Training

Effective Child Support Customer Service Training Series

• Duration: 3.5 Hours
• Course type: Web-based, eLearning
• Price: $299 per person

Module 1: Basics of Effective Child Support Customer Service | 30 min. | Designed to guide child support professionals toward interactions with customers that are positive and constructive and avoid undesirable outcomes.

Module 2: Communication Skills for Effective Child Support Customer Service | 30 min. | Designed to introduce, affirm, and strengthen the communication skills child support professionals will exercise in order to deliver effective customer service.

Module 3: Elevating Communication & Rapport Building Skills | 45 min. | Designed to help build rapport and trust that sustain healthy and productive customer relationships. This course is designed to take the child support professional beyond basic communication skills.

Module 4: Unintended Bias & Cultural Competence | 45 min. | Designed to introduce the child support professional to the principle of unintended bias and explore its meaning, enabling them to see that, while unintended bias is part of the normal human experience, it must be recognized and transformed into cultural competence in order to neutralize its impact on the delivery of child support services.

Module 5: Child Support Customer Service in Action | 45 min. | Reinforce learning objectives from the four previous modules and provide opportunities for child support professionals to practice and apply their knowledge and skills.

Elevating Communication & Rapport Building Skills

• Duration: 45 Minute
• Course type: Virtual, In-person
• Price: $75 per person

This is the third module in the Effective Child Support Customer Service Training Series. This 45-minute course is the fourth module in the five-module series. This 45-minute course is the third module in the five-module series. As service providers assisting parents with complex and personal child support matters, child support professionals need communication skills that reach beyond the ability to actively listen and ask open-ended questions. They need to skillfully build rapport and trust that sustain healthy and productive customer relationships. This course is designed to take the child support professional beyond basic communication skills as introduced in Module 2: Communication Skills for Effective Customer Service, moving them from engaging in ‘customer interactions’ to mastering the art of customer rapport building. The course will use child support-specific scenarios designed to allow the application of the principles of elevated communication and. This course may also be purchased as a stand-alone training course.

Unintended Bias & Cultural Competence

• Duration: 45 Minute
• Course type: Virtual
• Price: $75 per person

This 45-minute course is the fourth module in the five-module series. It is designed to introduce the child support professional to the principle of unintended bias and explore its meaning, enabling them to see that, while unintended bias is part of the normal human experience, it must be recognized and transformed into cultural competence in order to neutralize its impact on the delivery of child support services.

Child support professionals will be encouraged to identify their own unintended bias by considering seven types through which it finds expression and reflects on how each of these types impacts their work as service providers. They will then be introduced to cultural competence – the healthy acknowledgment of one’s own cultural viewpoint coupled with an awareness of its influence on their own attitude and behavior and the impact this has on others. The child support professionals will be guided to practice the cultivation of cultural competence, supported by scenario-based activities. Enhanced graphics and animation will be used to illustrate the influence of the subconscious on our attitudes and actions and how acknowledging their own unintended bias and practicing cultural competence empowers child support professionals toward constructive interactions with those of differing cultures and worldviews. This course may also be purchased as a stand-alone training course.

UIFSA 101

• Duration: 2 Half Days
• Course type: Virtual, In-person

With our mobile society, any intrastate case can become an interstate case at any time. All child support professionals must know the basics of the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA) so they can identify the most efficient and appropriate service for the case and family. Through this highly interactive course, child support professionals will learn how to evaluate cases where parents live in different states, easy-to-remember UIFSA rules, and available interstate resources. Participants have an opportunity to test their knowledge, using typical interstate scenarios. We are also available to assist in the application for Continuing Legal Education credits for all course participants.

Procedural Justice in Action

• Duration: 3 Half Days
• Course type: Virtual, In-person
• Price: Starting at $500 per person

This interactive procedural justice training is designed for child support professionals of all levels. The course first introduces the key elements of procedural justice — voice, neutrality, respect, understanding, and helpfulness — and then focuses on how these principles can be incorporated into child support cases. Participants are walked through common issues in non-paying cases such as the ability to pay and barriers to engagement and payment, and then discuss how to deal with those issues. In the end, participants will see how incorporating procedural justice principles into child support services is a way to increase reliable support payments and reduce the need for contempt in addressing non-compliance. CSF is also available to assist in the application for Continuing Legal Education credits for all course participants.

The New Uniform Parentage Act

• Duration: 2 Half Days
• Course type: Virtual, In-person
• Price: $$

Designed for states that have passed the new Uniform Parentage Act (UPA 2017),  participants will learn all of the components of UPA 2017, including parentage establishment for same-sex couples, parentage challenges for legal parents, and alleged genetic parents, and resolution of conflicting parentage claims. The course provides child support professionals the opportunity to use UPA 2017 to evaluate and resolve common but challenging child support case scenarios. We are available to assist in the application for Continuing Legal Education credits for all course participants.

Strategies to Navigate Difficult Cases

• Duration: 2 Half Days
• Course type: Virtual, In-peron

Child support professionals can be challenged by emotional parents, high arrears balances, parenting disputes, habitually unemployed noncustodial parents, and contentious relationships. In this course, participants learn how to help parents focus on the child’s best interest and move the case forward. Our experienced facilitators will lead roundtable discussions on practical and real-life solutions for difficult child support case scenarios. The session concludes with a final role-playing exercise for participants to handle one last difficult case with feedback and coaching from our experts and other class participants.

Secondary Trauma Training

• Duration: Half Day
• Course type: In-person, Virtual

Compassion fatigue. Personal distress. Burn-out. The closer a child support professional gets to the personal lives and struggles of the customer and the further they get away from thinking of and handling cases on a neutral professional basis, the greater the chance that the child support professional will take the stressful parts of the job home at night. This course addresses the effects of working with customers who often need more help than you can provide. Participants will learn how a customer’s circumstance may impact them – the worker – personally. Participants will also develop effective coping and stress-relief strategies to help keep from becoming burned out on the job while, at the same time, continuing to provide effective and empathetic customer service.

Managing from the Middle

• Duration: Half Day
• Course type: In-person, Virtual

You may not have the formal title of manager or supervisor, but you wield influence, whether you recognize it or not. When we lead from the middle, we create effective working relationships with decision-makers above us and collaborative relationships with peers and colleagues at all levels. In this course, you will hear about the building blocks for leading from the middle. You will also learn about some of the challenges associated with leading from the middle, and what you can do to avoid or resolve common stumbling blocks.