Communication.
Collaboration. Cooperation.
Those are just a few of the
words used to describe the reasoning for the Intake Paternity Unit's
recent accomplishment of meeting the paternity establishment
benchmark of 80 percent for the first time ever.
"The staff and I are absolutely
thrilled," said Dori Snodgrass, section chief over Child Support
Intake Paternity/Case Establishment (IP/CE). "We expected to hit 80
percent and were sure we had produced the number of cases to achieve
that. However, we were surprised to get the final numbers and it be
83.81 percent. This is outstanding and reflects the hard work and
effort that staff put forth to accomplish this."
The 83.81 percent establishment for fiscal year 2008 is a 7.12
percent increase over the 76.69 percent establishment rate for
fiscal year 2007.
"This is a significant achievement for a county of our size,"
Snodgrass said. "This increase shows a Herculean effort by staff.
They are all heroes and deserve all of the credit."
Reaching 80 percent in paternity establishment earns the county
100 percent of federal dollars in that category, Snodgrass said.
"This is because the federal government realizes there is a
certain number of cases we can never establish paternity on given
things like rape, incest, and the inability of clients to have
enough information about the alleged father to pursue paternity,"
she added. "Additionally this means we will no longer be on a
performance improvement plan to the state in this category."
Snodgrass and staff members hope to increase that number this
year.
"Keeping it up and getting a higher
number, we will do the same things -- pull together as a team, work
referrals and reports," she said. "We hope to work more closely with
the Administrative Hearings Unit in 2009 which should increase these
numbers as well."
The Intake Paternity section
includes: Charollete Allen, Janice Barkley, Rebecca Blair, Penny
Cade Edwards, Gail Chandler, Antionette Cook, Darlene Dawson, Ayasa
Durant, Misty Fields, Kristen Ford, Raquel Giles, Jennifer Hartfiel,
Jasmine Johnson, Stacie Johnson, Danette Jones, Eya Lamb, Sabrina
Livingston, Edna Lyle, Nayona Mitchell, LaTasha Rosich, Mary Saylor,
Krisie Steelman, Karen Taylor, Deborah Vaughn, Jennifer Wikette,
Dora Williams, Latasha Williams, Maria Willwerth and Carolyn Woods.
