State grants boost fatherhood
Five organizations supporting fatherhood will receive $260,000 each in state funding over the next two fiscal years.
The Ohio Commission on Fatherhood announced grant funding spanning until June 30, 2021, for recipients including: Action for Children, serving Franklin and surrounding counties; Early Childhood Resource Center, serving Stark and Summit counties; Foreverdads, serving Morgan, Muskingum and Perry counties; Passages, serving Lorain and Portage counties; and Talbert House, serving Butler, Hamilton and Warren counties.
Action for Children, a childcare advocacy organization, has received funding for nine consecutive years. The organization will focus the funding to provide more “a la carte” services to fathers, said Ashiko Hudson, the organization’s fatherhood program manager.
“Different subjects come from their own circumstances,” Hudson said. “Now, our approach is to go in and remove specific barriers.”
This approach provides individualized resources to help fathers reengage in their children’s lives, navigate the children services system and acquire housing and employment.
Foreverdads in Zanesville works specifically to combat the issue of father absence. This “epidemic” has been linked to negative impacts on children, such as higher rates of criminal activity, drug and alcohol abuse and premature birthing, said Burl Lemon, the organization’s executive director.
“Father absence puts weight on the backs of single moms or grandparents to raise those children,” Lemon said. “It is time to call men back to their responsibility to be engaged with children.”
Lemon said the goal of the Ohio Commission on Fatherhood is to create a “blanket” of resources across the state.
Fathers in need of assistance come “in all shapes and sizes,” said Kim Dent, executive director of the commission. Some are expectant fathers. Some are new fathers. Some are fathers to multiple children from different mothers.
“We’re always focused on the impact on the child,” Dent said. “Our practitioners and organizations we fund are expected to meet dad where he is with evidence-based curricula.”
The commission’s website lists a series of methods to enable fathers to become more engaged parents. Grant recipients are expected to implement at least one curriculum. They are also required to serve at least 250 fathers per year, tracked through Efforts to Outcomes software.
The latest state biennial budget allots the commission an additional $1.2 million per year, for a total of $2.2 million per year. With this increased funding, the commission is seeking an additional organization to fund, Dent said.
The commission has written a request for grant application and will begin circulating it in the near future.