Our Mission
To enhance the engagement of fathers by promoting a culture of father inclusion and responsible fatherhood in communities. This mission will be accomplished in collaboration with local schools, community partners, faith-based organizations and public and private agencies.
Target Areas
Poverty Diversion
Academic Achievement
Child Abuse / Neglect Prevention
Vision
A society where children thrive, families are strong, and communities are safe as a result of responsible fathering.
Goals and Objectives
To socialize men to becoming responsible fathers
To educate fathers on the importance of being responsible, involved and committed in the lives of their children.
To support and encourage disconnected fathers to reconnect and sustain stable and healthy relationships with their children.
Helping children by promoting responsible fatherhood
To be a consistent voice in communities on the importance of "healthy" father-child relationships.
To advocate the practice of father inclusion and equitable parenting in all public and private community sectors.
Beliefs and Values
Believes in the essential role of fathers. (e.g., “Fathers Are Essential”)
Believes that fathers are more responsive when treated with dignity and respect.
Believes that when fathers are positively involved, children demonstrate more positive outcomes (i.e., academically, emotionally and socially).
Believes that positive co-parenting is critical for children’s emotional well-being and overall development.
Believes that when fathers are strengthened and supported, the family structure is stronger and communities are safer and healthier.
Believes most fathers want to be positively involved in their children’s lives.
Believes most fathers benefit when supported and guided by other positive male role models.
Believes in the importance of fathers respecting and having positive relationships with their children’s mother.
OUR FOUNDER
When I began my social worker profession in 1995, I was excited over the opportunity to work in an agency with its mission to “protect endangered children, preserve and strengthen their families.” However, I quickly realized my aspiration to effectively assist these fragile and vulnerable families was often an enormous and challenging task with seemingly conflicting demands and expectation coming from multiple directions. Over the years, I gradually became more aware and sensitive to a common variable within these families, which was the “absentee” or “unmotivated” fathers willing to seek custody of their children. I later discovered this “epidemic” to be prevalent not only in the child welfare system, but throughout society, as well as nationally. My objective was to understand this “epidemic”, and more importantly, its effects, barriers and how to overcome it, in hopes of strengthening the infrastructure of families.
In 2008, I was fortunate to come across a training workshop offered by Strategies, titled “Supporting Father Involvement”. The workshop was offered in San Diego, California. After attending their three training phases, the two most important facets of information I acquired were (1) the evidence-based research showing that when fathers are positively involved, children benefit emotionally, socially and academically; and (2) the importance of implementing and sustaining a “father-friendly” environment in (both) public and private sectors that will encourage and support father involvement.
My sharing of this valuable information began to initiate an interest and discussion with my peers in child welfare, as well as with some County Department leaders. As a result, permission was granted by the Department for a small group of social workers and community partners to organize a free “Father’s Breakfast” for fathers served by this agency. Personally, I saw this as a kind gesture and potential steps toward “reconciliation” in how fathers are perceived, served and supported in this child welfare agency.
After acquiring more information and knowledge from various trainings, workshops and resources, I became increasingly haunted from the stories of fathers who had relevant issues and complaints; ranging from wanting to visit their children, being homeless, unemployed and not having anyone to really help them. I also found it concerning that many of these fathers rarely could recall having a positive experience with their fathers. A familiar statement made by these men was: “I want to be a better father to my child than my father was to me”. I have never saw a reason to denied the genuineness of these men’s statements. Although, what I have questioned is whether there are appropriate resources, services and connections available in our communities to support and sustain these fathers’ vision of being positively involved in their children lives.
There are scores of evidence-based studies indicating a direct causation for many of the social ills in our communities to be due to absentee or uninvolved fathers. Recognizing this urgent need for change, I founded San Bernardino Fatherhood to assist and support fathers and to advocate the importance of responsible fatherhood in our communities.
San Bernardino Fatherhood objective is to be the voice in our communities stating, “Fathers are Essential!” This endeavor will be accomplished through educating, collaborating, promoting, advocating and mentoring men to becoming responsible fathers. As a result of this endeavor, we will achieve our vision statement: “A society where children thrive, families are strong and communities are safe as a result of responsible fathering.”
Thank you for visiting our website and learning about San Bernardino Fatherhood. We encourage you to volunteer and support.
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San Bernardino Fatherhood is a certified 501c3 nonprofit #81-2607816
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