The Complicated Truth About Deadbeat Dads

Aired January 4, 2000

It is January 4th of the year 2000, I am David C. Barnett, thanks for joining us today on 90.3. Single mothers make up the largest portion of Ohio adults on public assistance for seemingly obvious reasons: absent fathers don't pay child support. Such parents are often characterized as "deadbeats" who have skipped out on their family obligations. But, after a little investigation, you find that the truth is a little more complicated than that.

David C. Barnett–The Cuyahoga County Commissioners recently took the wraps off a group of deadbeats. Wanted posters with nine staring faces were revealed, each one apparent to have made child support payments. Commissioner Jane Campbell characterized them as "the dregs of the earth," but was quick to note that the issue of child support is complex.

Jane Campbell–These folks who are on these deadbeat posters are the worst of the worst. These are the blatant, non-support people. There are also people who would support their children if they could. They don't have jobs, they don't have training, good jobs they have are intermittant, and so we are now working with those non-custodial parents.

DCB–On October 1st, benefits will be cut off for thousands of Ohioans on public assistance, and this has prompted the county to look for successful job training programs that are already in operation. One such program that boasts a good track record is sponsored by the Urban League of Greater Cleveland. It's called Rising Tide.

Sean Cooper–Rising Tide comes from a speech from Kennedy, "a rising tide lifts all boats," you know, making things even.

DCB–Sean Cooper is the director of of the Urban League's Rising Tide initiative, a program developed out of a study by Cleveland State University's School of Urban Affairs. The goal was to investigate the roots of welfare dependency.

SC–There's not many programs out there that are trying to advocate for the fathers. There's many programs that advocate for single women, single-headed households and what-have-you, and it's kind of really the push, the push was to do something about where is the father in the family, and so they did a study, and found out that many of the fathers were unemployed, they did not have jobs that were self-sufficient, so they were underemployed as well, and just out in the streets.

DCB–And this gave birth to the Rising Tide initiative, which was designed and implemented in 1995. It's an intensive, three-week program, feeturing one-on-one job readiness counseling. The program also explores the work skills a client already has, and then matches them with the needs of an employer in the community.

SC–And after that three weeks, you will go through 90 to 120 days of follow-on supportive services where we will track you once you get job referral, send you out on job referrals. Once you've obtained employment, we stay in contact with you for that probationary period of 90 to 120 days, and now we've actually extended that to six months to a year, and then it's also a benefit for an employer because they have someone else they can call and talk to about their employee instead of just having to deal with the issues by themselves.

DCB–Cuyahoga County's Child Support Enforcement Agency will soon start assigning non-custodial parents to the program. In many cases, these are men who have lost their sense of self-esteem, who are suspicious of yet another government agency dictating how they are supposed to live.

Robert Bonner–There is some resistance at first, but once they get involved in a program and they begin to search their own soul, amazing transformation takes place.

DCB–Robert Bonner heads the Participant Services Division of Cuyahoga Work and Training, the agency charged with helping welfare recipients make that transition to employment.

RB–They begin to realize that having a job and being able to pay child support and being able to support their children, not just on a monetary basis, but being there as a parent, it begins to rebuild their self-esteem.

DCB–Bonner says previous attempts to address this issue were doomed to failure.

RB–There has been something inherent in the system to drive parents apart, and I think one of the things we have to look at is the fact that we didn't have a program to reach out and help individuals who, the reason why they weren't paying child support was because they weren't working, or the reason why they weren't paying child support was because they couldn't get a job because they were fleeing felons and there was no one out there to help them become employed, and if you don't become employed, you can't take care of your family, and if you can't take care of your family, in most cases that's going to drive that parent out of the home.

DCB–Cuyahoga Work and Training's Robert Bonner thinks that the failure of welfare programs such as the famous "War on Poverty" of the '60s ended up throwing money at problems instead of really addressing them. He says poverty remains the real issue here, and programs like Rising Tide work towards finding real solutions.

RB–I mean, if an individual can become employed, bring an income into a household, re-engage contact with their children, help raise those children, be part of their lives, then I think that we're looking at something that's going to improve the quality of life for all of American society.