DHS Sponsors Forum On Fatherhood

By Junious Ricardo Stanton

Wednesday, June 4, 2003, Pennsylvania Convention Center.

Wrestling with 7,500 children in foster care and believing the government should not be in the business of parenting children, Alba E. Martinez, the Commissioner of the Philadelphia Department of Human Services (DHS), and a myriad of City social service agencies, service providers, community organizers and activists came together for the fourth biennial resource forum with this year's theme “Fatherhood-Forever Building, Strengthening and Educating Families.”

This year's focus was on fatherhood, encouraging men to rethink their roles as fathers, finding ways to include fathers in the lives of their children, exploring ways to keep families together, looking at the forces that negatively impact families and exploring ways to transcend these forces and keep families together. The all day forum was held on Wednesday June 4 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

The morning session included remarks by Commissioner Martinez and by Mayor John F. Street, who is passionate about the important role fathers play in the lives of their children and about how city government must find ways to support families. Judge Myrna Field, Administrative Judge of Family Court, spoke briefly about juvenile males under eighteen, already known to both the juvenile and domestic relations branches, who have fathered children.

She quoted statistics that indicate increasingly more and more youngsters in the juvenile system come from single-parent families. Bilal Qayyum, President of the Father's Day Rally Committee, spoke about the need for men to get involved both with their immediate families and the community to cut back the violence, the self-destructive sociopathic behaviors that are tearing our communities apart.

The keynote speaker was author and University Professor Dr. Michael Eric Dyson. Dyson fused academia, the social commentary of conscious Hip Hop, and the fiery oratorical tradition of the Baptist preacher to deliver a rousing message. Dyson had the intergenerational audience engrossed and enraptured on his every word as he touched on the overt and subtle social dynamics that impact males particularly men of color in this society.

Following the opening session the attendees went to the workshops and focus groups designed to educate professionals, community folks and young men about the challenges of fatherhood particularly the impact of racial oppression on fatherlessness, the importance of fathers in the lives of their children, support and visitation initiatives, panel discussions and presentations centering around issues pertinent to being a male and an involved active father.

Charles Johnson of DHS was the Planning Coordinator for this year's forum. He was pleased with the turn out and favorable responses from the attendees. "Our goal was to bring together people who service fathers, fathers themselves, and youth to talk about what the issues and the barriers to fatherhood were, what types of interventions could be successful in helping fathers address the needs of children, and to help fathers realize their own potentialities. We also want to make agencies aware there needs to be more outreach and support for fathers. Basically the social service system is female oriented, our cases are designed to be tracked by the mother and not by the father. Very often when Social Workers work with the families they never ask to see or see the father. There is a whole side of the family that is missing when you don't see the father."

Explained Johnson. "This forum signals a change in trends for DHS. We want to look at the whole family. We want to do more outreach and support the fathers and we will do more outreach and support the fathers. We don't want to just reach out to fathers governmentally in a punitive fashion, we want to reach out to fathers proactively in a way that can make their lives better and the lives of their families better."

The forum did in fact reach out to youth, there were numerous adolescent males in attendance at the focus groups and youth panel discussions. These venues within the forum allowed young men to participate, share their experiences, voice their concerns and interact with professionals and community based groups who are committed to strengthening families, empowering males and helping to restore communities.

Alexander Groomes attended the whole conference and was glad he came. During one of the workshops Groomes shared his experiences dealing with his father and the issues of drugs in his family. "I think it's good because all the students here get to learn, the whole thing is about fathers but it's good they touched on everything else such as violence and families staying together. This is a good learning experience for people like myself that have experienced a whole lot of stuff and to be together with other kids that might not understand how serious it is, the way I had to understand. That way they don't have to learn the hard way. Specifically it opens up our eyes to what's going on about fatherhood. Kids are out there with no fathers, families are out there with no fathers. I was fortunate to have one so it wasn't really as rough until I heard the numbers. I'm glad I came I almost didn't come I had finals today but I'm glad I came."