April-May 2020
Customer Service
Two Central Region staff shared encouraging stories of wonderful outcomes from their outstanding customer service:

"I called a payee to let her know about a large payment she would be receiving. She was so thrilled as she just had to buy a new washer/dryer the week prior and the money would be very helpful as she was also no longer working due to COVID-19."
 
"I called a payee to let her know she would be receiving a large payment. She was so thankful she said “Praise the Lord!” when I told her we had some money to send to her. The payor has not made a payment since 2008 and she was so thankful to be receiving something in this time of COVID-19 being that she was no longer working. "
New Hires
  • Michelle Tyne, Dubuque
  • Aimee Harding, Pleasant Hill (5/29)
  • Benjamin Steven, Pleasant Hill (5/29)
  • Katie Manning, Pleasant Hill (6/1)
Staff Anniversaries
5 Years:
  • Melissa McCoy, Davenport
  • Krystal Arney, Pleasant Hill
15 Years:
  • Sarah Gardner Philips, Waterloo
Policy Corner
 In the federal stimulus bill, the CARES Act, Congress did not exempt the stimulus checks from federal offsets for child support arrears.   Read more.
Staff Highlight: Special Edition!
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Central Region CORE staff has adapted to overcome new and growing challenges.

ISU Insights

LooMis is getting a new home. The new, improved LMS will provide a consistent look and feel to DHS users for their eLearning resources.

Training
Need-to-Know vs. Nice-to-Know
Training might be one of the most rewarding jobs we’ll ever have. Unfortunately, our eagerness to share our knowledge with others can lead to an easy mistake: mixing information that employees need to know with information that is nice to know.

Outreach
Promoting Opportunities for Parents Program (POP2)
The primary purpose of POP2 is to partner with community providers offering parenting education, but the goal is to improve parenting skills so payors really start to understand why they have to pay child support, and how important it is to the welfare of their children.