Strategies

Use specialized courts to work with parents involved in the child welfare system who may lose custody of their children due to substance abuse

Support fathers’ active involvement in child rearing via various father-focused or family-focused interventions

Provide education on basic budgeting, bank use, credit management, bankruptcy, credit building and counseling, homeownership, retirement, divorce, etc.

Adopt policies that allow custodial parents who receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) to collect all child support paid by the non-custodial parent; no portion is retained by the state

Provide employment-based services for non-custodial fathers who pay child support and experience a job loss or a decrease in income

Provide immunity from arrest, charge, or prosecution for drug possession or paraphernalia when individuals experiencing or witnessing drug overdose summon emergency services

Establish a non-share capital cooperative model in which fee-paying members can share the communal resources of a grocery, house, or utility cooperative

Teach parenting skills in a group setting using a standardized curriculum, often based on behavioral or cognitive-behavioral approaches and focused on parents of at-risk children

Provide home visiting services to families who are at risk for adverse childhood experiences, starting prenatally or right after birth and continuing for three to five years

Apologize for discriminatory housing policies; increase subsidies, financing, and paths to homeownership for people of color; and invest in systematically disadvantaged neighborhoods