By Joey McWilliams
Six men received honor this weekend as the first class of graduates from a new program designed to strengthen and empower dads.
The Fathers in Action Network is a fatherhood group that is operating through the Youth Services of Bryan County, Inc. The group saw its first group of men complete a curriculum created to encourage fathers in the areas of accountability and responsibility.
Stefan Roberts is the Program Director for Fathers in Action Network spoke about the program which is new to Bryan County and relatively new to the entire state.
“Our program is based on an evidenced-based curriculum called ’24:7 Dad'”, Roberts said. “In that curriculum, they teach the dads basically how to love themselves and to know that their role as a father is important in a child’s life to prevent certain things in the longevity of it.
“If you look at the statistics of fatherless children, I think it’s right now at 17.6 million children do not have a father figure in their lives to mentor them. And with that comes the risk of things like law enforcement contact, substance abuse, physical abuse, truancy from schools, underage pregnancy – things that are dramatically cut down when a father figure is in the life of a child.”
Roberts said the ‘father-inclusion program’ tries to teach dads how to overcome barriers that might have prevented them from being more involved in the children’s lives.
“Whether it be something personal such as self-esteem and how they feel about themselves – ‘Am I worthy of being a father? Yes, I am.’ – communication, such as learning how to speak to the children and how to communicate with the co-parent, as well as things such as anger management and financial responsibility. Really, it’s about teaching the dad about accountability and responsibility.”
The program is six weeks long and consists of two two-hour sessions per week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. From start to finish, the group went straight through with graduation after that.
Larry St. Laurent was a member of this first class of graduates and explained about what the experience meant to him.
“It’s given me hope at getting a chance to get my family back together and being a father to my son,” St. Laurent said. “Actually being a productive member of the family and being able to raise him and break the cycle of abuse and trauma that I went through.
“It’s the fact that they’ve brought us all together and taught us to rely on each other, to be able to work with each other, and talk about what–what our issues are and work through them together as a group.”
Robert Ellis said that he had always wanted to be a better dad, but sometimes dads have to figure out how to overcome big obstacles in order to do that.
“There are a lot of things in this class that I’ve been through before, but being together as a group helped,” Ellis said. “This is a way where fathers can still connect to learn how to just be better dads. But also in a community to connect with other dads and help each other through some of our struggles.”
Roberts also said he was working to keep the dads involved and is developing an alumni program so that they can stay in contact after the program is over.
For more information about being a part of the second cohort to participate in this program, fathers and more can look to the Facebook page of Youth Services of Bryan County, Inc.