Our Story
Every mother deserves to give her child the best possible start in life.
More than 25 years ago, founder and CEO Simone Spence found herself with a child support collection problem of her own. Determined to do right by her daughter, she spent countless hours digging deep into the system to learn its complexities and ultimately collect her arrears.
Soon, Simone became the “kitchen table expert,” with moms gathering in her home after working hours to learn from her experience. She opened an office on a busy street, and built a decades-long business that helped more than a thousand moms get the money they deserved.
Still, she was determined to have a greater impact. For millions of women, Child Support Enforcement Offices are ineffective, the cost of a lawyer is out of reach, and collection agencies take half of the arrears they collect for themselves. There needed to be a way to help moms collect themselves when other options don’t work.
Athena stemmed from that belief, as investors and tech experts helped Simone transform her approach into a platform that automates her now-proven methodology that has an 87% success rate in helping moms collect what they are owed.
Currently, the Athena team is growing, bringing more people to the mission of helping moms collect arrears. By adding advisors and employees to the team Athena can empower thousands of women at a time, helping them collect the unpaid child support that is rightfully theirs.
Athena’s progress is being recognized in magazines like Forbes and Entrepreneur, helping us shine a light on the issue of child support arrears in this country. By having a seat at the table, we are bringing more people into the conversation around this issue.
Our goal at Athena is to be a leading force in educating and empowering moms on how to collect their arrears. We don’t want inability to afford a lawyer or confusion over paperwork to keep moms from collecting the arrears they are owed.