The National Child Support Enforcement Association (NCSEA) gave the Georgia Department of Human Services’ Division of Child Support Services (DCSS) its 2012 Outstanding Program of the Year Award.
This award is the highest honor that NCSEA can bestow and recognizes a state, regional, tribal or county program that has consistently and comprehensively exemplified the best in child support enforcement through an outstanding record of performance and in providing effective services to its constituency and its community.
The Georgia DCSS was recognized in part for its efforts to improve efficiencies while developing a culture of continuous improvement. Noted achievements include decreasing the amount of time to establish an order by 98.2% and halving the full enforcement process from 126 days to 60 days to get a contempt order.
From left: Cheresa Edmond, Patricia Smith, Connie Woodard, Robbi Richardson, Kristi Stone, David Stillman (NCSEA President), Keith Horton, Renorta Heard, Gary Driggers, Rhonda Cook, Lisa Owensby, Swaneissa Jones and Daryl Crews at the NCSEA Annual Conference in August 2012.
DCSS also has established a Community Outreach Council comprised of business partners and community organizations. The ultimate goal of the Council is to get non-custodial parents employed and paying their child support.
DCSS was recognized further for consistently improving in key performance areas such as order establishment, percentage of current support collected, collections on past due support, statewide paternity establishment and cost effectiveness.
“There is a national paradigm shift in child support and fortunately Georgia has been in front or on the leading edge of this shift from being solely an enforcement agency to one that provides services to all family members,” said DCSS Director Keith Horton.
Pictured below: Georgia Senator Johnny Isakson’s congratulatory letter to the DCSS team.
This news was originally featured in DCSS’s employee newsletter, the Peach State Dispatch.
