Why Fathers Matter

Why Fathers Matter

This article is written by Carol Skewes for The Baytown Sun. It is republished here with permission from the author.

The City of Baytown has spearheaded a ‘Fatherhood Initiative,’ in an effort to prevent drug and alcohol abuse in young men, and to connect resources to promote responsible fatherhood.

Baytown received settlement funds after it became a participant in a state lawsuit. The basic idea is to provide, nurture and guide young men to be good fathers.

A leadership summit was held this month, with internationally acclaimed keynote speaker Rick Rigsby, PhD, inspiring representatives of eight sectors of the community, as Phase II of a three-phase program begins.

“How do you live?” Rigsby asked the guests as he spoke from his heart. Guests were engaged in his lesson listening intently. Rigsby is an ordained minister, author and motivational speaker who has published books, “Afraid to Hope” and “Lessons from a Third-grade drop-out,” (referring to his father, whom he calls the wisest person he ever met).

According to Baytown Director of Public Affairs Thomas Reeves, “In 2020 states started suing major pharmaceutical companies and their distributors of opioids that have resulted in addictions and overdoses. … In March of 2023, as cities across the nation started receiving the funds, Baytown staff begin discussing how Baytown might best use the settlement money. In September 2023, Baytown City Council voted to adopt this program. The money must be spent to address opioid-related harms in the community. The city began an exhaustive nationwide search of organizations that have experience combatting drug abuse in the home.”

Council chose National Fatherhood Initiative®, and its Chief Partner Success Officer Erik Vecere came to town.

The three phases of the program are:

Phase I - Community Needs & Asset Assessment, which began in January;

Phase II – Leadership Summit on Fatherhood, held in early August; and

Phase III – Anchor Initiative, Creating an Action Plan to Promote Responsible Fatherhood.

National Fatherhood Initiative®’s research methodology is the “Rapid Ethnographic Assessment of Programs and Services (REAPS).

Four components are involved, including collecting existing secondary data, hosting focus groups with leaders in eight sectors of the community, analyzing combined information, and compiling an “assets map” of all components.

The results of the focus groups identified 12 issues related to the absence or presence of a father in the home:

• Father absence rate (based on single-mother data)
• Drug and alcohol use
• Incarceration and recidivism
• Poverty
• Teen Pregnancy
• Child abuse
• Educational attainment
• Employment status
• Physical health, and
• Marriage and relationship with the mother

“A quarter of our nation’s children (24.1%) are affected by not having a father at home,” Vecere said. “Decades of research show unequivocally that children who grow up without a resident father are at higher risk, on average, for a host of poor physical, cognitive (mental and emotional, and social outcomes,” according to the NFI report.

Harris County Public Health Department cites that from 2019 to 2021, fentanyl-involved overdose deaths in Harris County increased 331%.

National Fatherhood Initiative® reports “Children from father-absent homes are more likely to use substances or alcohol. Research points to the importance of paternal involvement as a protective factor against alcohol and substance abuse.”

Another interesting finding from the leadership summit is that 58% of men feel they could easily be replaced in the household by another man. This data came from a Pops Culture study, according to Vecere.

The study was repeated with women and 66% of the women agreed (thinking that a man could be replaced.)

A father is extremely important in the development health of a child.

If a young father had no role model, however, how can he be what he has not seen?

One goal of the program is to help the community be more father-inclusive, and parentally balance social services in the community.

Many social services are mother-centric. “We help organizations be more proactive and intentional, but we have a long way to go. How can we work as a community to redefine for dads what it means to be a parent?” Vecere said.

Having an involved father in the home is not only good for the children. It is good for mom. The child needs both parents.

The assets map, in the REAPS report, lists six local father-specific programs in support of young dads and ten more in the Houston metropolitan area.

There is great need for more support of young fathers in the local community. There is a need for philanthropic support to establish and sustain a citywide initiative to help young fathers.

A Lead Agency is being sought. The role of the lead agency is to develop and manage a sustainability plan, create the initiative’s structure (choose name and create a distinct 501c3, or be a part of the lead agency).

Until a lead agency is found the City of Baytown is filling that gap. If you want to learn more about the fatherhood initiative, visit: www.baytown.org/fatherhood