Like so many other states, Colorado was looking to improve child support collections and yet be efficient and focused on what the best outcomes for the family could be. Child support workers and attorneys were seeing the same Obligors coming through the court contempt process repeatedly.

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A communication plan that includes social media and text-messaging strategies is important to the overall success of a child support program.  Social media platforms are pervasive in our society, and it can be difficult to grasp the impact on our lives and business.  Likewise, text messaging has become commonplace and can be an effective and reliable communication tool. Incorporating these tools into an overall communication plan can be challenging, but building a strategy piece-by-piece can ensure that an organization uses them in consistent and productive ways. As the child support community nationwide continues to innovate and evolve toward family-centered approaches, many agencies are looking at social media and text messaging as tools to help them reach more families and have a greater impact in their communities. 

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Experts agree that there is no cookie-cutter court model and in fact it is discouraged. However, looking at other models and developing a plan is integral to success. The plan must be developed through collaboration. Successful problem-solving courts are broader than just the judiciary. A cookie-cutter approach doesn’t work because the agencies involved and the resources available vary significantly from state to state and jurisdiction to jurisdiction. The first critical step is identifying the stakeholders. Understanding who will be impacted by the establishment of the court and who can offer resources or guidance is critical to setting up a program that truly addresses the needs of the community. Within the identified Stakeholder group, a steering board or “Champions” should be identified.  These are the representatives of the stakeholder community who can provide guidance, resources and leadership to the process. Once this key group is identified the next step is a first meeting. At this meeting the champions will collaborate and develop a vision for the problem-solving court. Subsequent meetings will be used to develop the program. Resources will need to be defined, examining questions such as: What resources are currently available? Will additional funding be needed? What funding resources are available? The stakeholders will need to develop program phases for implementation and plan for education and training of the stakeholders and the program staff throughout the program. Finally a plan for periodic program evaluation will need to be developed.

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The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) is a collection of information full of common sense ideas and methods, but it’s very easy to focus on process and methods and lose sight of the goal of the project.  Project Management (PM) as a discipline is only as effective as the project manager, the project management team, and the common sense with which they approach the work at hand. 

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