Carbon County is honoring the men and women who help provide children and families with emotional, financial and medical support.

On Thursday, the board of commissioners adopted a proclamation naming August as Child Support Enforcement Awareness Month in Carbon County.

In Carbon County, the domestic relations office staff work to ensure child support services run efficiently.

Bridget Johnston, director of the office, said that this is important to recognize her staff for all they do to help children and families.

“Their hard work and dedication has proved itself as reflected in 2022,” she said, noting that her office collected and distributed $6.3 million in child support for children and families in the area. “The staff works hard day in and day out. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to bring in those numbers.”

Johnston added that not only did they collect millions, but the department also met its five incentive numbers so it brought in over $100,000 in incentive funds as well.

Domestic relations works with various agencies around the country to collect support from individuals in children cases.

This, Molly Sheridan, intergovernmental officer, said poses a challenge because not all laws are the same as in Pennsylvania.

“Having (Molly) is huge for us,” Johnston said, “because the offenders are the defendants that we have in other states. We run into a problem with collections sometimes because they take off from the area and it takes a lot of manpower to locate them.”

Sheridan works with other counties and states to navigate the laws to get the collections from these individuals that they are mandated to provide.

In addition to child support cases, domestic relations also collects spousal support, alimony and provides other services to families.