Department of Child Support Services Recognizes Robin Jones for 31 Years of Service

Janelle Mora, CA DCSS

Robin Jones, Riverside DCSS

Thirty-one years ago, Robin Jones accepted a temporary position at Riverside County Department of Child Support Services (Riverside DCSS). The position, set to last two weeks, turned into a gig lasting two months, ultimately culminating in a full-time, permanent position. She joined the child support team because it was a stable job, but as she discovered how impactful the department is for parents and children, she had no desire to leave.

Robin held several positions in her time with DCSS, first as an office assistant II, then a supervising office assistant three years later. She then began working as a child support interviewer and in 2001 began her current position as a supervising child support specialist.

Driven by her passion for child support, Robin drove 88 miles one-way from Indio to Riverside for nine years when she was a child support interviewer. Her commute increased when she was offered the supervisor position in the Blythe office - 101 miles in the opposite direction. While supervising staff in Blythe and Indio, she introduced webcams to both offices, connecting staff from different area codes.

In Robin’s 31 years with child support, much has changed. When she first began, there were only 13 employees in her office and a single typewriter. Three decades later, there are 60 employees and some updated gadgets.

“It makes a world of difference as the years have gone by,” Robin said. “From the beginning everything was done on paper.”

In Robin’s supervising position, a request to shift from an establishment team to an enforcement team three years ago resulted in a hesitantly accepted new duty: revamping a department-wide system management process that had been stagnant for two years. Initially fearing taking the reins on such a large project in an area she last worked in 15 years earlier, her confidence grew after realizing her team’s strong abilities and chemistry. Tackling the assignment, Robin and her team drove the pilot project, known as the Results Based Management (RBM) process, to success.

RBM is the process that ended the block-filing, paper case system and introduced a new, efficient electronic filtering process for child support cases. With the implementation of RBM, federal performance measures improved and child support collections increased. Elated, Robin expressed how proud she was of her team breaking record collections in Riverside County as a result of RBM, reaching $156 million in support collections.

Immersed in helping families and viewing co-workers like family, Robin states, “child support is a very blessed job, it takes unique people to do what we do for a living. You’re getting into two of the most private things in people’s lives, their children and their money.”

As Robin nears retirement, she says, “It’s just been a wonderful job; it’s been a wonderful career. You never want to leave. There are so many other agencies that are out there that I probably could have gone to, but knowing we were taking care of kids was all I needed.”