Focusing On Fathers

There’s a problem in Marion County, and The Marion County Children’s Alliance is

the Department of Juvenile Justice and will soon implement an engagement curriculum of DVDs, course material and a classroom trainer modeled after similar successful programs used in the United States.

“Incarceration means those dads are not connected with their children, but research says many dads don’t have the tools to know how to stay engaged with their children, whether they had absentee fathers in their lives or whatever their situation might be,” Sandy explains.

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By Katie McPherson

back with The Fatherhood Initiative.

Census data shows one in three children in our community is living in a home with a female head of household, meaning that there is no father in-house. Although not always true, this often means a father is inactive in his child’s life. From young fathers ill-equipped for the challenges of parenthood to incarcerated dads, Marion County movers and shakers knew engaging dads with their kids was becoming a necessity.

Thanks to funding from Kids Central, the Fatherhood Initiative was born under the Marion County Children’s Alliance and able to move into the planning stages. They hired Christine Sandy, a recently retired school administrator, to spearhead the new initiative.

“This whole program is not about dads; it’s really about kids. The data tells us that if I have an absentee dad, I’m more likely to get in trouble, not do well in school, be violent, be sexually abused and abuse drugs. If we’re going to create the best child we can in Marion County, it takes key adults to help,” says Sandy, who has been letting county population data guide her through research and planning phases.

Sandy and her team began their work with area jails and

The Fatherhood Initiative will also target young dads aged 16 to 18, a population more likely to become estranged from their children. The curriculum for young dads is similar but includes a smartphone app and wallet-sized card to remind the carrier of the characteristics of a highly engaged father.

“When the baby is born, we want them to build that relationship so it never gets broken to begin with by building in some preventive work,” says Sandy. When mothers give birth, they often receive a bag from the hospital full of agency information, and the Fatherhood Initiative wants to get their documentation into that bag. Sandy also hopes to spark conversations in Marion County with a forthcoming PR campaign using billboards to pose the question of what it means to be a better father.

“I am all about making a difference in the life of a child, and if I can add this piece to it, I might provide for that child a more successful childhood,” Sandy says.