Coalition for Community Foundations for Youth

In 1992, political strategist James Carville focused the Clinton campaign with an unforgettable phrase: "It's the economy, stupid!" This year, Carville has allegedly updated the message: "It's dad, stupid!"

Fatherhood is emerging as a major political and social issue because of an unprecedented demographic trend: the large and increasing number of children growing up in families without the continued presence of a father. Between 1950 and 1994, the percentage of American children living in mother-only families quadrupled, from 6 to 24 percent. In 1994, for a variety of reasons, 19 million children were growing up in father-absent homes.

This is not just an issue of quantity, but quality of life--and life chances. According to The Annie E. Casey Foundation's Kids Count Data Book for 1995, "Children in father absent homes are five times more likely to be poor and about ten times more likely to be extremely poor." They are more likely to be on welfare and are at greater risk for teenage pregnancy, school failure, juvenile delinquency, and a host of other problems with both emotional and economic costs.

While growing up without a father does not necessarily cause these problems, it does increase their risk. Conversely, while growing up with a father--particularly a highly involved father--does not guarantee positive outcomes, it does increase their likelihood. The question is no longer whether fathers are important to children, but what we can do at the community level to strengthen the connection of men to their children.

Our research suggests that we can do plenty, and that community foundations can play a critical role in this process. Men's behavior is powerfully influenced by the expectations about fatherhood that are transmitted every day of the week by hospitals, preschools, courts, churches and other community-based institutions that deal with families. For example:

• West Virginia has increased the rate of paternity establishment for unwed fathers from 15 percent to over 60 percent in just three years; a key factor has been training maternity nurses in birthing hospitals--most of them women--to both expect and encourage men to establish paternity.

• Preschools from inner city Baltimore to suburban Marin County have been able to increase the involvement of fathers from zero, in many instances, to the same level as mothers, by training staff to assume that fathers--regardless of marital status--are interested in and responsible for their children.

• Minneapolis has been able to help non-custodial unemployed fathers stay connected to their kids-- instead of becoming "deadbeat dads"--through a partnership between the Episcopal church and the family court that assumes men will act responsibly if they are both helped to find jobs and treated as more than walking wallets.

So where do community foundations fit in? In every community we visit, we meet people who are concerned about the issue of responsible fatherhood, but who seem to be working in isolation. They come from Head-Start and early childhood programs, health care agencies, private and public child support enforcement agencies, religious and spiritual organizations, and others.

Community foundations are in a unique position to initiate a dialogue among all the community institutions that deal with children and families that will lead them to: 1) examine their attitudes about, relationships with, and expectations of fathers; 2) identify what is working in the community to promote responsible fatherhood; and 3) work together to create a true father-friendly community. Here's a plan for getting started:

• Find a Local Partner: Locate a service provider who can help you to identify and bring together members of your community who are concerned about or working with fathers. It could be someone running a program or activity in a hospital, church, or other organization, but it should be someone who is respected in the community by both women and men.

• Hold a Series of Small Group Dialogues: Bring people who are acting on or concerned with the fatherhood issue together in small groups to discuss what it would mean for the whole community to engage in a broader discussion of fatherhood. Hold meetings with at least two different groups: community-based providers and representatives from government or other "official" agencies. Your goal in these small meetings--which can be as short as two hours or as long as you feel necessary--is: 1) to identify barriers and opportunities to a community-wide discussion and, 2) to identify others in the community who should be part of your broader discussion.

• Conduct an Audit: Develop a community-wide resource guide to programs and services that are working with and for fathers. As a community foundation, you are in an ideal position to sponsor and even create this guide.

• Convene a Fatherhood Forum: Draw on participants from your dialogues to establish a planning committee for a community-wide forum on fatherhood. Your forum can pursue one of two goals. If your goal is to "Inform and Educate," you may want to have workshops and panels that address a variety of father-related issues. If your goal is to develop a "Strategy or Action Plan," you may want to focus on ways in which a group of institutions can work together to help connect men to their children.

• Develop a Strategy that Fits Your Community: Each community needs to develop an approach that fits its size and character. In some cases one agency will emerge as ready to act; in others you will be able to form coalitions that can work together.

For more ideas about promoting responsible fatherhood,contact Jim Levine, director, or Ed Pitt, associate director, of the Fatherhood Project at the Families and Work Institute in New York City at 212-465-4044 x 237. Their book, New Expectations: Community Strategies for Responsible Fatherhood, which includes a state-of-the-art review of community-based strategies and a guide to more than 300 programs nationwide, is available from the institute for $22.00 plus $3.50 for shipping and handling.