I'm new to the whole blog scene, so please forgive any social faux pas. However I'm not new to the child support advocacy scene. I've been a child support advocate in California for close to ten years now. My level of frustration with how child support is run in this state has reached a point that I either have to walk away from it or do something. Well, I'm not a quitter, so...on with my mission of raising awareness and serving children by educating parents and the general public about child support issues, and how they effect all of us.
It has often been said that children don't come with an owner's manual, guide book, or instructions on how to raise them. Caring for and raising children to become good citizens and responsible adults can be trying, even under the best of circumstances. Unfortunately, too many children are being raised under what may be the worst of circumstances, lacking the financial and/or emotional support of one or both parents.
Currently, there is virtually no stigma attached to parents who fail to support their children. It is estimated that there is more than $100 billion dollars owed, throughout the nation, in unpaid child support. Twenty billion of that is owed in California alone.
The societal consequences of this are far reaching. Increased crime, juvenile drug and alcohol abuse, and poor scholastic achievement have all been linked to financially un or under-supported children, raised in single parent households.
Although federal, state and local government have procedures and processes in place to enforce child support orders and collections, the results have been abysmal. California has recently improved collections; only four years ago collections of current support was at about 50%, it is currently at about 60%. This means if you have an open child support case in California, you stand about a 60% chance of having your current support collected.
The important social issue of unsupported children is certainaly national and global in scope. My objective of this blog is to raise awareness of the far reaching societal and economic implications of this problem.
Through awareness and accountability we can change and improve the child support system in California and improve the social economic standing of many of the states children.
Owners manual, guide book, instructions on how to raising kids ?? I want to get to the very basics of supporting them and making sure they have food on the table, decent clothes to wear and confidence that both parents take pride in providing for them.
You go girl!
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