Project Evaluation for Fatherhood Initiative Project

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DadsFromDayOne-DFD1-courtlandconsultingThe Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) awarded the Michigan Department of Human Services – Office of Child Support (OCS) grant funds for a demonstration project, Dads from Day One (DFD1).  Building on lessons learned from child support, fatherhood and healthy marriage programs of the past decade, DFD1 focuses on the “front-end” process of child support enforcement, beginning with the birth of a child to low-income, unwed parents, through the process of establishing a child support order and for the first few months of payments. The project seeked to ensure that the necessary services are provided to both parents to enable them to better support the child and that the child support expectation is realistic.

In 2004, Courtland Consulting was awarded the research and evaluation contract for the Dads from Day One Project, which included extensive training protocols for case managers in Wayne County 3rd Circuit Court.  As part of this contract, Courtland:

  • Designed and published training manuals
  • Authored on-line help for the case management database
  • Delivered class-room training on program best practices (soft skills) as well as technical use of the case management and website utilities
  • Provided implementation support to Wayne County post deployment
  • Designed and printed fatherhood brochures, business cards and promotional literature
  • Designed, formatted and produced federal evaluation reports

Courtland was also resourced to develop an outreach campaign to help with the Dads From Day One participation recruitment.  Courtland planned and designed an approach to reach a defined population within the Detroit area.  Outreach activities included: radio ad development, interviews and commercial spots; community presentations and activities; community partner contacts; website development; design of posters and brochures; conference event attendance; promotional giveaways; and the establishment of a hotline number to screen qualified callers.  Courtland performed constant monitoring of the campaign in order to track the successes and allow for modification of the approach to the target community.

The project went live in October 2005 and closed June 2008.

 WEB & GRAPHIC DESIGN

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