Child Support Services Awareness Month (CSAM) is one of the busiest months of the year for most counties, but especially for the Los Angeles County Child Support Services Department (LA CSSD), whose caseload is larger than those in the states of Maine, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming combined. To celebrate CSAM, LA CSSD had more than 50 special events planned throughout the month of August. It takes a lot of time, patience and dedication to make sure all of the events are a success, and that’s Jonna Lewis’ job.
Jonna Lewis, Special Assistant to the Director, is the person ensuring all CSAM events are organized, well-planned and run smoothly. Staff members from throughout LA CSSD are encouraged to participate and take part in CSAM activities. Jonna and her team from the Outreach Service Division, which consists of three people, start work on most of the events months before CSAM; for example, she started working with the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in May to coordinate the county proclamation and presentation for the meeting in early August.LA CSSD collaborated with many community partners to help spread the word about CSAM and the programs available through child support services in Los Angeles County. They distributed CSAM posters to all 87 Los Angeles County libraries, and provided them to the five county supervisors and their field offices. They coordinated joint events with other departments and agencies, including the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation, the Los Angeles County Office of Education, America’s Job Centers of California, the Pomona Unified School District, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
“We are very fortunate to have long-standing relationships with many of these community partners who are always willing to work with us in coordinating activities for CSAM,” said Jonna.
The Outreach Services Division also works with LA CSSD program staff who volunteer as “Outreach Ambassadors” to help staff the dozens of events held throughout the month, including evenings and weekends. Another challenge LA CSSD faced was that even with pre-registration for many events, sometimes the turnout was much smaller or larger than projected. How to publicize the events - and services – in a way that connects with those who really need them is an ongoing challenge. The benefit of that, however, is that LA County CSSD is constantly exploring new ways of communicating information to the public.
After all the hard work and dedication it took to prepare for the events, there was one moment that made it all worth it for Jonna Lewis and her team. On August 31, LA CSSD held their final CSAM event, a child support workshop for other government agencies and organizations that work with children and families. More than 70 people attended. Afterwards, Jonna received an email from a social worker with the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services who thanked her for the “amazing workshop,” calling it, “absolutely insightful and helpful,” adding that she looked forward to establishing an ongoing relationship to work collaboratively to serve parents who need help with child support.
“To me, that’s what CSAM is all about,” Jonna said enthusiastically.
Congratulations to LA CSSD for a spectacular CSAM effort! For any other county that wants to go big on next year’s CSAM events, Jonna recommends trying to find ways to bring the information out to the community in settings where they feel comfortable. Her team noticed that sometimes parents and caregivers are fearful of visiting government offices, so it was important to identify places where parents and caregivers felt safe talking to the staff and asking questions, like at a park or a library. In the end, CSAM is all about awareness, informing the community of the services that DCSS has to offer.
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