 9 year old daughter and a 4 year old son with whom he lives. He is enrolled in St. Nick’s Fatherhood Program, a pilot program of New York State’s Strengthening Families through Stronger Fathers Initiative, and is a participant in NYC HRA’s Arrears Credit Program.

Scott Cade, JD, is Deputy Commissioner for the OTDA Center for Child Well-Being where he serves as Director of the NYS Child Support Program and oversees the State's Strengthening Families Through Stronger Fathers Initiative. Mr. Cade, a licensed attorney in the State of New York, has been OTDA Deputy Commissioner and Director of Child Support since August 2005.

Dr. Calvin O. Butts, III, Pastor, The Abyssinian Baptist Church. Under Dr. Butts’ 37 year ministerial leadership, Abyssinian remains dedicated to executing the Christian mission to: spread the Gospel, feed the hungry, provide shelter for the homeless, clothe and give to those who are lost, an undying hope in Jesus Christ. The founder and current Chairman of Abyssinian Development Corporation, Reverend Butts is the visionary behind Harlem’s Thurgood Marshall Academies, as well as Board Chairman of national and local organizations committed to such vital issues as education, health, and homelessness.

Alicia M. Crowe, Esq. is a rising voice for responsible fatherhood. Ms. Crowe, a highly sought-after speaker and author of Real Dads Stand Up!^TM:What Every Single Father Should Know about Child Support Rights and Custody, offers insights and solutions to help single dads gain greater understanding of their rights under the legal system. She is a partner in the law firm of Crowe & Crowe.

George is the proud father of a 13 year old son. He is enrolled in Seedco’s Fatherhood Initiative, a pilot program of New York State’s Fatherhood Initiative. He recently qualified for Seedco’s fatherhood loan to use towards past child support arrears. He has also received the New York State Non-Custodial Parent Earned Income Tax Credit. George is currently employed full time at his church, Crossroads Tabernacle.

David Hansell, JD, Commissioner, NY State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA). OTDA is the state agency charged with oversight of support programs and economic assistance for low-income New Yorkers. Commissioner Hansell, a former chief of staff of NYC's HRA, chairs a number of state cabinets including the Governor’s Economic Security Cabinet, the Children’s Cabinet, and the Workforce Investment Board.

Ronald Mincy, PhD is a Professor at Columbia University School of Social Work and the Director of the Center for Research on Fathers, Children and Family Well-Being. Dr. Mincy has devoted over thirty years to research and policy aimed at discovering and promoting the needs of low-income families—with a particular focus on black fathers—at the local, state, national levels. He was born in the Bronx and lives in Harlem.

Helen Mitchell, MPA is Director of Strategic Planning and Policy Development for the Honorable Congressman Danny K. Davis of the 7th District of Illinois. As a senior leadership team member, Ms. Mitchell is charged with managing Representative Davis’s highest priority: problems effecting black men. This month, Representative Davis will introduce the Julia Carson Responsible Fatherhood and Healthy Families Act of 2009.

Frances Pardus-Abbadessa, MPA is Deputy Commissioner of the NYC HRA Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE), which manages the NYC child support program. OCSE’s 840-person staff works to ensure that non-custodial parents share responsibility for supporting their children. They provide an array of services, including locating parents; paternity establishment; support collection; order modification and enforcement; and, in partnership with community-based organizations, training, education and job placement for non-custodial parents.

Thomas Quiñones, JD is a Family Court Support Magistrate who has served in New York County for the past twelve years. The New York State Family Court was established to take action in the lives of children, parents and spouses. A graduate of CUNY Law School, Magistrate Quiñones has always aspired to its motto “Law in the Service of Human Needs.”

Joyce Thomas, MA is Regional Administrator for the U.S. Department of HHS, Administration for Children and Families (Region II). Ms. Thomas partners with state and local government, Tribes, and community-based organizations to provide leadership, coordination, and integration among programs designed to promote economic independence and healthy development of children, youth and families, which include ACF's Responsible Fatherhood and African American Healthy Marriage Initiatives.

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The Abyssinian Baptist Church Men’s Ministry
The mission of the Men’s Ministry is to develop and implement a variety of structured outcome centered initiatives that are built on the foundation of Jesus Christ for men of The Abyssinian Baptist Church which foster spiritual, personal, and vocational growth and progress. The ministry further endeavors to help men envision, embrace, and actualize their leadership roles in the church as responsible heads of family, positive life mentors, and morally accountable community leaders.

The Abyssinian Men’s Ministry also maintains a collaborative network of professional resources and support services to address academic, vocational, social, and spiritual needs of men in the church and surrounding communities.

The Center for Research on Fathers, Children and Family Well-Being (CRFCFW)
The Center for Research on Fathers, Children and Family Well-Being's mission is to expand the knowledge base on the role of fathers (and father figures) in the lives of disadvantaged children and the processes by which nonresident fathers (and father figures) affect child development and family well-being.

The Center’s goals are to:

Undertake observational studies on whether and how policies and practices encourage disadvantaged fathers (and father figures) to be involved with their children.

Design, develop, and evaluate interventions intended to enhance the capacity of vulnerable fathers to contribute to child and family well-being.

Disseminate the findings of our research to researchers, policymakers, and practitioners.

National Fatherhood Leaders Group
The National Fatherhood Leaders Group (NFLG) is a coalition of national and community-based fatherhood organizations and allied groups. Our mission is to raise awareness of the importance of two involved parents in the lives of children and to strengthen the capacity of the responsible fatherhood field. We seek to help children by helping their parents build strong families. Almost 40 percent of children in the United States are born to unmarried parents, and often both parents have low incomes. Many children who grow up without their fathers struggle and are vulnerable to a number of negative risk factors. The public costs of father absence on children are substantial, including poverty, low academic achievement, juvenile delinquency, and early pregnancy.

NFLG offers the collective voice of the responsible fatherhood field to help policymakers, practitioners, community and faith-based organizations, child advocates, and other groups who have children's interests at heart, understand the importance of providing fathers with the services and supports they need to act responsibly and to make a positive and lasting difference in their children’s lives. We aim to increase family stability through realistic and effective workforce, child support, health care, tax, social services, parenting, healthy relationships and marriage, and criminal justice policies. We also seek to inform the public policy research agenda to improve the efficacy of responsible fatherhood programs and practices.

New York City Human Resources Administration – Office of Child Support Enforcement
NYC HRA OCSE helps children by providing parents, regardless of income and immigration status, with child support services. These services are available to all custodial parents and guardians, and include: locating noncustodial parents (NCPs); establishment of paternity; establishment of child support and medical support orders; collection and disbursement of child support payments and enforcement of child support orders. Child support, when combined with work and work supports, helps keep children out of poverty.

OCSE values the role of fathers and the contributions they make to their children's lives. OCSE helps ensure fair child support orders by increasing awareness about the rights and responsibilities of NCPs in the child support process, and partnering with community-based organizations to provide NCPs with parenting skills, and job training and placement.

Children deserve to be supported by both parents.

New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance – NY Fatherhood Initiative
The New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) is the State agency that oversees employment, welfare and child support policy. Employment and welfare programs generally focus on assisting families with children to become self-sufficient. Child Support policies generally focus on ensuring that non-custodial parents assist financially to support their children. The NYS Strengthening Families through Stronger Fathers Initiative bridges the gap between these employment programs, welfare programs and child support policies through a newly created, first in the nation, Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for non-custodial parents and the establishment of five separate pilot programs aimed at promoting responsible fatherhood. The Strengthening Families through Stronger Fathers initiative now places New York State OTDA as the lead agency in New York on responsible fatherhood initiatives.