Co‐Parent Court: A Problem‐Solving, Community‐Based Model for Serving Low‐Income Unmarried Co‐Parents

• Author: Alisha M. Hardman,Emily H. Becher,Ebony L. Ruhland,Mary S. Marczak
• Published date: 01 July 2016
• Date: 01 July 2016
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12235

ARTICLES

CO-PARENT COURT: A PROBLEM-SOLVING, COMMUNITY-BASED

MODEL FOR SERVING LOW-INCOME UNMARRIED CO-PARENTS

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Ebony L. Ruhland, Alisha M. Hardman, Emily H. Becher, and Mary S. Marczak

The Hennepin County Co-Parent Court Project was a 3-year demonstration project for unmarried co-parents. The goal of the

project was to remove barriers to co-parenting in low-income, unmarried parents. The Co-Parent Court Project encompassed a

number of services, including educational workshops, individual case management, parenting plans, legal mediation, and, if

needed, supports and treatment for domestic violence. There are published articles that highlight the participant outcomes of

the Co-Parent Project. This article, however, focuses on the background for why this project was developed, components of

this project, and lessons learned from implementation.

Key Points for the Family Court Community:

This article discusses an innovative demonstration project that worked with low-income unmarried co-parents.

We describe lessons learned from a problem-solving court that worked with low-income unmarried co-parents.

Keywords: Co-Parenting; Low-Income Families; Paternity; Problem-Solving Courts; and Unmarried Parents.

INTRODUCTION

Co-Parent Court was a 3-year demonstration project to implement a problem-solving court model

that worked with unmarried parents who were establishing paternity for their child. This model was an

innovative approach to respond to demographic shifts resulting in an increased number of paternity

establishment cases seen by family courts. The model described here is the same model implemented

during the demonstration project. The application of a problem-solving model was intended to address

the barriers of fragile families to becoming successful parents, including the lack of income and

employment, unstable housing, criminal behavior and criminal history, intimate violence, chemical

abuse, and relationship distrust. A comprehensive, community-based approach involving partnerships

with community-based agencies was implemented to address these underlying issues rather thansimply

processing cases through assigning child support. This paper seeks to first briefly summarize the shifts

in family life that have contributed to this increase in paternity establishment cases and review the liter-

ature regarding court–community partnerships and problem-solving court approaches, which suggest

that these are appropriate approaches for courts to implement in order to address the needs of unmarried

parents and their children. Next, the Co-Parent Court model is described withparticular attention given

to the partnerships established between family court and community-based social service agencies.

Finally, lessons learned through implementation of this 3-year demonstration project are shared, with

particular emphasis on suggestionsfor courts interested in implementing a similar model.

LITERATURE REVIEW

The landscape of family life in the United States has dramatically changed over the past 50 years.

The changes in family life are reflective of the second demographic transition, which began in the

Corrsepondence: ruhla011@um.edu

FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Vol. 54 No. 3, July 2016 336–348

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C2016 Association of Family and Conciliation Courts