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Friend of the Court reports improvement on performance factors and outlines GEMS employment program
Summary
Jackson County Friend of the Court reported improved federal performance measures, explained process changes that momentarily lowered some contract performance standards, and introduced GEMS, a court-ordered or voluntary program that helps obligated parents find and maintain employment while suspending enforcement actions during participation.
The Jackson County Friend of the Court reported improved performance on federal incentive measures and described a new local rollout of the GEMS employment program, which the office said will help parents gain employment and pause enforcement actions while they participate.
The office told the Public Safety and Transportation Committee on March 10 that, although two contract performance factors remained below the state-required 75% at fiscal year end, federal incentive measures improved overall from the prior year. The office said reorganizing processes with the prosecuting attorney’s office temporarily slowed some case work, but yielded higher engagement and more appropriate orders.
Friend of the Court staff said they closed non-enforceable cases, "rightsized" child support orders and created work-alternative opportunities to remove barriers to employment. "We made some concerted efforts to improve and drill down on specific cases that were negatively impacting our cases," the speaker said, adding that the office had worked to ensure parents received notice and meaningful parenting-time orders.
The Friend of the Court presenter also described GEMS, which the transcript identifies by that name and the committee heard stands for “gain employment maintain support.” She said GEMS is a statewide initiative being rolled out in Jackson County and can be court-ordered in contempt proceedings or used voluntarily. Participants work with a career coach on job leads and planning, receive help securing transportation and on-the-job training, and, while participating, enforcement actions are suspended. "When they are in the program and participating, we suspend all enforcement actions," the speaker said.
Commissioner Williams thanked the office for the work and called the results "very impressive numbers today." Committee members moved to receive the report; the committee voted unanimously to accept it.
The report to the committee did not specify individual fiscal figures tied to the measures beyond noting two factors were below the 75% contract threshold at fiscal year end; the presenter said backlog issues are resolved and that engagement has increased.
The committee received the report and voted to place it on file.
