Michigan Association of Court Mediators

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25th Annual Conference

MACM Advanced Mediation
Training Conference
September 15-17th, 2010
Crystal Mountain Resort

Featuring Martin Kranitz, Kate Cullen Palmisano, Bill Waters
and Wanda Joseph presenting on a variety of topics.
Visit our Conference Page for more information.

MACM Board

Julie Vredeveld
President
Tracey Stieb
Vice President
Cara Lemmen
Secretary
Alan Zoltowski
Treasurer

Board Member(s):
Eugenia Patru
Dave DiStefano
Jeffrey Higgs
Kathleen Doan
Victoria Rupert

MACM Events

MACM Conference
September 15, 2010 - September 17, 2010

View Full Calendar

Call To Action

Written by Julie Vredeveld
Tuesday, 09 February 2010
Dear MACM Members and Friends: As an organization, we have identified a current issue which has a great impact on the work we do. Many of our members are employed by Friend of the Court in the areas of custody and parenting time. All of us do work in this area because know the value of mediation and other custody and parenting time services to families and particularly to children. In these difficult financial times, most of us have seen reductions in personnel and services to clients. This is at least in part because these positions are not significantly funded under Title IV-D. The Friend of the Court Associations (FOCA), a group comprised of Friends of the Court across the State of Michigan, is pursuing legislation including the following:The statutory definition of allowable activities that may be funded through Title IV-D of the Social Security Act should be expanded to include custody and parenting time activities.According to the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) in July 2009, "There is a growing body of evidence supporting the premise that an NCP who has increased access to his or her child(ren) will be more likely to comply with a support order. This finding is particularly dramatic for fathers who were unmarried to the CP at the time of the child’s birth." The OCSE website includes the research findings which support this statement. It appears clear that custody and parenting time services should be funded through Title IV-D. This new legislation is essential in preventing further loss of services. MACM should join with FOCA in contacting both our State Representatives and Senators and U.S. Representatives and Senators to indicate our support for this recommendation. This directly impacts us, and the valuable services we provide to families. To help you in your efforts, we have included a series of links to help contact you with your legislators. Please take action today. Thank you, Your MACM Board Bookmark Email This Hits: 1464 Comments (0) Write comment Name Email Website Title Comment smaller \| bigger Subscribe via email (Registered users only) I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.

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