Why a Fatherhood Coalition in Our Community?
Fathers are essential in raising safe, healthy, and well-nurtured children—equally as important as mothers. Research clearly shows the benefits of involved fathers in the lives of their children: enhanced social skills, problem-solving abilities, increased cognitive capacities in younger children and improved academic performance. The adverse effects of father absence upon children have also been well documented. Children whose fathers are absent from their lives are five times more likely to live in poverty, three times more likely to fail in school, and two times more likely to abuse drugs or alcohol, be involved in crime and to be abused or neglected.
What Are the Challenges?
Fatherhood services in communities are fewer, fragmented and often underfunded. Agencies that serve entire families are effective with mothers and children but usually have an ingrained mother and child-centric focus. Instead of being resources to the community and to other programs, fatherhood services are often isolated and unknown to the community as a whole. Those who work with fathers experience challenges like recruiting, retaining and meeting the specific needs of fathers.
Upcoming Events:
March 23: 10:00 a.m. Full coalition meeting on Zoom
Coming in April on Zoom
My Journey from Neglect to Reunification with My Children
By Gregory Cox, Presenter—Date and Time will be announced soon
June 14: 6:00—7:30 p.m. on Zoom
Recovery and the Family
Sponsored by the McLean County Fatherhood
Coalition and Recovery Oriented Systems of
Care (ROSC).
Listen in as five people from different recovery paths discuss the impact of substance use disorder on the family system.
Our Goals
The McLean County Fatherhood Coalition will provide a forum for community conversations to address challenges and to advance fatherhood services in our community. Our goals are:
- To bring individuals together from a variety of community sectors to discover the existing resources that already exist within our community
- To connect people, programs and services to one another for collaboration and greater collective impact
- To identify best policies and practices for serving fathers across community social service sectors
- To increase knowledge and skills of coalition members in fatherhood services
- To identify new possibilities to advance fatherhood services within our community
- To create a shared vision for fatherhood advancement in our community.
Join the Conversation! For More Information, Contact:
Earl Kloppmann, Coalition Conversation Co-Facilitator
(630) 808-9066 / Ekloppma@childrenshomeandaid.org
Dorothy Davis, Coalition Conversation Co-Facilitator
309.834.5240 / Ddavis@childrenshomeandaid.org
The McLean County Dad’s Needs Research Project
Check out this article about our Coalition, including our research project, published in the national magazine Social Work Today here.