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Department > Services > Fatherhood Initiative
Fatherhood Initiative
The Pennsylvania Fatherhood Initiative makes responsible fatherhood a high priority. An absent father creates a void in the lives of his children. Without his guidance, love and support, it is easy for children to lose their way. A father's presence as a role model shines a light for troubled children and helps them regain their footing on the road to responsible adulthood. Dads make all the difference.
Goals of Fatherhood Initiative:
- Increase the awareness of the importance of fathers in the lives of their children
- Strengthen families
- Foster better relationships between fathers, their children and their families
- Encourage parental responsibility
Fatherhood Facts:
- More than half of all children will spend part of their childhood in a father-absent home
- About one million children experience a divorce each year
- Children raised in single-parent homes are more likely to spend some of their childhood in poverty
- Children from father-absent homes are three times more likely to fail school or drop out
- Data has clearly linked growing up without a father to mental illness, drug abuse, youth suicide, delinquency and crime
- Up to 70% of long-term prision inmates grew up without a father
Services provided by the Fatherhood Initiative:
- Fatherhood Education
- Skill Acquistion
- Job Training
- Empowerment Programs
Berks County's contact for the Pennsylvania Fatherhood Initiative is Berks Community Action Program. Telephone (610) 376-6571