In our society and culture today, families experience outside forces of all shapes and sizes – one of the bigger ones being our government system. The laws and policies that are in place in our nation today have drastic effects on the way families can operate. We tend to think of this nation as one that allows us a significant measure of freedom, and generally this is true. However, this does not mean that it does not touch our lives, even the aspects we think of as most private and personal. Family policy is similar to economic policy; it defines who gets what and how much. According to ncfr.org, family law and public policy includes “an understanding of legal issues, policies, and laws influencing the well-being of families.”
This is one of the most important content areas because it can have profound influences on the way families make decisions, both in good and bad ways. For example, there are laws and policies governing divorce and family separation, which seek to protect the children involved. Every decision made in those situations is based on the best interests of the child. On the other hand, there are policies on domestic violence and sexual assault, but many would agree that those policies are largely ineffective in addressing these important issues. This is because although the policy itself may be “good,” it may either not be backed by research, or it may have been poorly implemented. Family law and policy is profoundly important for human service professionals to understand because it is a system that affects families that professionals will be working with. If we don’t understand the ways law and policies help and hinder families, we will be unable to serve them at full capacity.
This is one of the most important content areas because it can have profound influences on the way families make decisions, both in good and bad ways. For example, there are laws and policies governing divorce and family separation, which seek to protect the children involved. Every decision made in those situations is based on the best interests of the child. On the other hand, there are policies on domestic violence and sexual assault, but many would agree that those policies are largely ineffective in addressing these important issues. This is because although the policy itself may be “good,” it may either not be backed by research, or it may have been poorly implemented. Family law and policy is profoundly important for human service professionals to understand because it is a system that affects families that professionals will be working with. If we don’t understand the ways law and policies help and hinder families, we will be unable to serve them at full capacity.
Academic Preparation
- Social Problems
- Families & Diversity
- Youth & Crime
Work/Volunteer Experience
- The Homestead
Reflection
As I reflect on how this area of family life has impacted my own development, I am surprised to be able to think of several examples. Family law and policy can often seem like something that only affects “certain people”; we forget that laws and policies quietly dictate nearly every area of our lives in one way or another. The first example that I think of is my own family’s dynamic. My parents filed for divorce in September of 2009, after 22 years of marriage. My world crumbled, and I didn’t understand. Then I was told that a judge ruled my parents would have equal custody of my sister and I. This made sense; there was no huge fallout nor one parent more at fault than the other. I don’t know that it was ruled a “no-fault divorce,” because my father has been paying child support since. However, it meant that the stability of my life and my sister’s life was different from many of our friends’.
Normally, if parents divorce, one parent has more custody rights than the other. I saw this play out firsthand with many of my friends, as they would stay with one parent each week and then go stay with the other on the weekends. But for my sister and I, we switched twice a week. After awhile, this was too much, so we went to once a week. This meant long stretches without seeing one parent and tough transitions between two homes with very different atmospheres. Now that I am gone, my sixteen-year-old sister switches every two weeks, which has alleviated some of the stress, but still makes for difficult transitions.
All of these challenges (and many more) arose because of the way our judicial system handles divorce. Of course, the two of us were too young to be able to have a say in whatever custody decision was made… or were we? It seems that if decisions are to be made in the “best interests of the children,” we were left out of that conversation. I can recall so many stressful weeks when transitioning between mom’s and dad’s felt exhausting in just about every way. Having two homes was difficult. This is just one way family law and policy has affected my life.
Nowadays, I am an intern at a transitional care program in Manhattan, Kansas called the Homestead Ministries. We serve women who are exiting the sex trafficking industry and attempting to get back on their feet and create new career paths for themselves. One of the services we offer is a job apprenticeship training program, where we partner with local businesses and organizations in the community to give the women in our program the chance to get trained for a sustainable career. However, many of our program participants come to us with multiple felonies on their records. Whether they have faced charges for prostitution, theft, battery, unpaid probation fees, whatever, their records are far from clean. This presents obvious difficulties that stand in the way of them attaining secure employment because they almost inevitably do not pass background checks.
We have been working with organizations in the Manhattan community to give these women a true “second chance” program, where their past mistakes are overlooked because of their decision to walk forward with good intentions and decision-making. However, it has been a challenge because of the way our judicial system works. It is incredibly challenging to get their records expunged, and even more difficult to get employers to overlook the stains on their records. This in turn affects their entire livelihood. Many of them have been terminated on the basis of failing a background check without even a second look or chance for explanation. Right now, the Homestead is working on a system where we present potential employers with the individual’s criminal record up front, and our participants write a letter explaining their past wrongs and why they deserve a second chance. My hope is that this will be effective in the long run, but we will have to see.
I will be the first to freely admit that my knowledge in the area of family law and policy is more limited than in the other areas of family life. I am someone who feels comfortable remaining neutral on many politically-charged issues, and I try to avoid politics whenever humanly possible. However, this has caused me to be uninformed about many of the laws and policies that are in place in this nation. If anything, I want to be a more informed citizen and family life educator by staying up-to-date on the facts of what is going on, not just paying attention to the flashy news headlines of the day.
I do think that because of my personal experience, I have a growing heart for seeing true justice and fairness come to our political and judicial systems in this country. Because of classes I’ve taken such as Social Problems and Youth & Crime, I am well-aware of the injustice that plagues our country’s jail and prison systems, and the way that spending time in prison does essentially the opposite of reforming someone back into an effective member of society. These issues do make me flare up with injustice and anger at times, and I would like to do my part in seeing them change for the better.
Normally, if parents divorce, one parent has more custody rights than the other. I saw this play out firsthand with many of my friends, as they would stay with one parent each week and then go stay with the other on the weekends. But for my sister and I, we switched twice a week. After awhile, this was too much, so we went to once a week. This meant long stretches without seeing one parent and tough transitions between two homes with very different atmospheres. Now that I am gone, my sixteen-year-old sister switches every two weeks, which has alleviated some of the stress, but still makes for difficult transitions.
All of these challenges (and many more) arose because of the way our judicial system handles divorce. Of course, the two of us were too young to be able to have a say in whatever custody decision was made… or were we? It seems that if decisions are to be made in the “best interests of the children,” we were left out of that conversation. I can recall so many stressful weeks when transitioning between mom’s and dad’s felt exhausting in just about every way. Having two homes was difficult. This is just one way family law and policy has affected my life.
Nowadays, I am an intern at a transitional care program in Manhattan, Kansas called the Homestead Ministries. We serve women who are exiting the sex trafficking industry and attempting to get back on their feet and create new career paths for themselves. One of the services we offer is a job apprenticeship training program, where we partner with local businesses and organizations in the community to give the women in our program the chance to get trained for a sustainable career. However, many of our program participants come to us with multiple felonies on their records. Whether they have faced charges for prostitution, theft, battery, unpaid probation fees, whatever, their records are far from clean. This presents obvious difficulties that stand in the way of them attaining secure employment because they almost inevitably do not pass background checks.
We have been working with organizations in the Manhattan community to give these women a true “second chance” program, where their past mistakes are overlooked because of their decision to walk forward with good intentions and decision-making. However, it has been a challenge because of the way our judicial system works. It is incredibly challenging to get their records expunged, and even more difficult to get employers to overlook the stains on their records. This in turn affects their entire livelihood. Many of them have been terminated on the basis of failing a background check without even a second look or chance for explanation. Right now, the Homestead is working on a system where we present potential employers with the individual’s criminal record up front, and our participants write a letter explaining their past wrongs and why they deserve a second chance. My hope is that this will be effective in the long run, but we will have to see.
I will be the first to freely admit that my knowledge in the area of family law and policy is more limited than in the other areas of family life. I am someone who feels comfortable remaining neutral on many politically-charged issues, and I try to avoid politics whenever humanly possible. However, this has caused me to be uninformed about many of the laws and policies that are in place in this nation. If anything, I want to be a more informed citizen and family life educator by staying up-to-date on the facts of what is going on, not just paying attention to the flashy news headlines of the day.
I do think that because of my personal experience, I have a growing heart for seeing true justice and fairness come to our political and judicial systems in this country. Because of classes I’ve taken such as Social Problems and Youth & Crime, I am well-aware of the injustice that plagues our country’s jail and prison systems, and the way that spending time in prison does essentially the opposite of reforming someone back into an effective member of society. These issues do make me flare up with injustice and anger at times, and I would like to do my part in seeing them change for the better.