Leading Forward for Child Support Awareness Month 2019

The beginning of August means the end of summer is fast approaching. Families are wrapping up beach vacations and starting their back-to-school shopping—an annual ritual that can be both joyful and bittersweet.

August marks something different in the child support community. It’s Child Support Awareness Month, which gives agencies and programs the opportunity to draw more attention to the challenges, needs and achievements of this very special community of people. August also brings together established and emerging child support leaders from across the country for the National Child Support Enforcement Association (NCSEA)’s annual Leadership Symposium.

This year’s event, held in the host city of Minneapolis from August 11 to 14, will gather child support professionals under an inspiring theme: “Leading Forward: Meeting Challenges with Vision & Service.” Attendance is expected to break records as large numbers of child support experts gather to explore this theme through workshops, discussions, presentations and conversations.

As NCSEA’s sole Platinum-level Corporate Partner, Conduent is proud to support this annual event, and as always, our team of child support experts will be in attendance. Scott Cade, Alex Camacho and I will be speaking in workshops, and Kim Newsom Bridges will be an instructor for NCSEA U, a focused leadership class for 30 selected future leaders.  Two of our team, Scott Cade and I, also serve on the NCSEA Board of Directors. 

NCSEA leads forward in the way the conference is presented.  It opens up on Sunday afternoon with the Symposium Fair, a free-form, casual chance for arriving participants to join the conversation before they even unpack their suitcases!  Sessions include the NCSEA Exchange, fast-paced conversations on what’s trending in child support; a Leadership Hackathon, high energy creative problem solving; Social Media 101, tips in working with Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Linked In; and NCSEA Showcase, a look at the year-round work of making NCSEA connect with its membership for meaningful dialogue. 

The NCSEA Leadership Book Club, which was popular in 2018, features John Maxwell’s book, LEADERSHIP 360.  Two other sessions wrap up Day 1. 

General plenary sessions promise solid training in leadership as do a host of workshops over the next three days.  Day 2 opens with “A Groundwater Analysis of Institutional and Structural Racism – Leading Forward” with speaker Joyce James.  Other sessions include challenging topics in working with families and leading forward in technology, service delivery, leadership skills, and office culture.  Of particular interest is a session entitled “Intensified Workshop: Prisoner Reintegration, A Simulation – Walk a Month in My Shoes.” 

Our own Alex Camacho speaks on “Mountaintop Leadership,” a creative workshop featuring photographs and stories from actual mountain climbing experiences of the three speakers.  Scott Cade and I will speak on “Lessons in Leadership from Former Child Support Directors,” and share our experiences from leading state child support programs in New York and Louisiana. 

If you’ll be in Minneapolis, we hope to see you at Booth 7 to talk about how we can work together to improve services for the children and families you serve, with everything from SDUs to ExpertPay. For those who won’t be lucky enough to attend this year, feel free to explore our child support portfolio here.