Celebrating 20 Years of Changing Fatherhood: Joshua Chiles (Video)

Fatherhood Changes Everything… And We’ve Changed Fatherhood!

2014 is a special year for us at National Fatherhood Initiative. It marks our 20^th year of working to “change fatherhood” by ending father absence and connecting fathers to their children.

To celebrate the fathers and families whose lives we’ve turned around, we are launching a series of videos, blog posts, photographs, and stories to highlight how our work has strengthened fatherhood since 1994.

At NFI, we truly believe that Fatherhood Changes Everything. From poverty, to crime, to school achievement, to child abuse – every issue we care about is affected by whether or not a child has an involved, responsible, and committed father. We are convinced that when we connect a father to his child, heart to heart, lives change, communities change, and our entire nation is transformed.

This video reveals how NFI’s programs affect an individual life. This is the second video in our “Fatherhood Changes Everything” series. Each video in this series was created from the book “Choosing Fatherhood: America’s Second Chance,” a photography book created by Lewis Kostiner. Lewis spent years going around the country, photographing dads who were going through NFI’s programs at community-based organizations in their neighborhoods. The result was a compelling photo essay telling the stories of dads working hard to make their children’s lives better.

In this video, we spotlight Josh Chiles, who attended an NFI workshop in his community to help himself be the best dad he could be. His powerful statement is a great reminder to dads about the vital role we play in the lives of our children and our society.

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"I get along with my father great. I try to have the same relationship with my kids. Sometimes, I'm not there as much as I'd like to be because of work. I remember, when I was a kid, it was always nice growing up. There's lots of kids that didn't have a stable family, and I think it's nice to grow up having both of your parents around. I think I learned a lot from having both my parents around and seeing them together, even the arguments, because that's a part of everybody's marriage. Nobody's perfect at parenting. Just be as good as you can be. That's it." —Joshua Chiles (Des Moines, Iowa)

How has fatherhood changed you?