Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, on Thursday, awarded a grant to Brownwood-based Family Services Center, Inc. that will help Texas parents – specifically those who lack custody – stay involved in their children’s lives. The nonprofit Family Services Center will use the federally-funded grant to promote joint parenting skills and encourage both parents to positively impact their children.
“By partnering with the Family Services Center, we are able to encourage families in ways we simply could not do alone,” Attorney General Abbott added. “Children benefit when both parents demonstrate that they care. This grant will help Brownwood-area moms and dads build and maintain healthy relationships with their children.”
Studies have found that noncustodial parents who stay involved with their children are more likely to make regular child support payments. Studies also indicate that children whose parents pay their child support have fewer behavior problems, make better grades and stay in school longer than children who do not receive regular child support.
“Texas children are truly the future of our state,” Attorney General Abbott said. “Access and Visitation grants help the youngest Texans by providing valuable financial support for programs that encourage parents to actively participate in their children’s lives. Having involved parents not only benefits Texas children, it also benefits Texas taxpayers by ensuring parents financially support their kids.”
This year’s grant recipients were selected based on their ability to provide priority services identified by a statewide team of family law judges, court administrators, directors of county domestic relations offices and child support program officials.
Other Shared Parenting grant recipients are: Bexar County Domestic Relations Office in San Antonio; El Paso County Domestic Relations Office in El Paso; Family Court Services of Tarrant County; Harris County Domestic Relations Office in Houston; Travis County Domestic Relations Office in Austin; Project Unity’s Safe Harbour program in Bryan; NewDay Services for Children and Families in Fort Worth; and the Houston Galveston Institute providing services in Dallas.
The Texas Attorney General’s Office is responsible for operating the state’s child support program, which awarded Thursday’s grants through its Shared Parenting Program. This year, more than $500,000 in Shared Parenting grants was awarded to private nonprofit organizations and local governments across Texas.
In accordance with the Act, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services distributes $10 million each year to states. Each state’s distribution is based upon the number of children in the state who do not live with both parents.
Access and Visitation grants provide funding for services that help never-married, divorced or separated parents comply with the court’s visitation orders.
Texas has received Access and Visitation funding from the federal government since 1997.
The Attorney General’s Office maintains an online directory of programs across Texas that facilitates joint parenting after separation or divorce. Parents, counselors and other professionals can search the online directory by zip code, county or service provided. The directory is located on the Child Support section of the Attorney General’s website at www.texasattorneygeneral.gov.
Family Services Center of Brownwood was originally formed out of a special committee of the Chamber of Commerce in 1995. The goal of this center was to create a ‘One-Stop-Shop’ for social services in the community. It has grown over the years into a highly collaborative agency that provides not only a location for social services to share a cooperative space but also essential services to the community that help build healthy families and prevent abuse. Services the Family Services Center provides include: Parenting Education, Access and Visitation, Anger Management, Mediation, Children and Divorce Counseling, Battering Intervention and Prevention Program, Literacy, Marriage Education along with Information and Referral services.
