Strategic planning and program development

Larson Slade's management consultants and project managers were called in to support another contractor's contract to establish a new Native American child support enforcement (CSE) program for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Native Americans. The program allows tribes to choose whether to manage their own CSE programs or continue relying on states for this service, and it provides regulatory guidance and grants for the tribes that elect to undertake the program.

Larson Slade consolidated a contractor team whose members had been working autonomously and we implemented project management control, including timely meeting of deliverables milestones. We worked with several representatives of tribes who already had their own CSE programs and who generously provided access to information and their own time in support of this new program. Our accomplishments included:

• Data capture from public hearings held to solicit feedback on the proposed rulemaking
  
• Observation and documentation of three tribal demonstration CSE programs to document best practices (Chickasaw, Navajo, and Puyallup nations); also collected informal data on tribal, state and judicial reception to this new program
• Attended national CSE conferences to support presentations to state CSE personnel of the forthcoming tribal program, and to solicit their cooperation in program transfer
• Attended a northwest tribal and Alaskan villages judicial conference to solicit input on the program and to collect best practices data as well as data on problems
• Collected best practices and innovative programs ideas in peripheral areas like fatherhood initiatives, in-kind support contributions, and alternatives to criminal sentences (elder panels)
• Evaluated COTS CSE management applications
• Developed the Tribal Guide to Tribal CSE, a State Guide to Tribal CSE, and a findings report on best CSE practices.
  

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