Kyle Lierman:
How's everybody doing?
Audience:
Good!
Kyle Lierman:
Welcome to the White House.
My name is Kyle Lierman.
I run the Champions of Change
program here for the White House
Office of Public Engagement.
This is a particularly
special event.
We're really excited to have
you all here today and really
excited about the champions that
we're honoring this afternoon.
I want to go ahead and introduce
Michael Strautmanis who is a
Senior Counselor of the
President for Strategic
Engagement and Valerie
Jarrett's deputy.
Michael?
(applause)
Michael Strautmanis:
Thank you, Kyle.
Welcome everybody.
Welcome to the White House.
Thank you so much
for joining us.
Father's Day is right
around the corner,
so it's our time here at the
White House to follow the
President's lead and celebrate
and talk about the importance
of fatherhood.
And what we like to do is have
events just like this where we
have people who come from all
across the country to honor our
fathers, to talk about the
importance of this issue,
to lift this up.
And today, we get to
do something special.
We get to lift up these ordinary
Americans who are doing
extraordinary things,
our Champions of Change.
Let's give them a
round of applause.
(applause)
So my name is Mike Strautmanis.
And I serve as Deputy
Assistant to our dad in chief,
President Barack Obama.
I have had the privilege of
knowing and working with the
President for quite a
while, about 20 years now.
And I know how important
this issue is to him.
He grew up without a
father in the home.
And he is working hard everyday
to be the best dad that
he can be.
We spent a little bit of
time over the years talking
about fatherhood.
He's mentored me.
He's given me tips.
I've shared a few tips of my
own with him because I'm a dad.
I have three children.
One of them just graduated
from high school yesterday.
(applause)
It was such a blessing to be
there with family, with friends,
with loved ones, with the
rest of the community.
A lot of moms in the audience,
a lot of dads in the audience.
A lot of those who stepped up to
help raise these young people.
My son is going on to
Columbia College in Chicago.
And we're so proud of him.
But you know, I'm proud of
my other children as well.
I have a 15 year old
child who's autistic,
a child with special needs.
His needs and want he needs
are such that he's not able to
live with us.
He lives in a residential
facility geared toward teenagers
who are dealing with autism.
And I have a six year old little
girl who allows me to get up and
go to work every single day.
That's the real
boss of the family.
And obviously, I can't forget
about my very patient and
lovely wife.
And so these are the things
that we talk about here at
the White House.
My boss, Valerie Jarrett, Senior
Advisor to the President and the
woman who runs the Office
of Public Engagement and
Intergovernmental
Affairs, she's a mom.
Her daughter is getting
married this weekend.
And so we share these
things with each other.
These are jobs that
are tremendous honors.
But they're also a little
bit time consuming.
And so juggling work and family
is something that is so much a
part of our lives.
And we try to put fatherhood and
the importance of fatherhood in
the forefront.
And I know that's what you do.
This is not just happening
at the personal level.
This has to be a part
of our shared work.
And across the country, leaders
are shaping the way our nation
thinks about fathers
and fatherhood,
pulling the various levers that
they can to connect fathers to
their families and lift up the
importance of fatherhood in
our culture.
So we could have brought
in really thousands,
maybe tens of thousands of
individuals in the White House
to celebrate.
But we've chosen ten.
And we want to honor these
folks as Champions of Change,
a title that reflects
all of you in this room.
And I just want to say how
grateful we all are that you've
taken time away from your
lives, from your workplaces,
from the leadership positions
that you hold to come share with
us and spend some time with us.
Also, I just want to lift up
the young people that we have in
the audience.
These are some well
behaved children.
Let's give them a
round of applause.
(applause)
I don't know about
my young ones.
We might have had them upstairs.
On this first panel, we're going
to hear about people impacting
fatherhood on the
national level.
I'm going to join them and
help moderate this panel.
We want to know,
to our champions,
we want to know what
you're working on.
But more importantly, of
equal importance actually,
we just want to hear your story.
We want to hear why you do
the great work that you do.
Our first five champions
are Roland Warren,
President of the National
Fatherhood Initiative.
Raise your hand, Roland.
(applause)
I've worked with many
of these folks before.
They're humble.
So you got to push them a little
bit to get a little attention.
Carey Casey, CEO of The
National Center for Fathering.
Jerry Tello, Director of
National Latino Fatherhood and
Family Institute.
(applause)
John Sowers, President
of The Mentoring Project.
(applause)
And Barbara Williams-Skinner,
President of the Skinner
Leadership Institute.
(applause)
All right.
Scoot over, folks.
Let's get started.
So Roland -- now, look.
He's giving me a shot over
here about the Chicago Bears.
We try and keep this
thing friendly now.
Roland, you're President of the
National Fatherhood Initiative.
That's a great name, great
name of an organization.
Why don't we just start
by telling us about
your organization.
Why don't you tell us what NFI
does and how did you get started
with this important work?
Roland Warren:
Sure, absolutely.
Well, first off,
thanks very much.
Appreciate the award on behalf
of all the folks that are doing
fatherhood work.
It's just an honor
to be with you today.
Also, just want to acknowledge
my wife who's not here, Yvette,
who had a big hand in
me becoming a father in
the first place.
Dr. Williams-Skinner:
Yeah!
Roland Warren:
And my two initiatives are
sitting over there in the back,
Jamin and Justin.
(applause)
Michael Strautmanis:
As I've often heard,
fatherhood begins at home.
Roland Warren:
Absolutely.
That's right.
So I'm glad to be here.
But in terms of the National
Fatherhood Initiative,
we're an organization that
started back in 1994 really
raising awareness about the
number of kids who were growing
up without dads.
For those of you who have been
doing this work a long time,
some longer than me, you know
that certainly we didn't talk as
much about fathers as it
pertained to the well-being
of children.
And in the early '90s, people
really started connecting the
dots between some of the
most intractable social ills
affecting kids and the presence
or absence of involved
responsible and
committed fathers.
So the National Fatherhood
Initiative really basically is a
capacity builder
for organizations.
We help organizations move from
inspiration to implementation in
terms of doing fatherhood work.
We're one of the leading
providers of fatherhood
resources in the country.
So we know that a
key to engagement,
which is a great
word, is skills.
And where you're more skilled,
you'll be more engaged.
So whether you're a
father who is, you know,
a working dad who's out in the
workplace and needs some skills
in terms of how to be a new
dad or a better dad or whether
you're an incarcerated
father, we do all that work.
And we're just delighted to
have an opportunity to help the
nation around this issue.
I'll just end with
this one last thing.
I'm fond of saying that kids
have a hole in their soul in the
shape of their dad.
I really believe that.
I believe God whispers into the
wombs of their mothers that
there's this guy who should
love them like no other.
And when he doesn't it can
leave a wound that's not
easily healed.
And in a sense, I grew
up without my dad.
And I'm a bit of a wounded soul,
which is why I do the work
that I do.
So this is really
important work,
in terms of connecting the
hearts of fathers to their kids.
And so we're delighted to
be here, to be honored,
and certainly most of all,
just to have the privilege to
do this work.
Michael Strautmanis:
Thank you.
Thank you, Roland.
(applause)
I think you've gotten us
off to a good start here,
the kind of spirit
that we're looking for.
So I'm going to ask
Carey to keep that going.
Why don't you tell us about
what the National Center on
Fathering does.
Carey Casey:
Right.
Michael, good to be with you.
And as Roland stated, we're
humbled and honored to be where
we are today.
A dear friend just now
sitting in the audience,
Joe Jones who's the President of
the National Fatherhood Leaders
Group, he shared with me, he
said, Carey, remind them,
teams when championships.
And you must play your position
and stay in your lane.
And as I look in
the audience today,
I'm so very excited
as all of us partner,
meeting many of my
friends here today.
Any of you could sit
where we're sitting today.
But I think about the great
privilege of being there at the
national center for
fathering and CEO.
I share with people, CEO stands
for Chief Encouragement Officer.
So I have a wonderful team there
and board of directors and
wonderful folks, Dr. Ken
Canfield who started the center
back in 1990.
But I think about this
Champions of Change,
Michael and winning
for the future.
The umbrella of everything we
do at the National Center for
Fathering is
championship fathering.
In my book that
came out in 2009,
there's three basic
thoughts that we have,
research that comes out
of a championship father.
Thousands of dads, three
things clearly come out.
They're loving.
They love the child.
And they love the
child's mother,
even if they're divorced.
The child still needs their
dad, just like Roland stated,
that wound or the
dad not being there.
But the father still needs
to be involved in loving
their children.
But then, the second tenet is
that they coach their children.
I played ball a hundred years
ago at that great basketball
school, University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill.
But anyway --
Michael Strautmanis:
Here we go.
Carey Casey:
That's why I wore
this tie, Michael.
But anyway, thinking about it
-- the President now and then.
But I think about this,
they coach their children.
They are aware and they're
involved in their child's lives.
A dear friend, Tony Dungy, who
does a lot with fathering,
he shared that a good coach
is involved and he's aware of
his players.
And that's what we
find in our research.
But not only that, but they
also model for their children.
You don't just preach it, get to
going as long as I would here,
but you model for your children.
Love, coach, and model.
But then you also encourage
a child without a dad.
And think of the young people in
your neighborhood that does not
have a dad.
And so we have the
opportunity to encourage.
But then we enlist other dads.
That's why I love it.
Championship fathering and
thinking about this honor today
that we have to be a part
of what's taking place.
But that's a lot of what we do.
Michael Strautmanis:
I appreciate that.
Please, give him a
round of applause.
(applause)
One of the things that we've
done here in the White House
under the leadership of
President Obama is we have sent
members of his cabinet out
across the country to talk about
this issue.
The Attorney
General, Eric Holder,
went to Atlanta to talk about
fathers and the criminal
justice system.
And I was with Secretary Arne
Duncan when he went to New
Hampshire to talk about
education and fathers.
There's an organization that
I've gotten to know well called
WATCH D.O.G.S.
Carey, I know that you support
and work with that organization.
It's an organization that finds
just small ways for dads to get
involved in their schools,
in the schools itself,
bringing fathers into the
schoolhouse to be a presence.
Just to follow up, can you tell
us a little bit about the kind
of impact that this organization
has had to get dads volunteering
in their local schools?
Carey Casey:
I am so excited.
My WATCH D.O.G. staff
emailed me today, Carey --
be sure and tell them
to be involved in their
children's schools.
And we love it.
It's one of our strongest
programs at The National Center
for Fathering, WATCH D.O.G.S.
And Eric Snow is our
National Director.
If you do anything today,
go to fathers.com/watchdogs.
And they take one day out of the
year where they're involved in
their children's schools,
another set of eyes eat lunch
with the kids if you
will, read to the kids.
My bride is sitting here today.
She's a second grade teacher.
And I have the privilege to be
a WATCH D.O.G. at her school.
One of my greatest
thrills was a while back.
I was at the school with my blue
jeans on and my WATCH D.O.G.
shirt, sitting there doing
flashcards in the hallway with
two students, a boy and a girl.
And a young lady walks
out of a classroom,
about the third grade.
And she stops and she looks.
And she says,
"Hi, Mr. Watchdog."
She didn't say CEO or whatever.
But thinking about that, that
was one of my proudest moments.
But it's an awesome program.
We're in about 2400 schools.
Our vision, we would love to be
in every school in the country.
And I would challenge
you to be a part.
When a dad is involved in a
child's education, they do much,
much better.
And we have had,
over the past year,
200,000 fathers involved in
their children's education
through WATCH D.O.G.S.
Michael Strautmanis:
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
(applause)
You know, next I want to turn
this over to Jerry Tello.
Jerry, why don't you tell us a
little bit about your work in
the Hispanic community.
But more broadly, I know you're
working in California and you
really -- my sense is you
want to meet dads and families
where they are.
Meet them where they are and
provide the kind of help and
services that they need in
their lives as they're being
lived today.
Can you tell us a little
bit about that work?
Jerry Tello:
Sure.
Thank you for the invitation
and the award as well.
Let me just begin by thanking
the Creator for this opportunity
to be here.
You know, we recognize in our
culture that you always honor
four directions.
And one direction is the
direction of the men.
But directly across is the
direction of the women.
And we recognize that
there's no men without women.
But in between those two
directions, the children fall.
And whatever happens
between the men and women,
the children get it.
If there's happiness,
they get it.
If there's resentment, if
there's pain, they get it.
But we also recognize that
fourth direction was the
direction of the elders.
And so a lot of the work that we
do is really looking at those
teachings of our
ancestors, of our elders,
recognizing there's a
sacredness in all of us.
There's a sacredness in men too.
There's a sacredness
that sometimes gets lost
because of wounds.
And there are many fathers
that don't show up because
fathers have wounds.
So the work that we do is
reaching out to those men that
have wounds, those men that need
to recover, need to uncover,
need to discover that
sacredness again,
to recognize that they need to
show up, that they have a place,
they have a sacred place.
And when they don't show up,
their children feel something.
But many of these fathers and
grandfathers that we see didn't
have a dad either.
Many of the men
that we work with,
we become the voice really for
many men that are working in
fields, many men that are
working in restaurants,
many men that are
working day labor,
many men that are coming
out of institutions,
many men that are in the streets
and want to get out the streets
but don't know how to
connect to their fathers.
We are the voice for them.
We are the channel for them.
We create circles.
We create places where men can
come without shame to help to
heal because there are many
wounded fathers out there.
And you can give them skills.
You can give them tools.
But if it sits on wounds,
then they give that to
their children.
And so part of the
work that we do,
not only in California
but nationally --
and we're an organization
that's been around since 1988.
And that group really started
with a group of men that saw a
lot of pain in our communities,
a lot of pain that came not only
from poverty but from
racism, discrimination,
and a whole lot of other
wounds that we still see going
on today.
And we hit those
things straight on.
But we take responsibility as
men reaching for other men.
But at the same time, in
our traditional culture,
there's no child
without a father.
Because some men go away and
their father is killed at war or
killed in the streets or killed
some place else or is wounded so
bad that he really
can't show up.
And it is in our cultural way
-- it's actually in everyone's
cultural way that
when a boy is there,
a girl is there and needs
a man, somebody steps up.
Somebody says I can't be your
father but I can be your uncle,
you can be my relative.
And I learned that
in my own home.
In my own home, my mother
would say this is your aunt,
this is your uncle.
I had six grandmothers.
I don't know how I
got six grandmothers.
Just anybody with gray
hair, you call Nana.
And anybody that your
parents said was your uncle
and your aunt.
And anybody who was your
age was your cousin.
And so we made relatives.
That's part of what we do.
And so part of the
work that we do --
and we have curriculum,
evidence based and all that.
We have all those things and
programs that we can do.
And capacity building,
we do across the nation.
And we focus on all populations.
But a lot of times, we get
called to work with the Latino
population because it's not
really the work that's been
done historically.
And especially with a 45%
increase in demographics and
everything, there's a
significant need to work with
that population because there
are a lot of resiliency factors
that are there around traditions
and customs and values.
But my inspiration really
-- you asked about that --
really came from my
family and seeing,
in spite of living in Compton,
in spite of poverty and drugs
and all of that, seeing a family
that tried to do for their kids,
seeing a father that
attempted to do the best,
seeing a grandmother to bless
me everyday regardless if I did
good in school.
And then I'm blessed to have
three children, Marcos, Renee,
and Emilio.
But my latest inspiration
is my little granddaughter.
John Sowers:
Oh, look at that.
Jerry Tello:
So I carry her shoes, Amara,
because -- she calls me Tata.
And the thing is, in
a traditional way,
we say that whatever we do
will affect seven generations.
What we have to do now is be
cognizant of whatever we do --
we tell men, whatever you
say, whatever you do --
will affect children
for seven generations.
But imagine if you do
something beautiful.
Imagine if you do
something sacred.
Imagine if you do
something wholesome.
That too will affect
seven generations.
So we're very, very
honored to do this work.
And you know we -- you
can go on our website too.
I'm not here to
promote our program.
But we are also -- part of the
work we do is collaboration with
other groups and
other organizations.
We are working to bring men and
boys of color together as well.
Because in many,
many communities,
there's a struggle
in that as well.
There's violence and
struggling that's going on.
And we want to reach back and
reclaim those young boys that
have been claimed
by institutions,
have been claimed by drugs.
We want to reclaim it.
We want men to stand up,
step up, and say, no,
you are ours now, come
back home, come back home.
There are men here ready
to guide and love you.
Michael Strautmanis:
Thank you, Jerry.
(applause)
You know, I want to
take just a moment here,
break away from the panel a bit.
Do we have our
military dads here?
Let's honor First
Lieutenant William Edwards,
named as National Fatherhood
Initiative's National Military
Dad of the Year.
(applause)
I think we have a plaque.
Can you take a quick picture.
And please, everybody.
All right, terrific.
Lieutenant Edwards.
(applause)
Can I put you on the spot?
I heard you just came
from a pretty cool lunch.
Why don't you step up
here to the microphone,
take one minute to tell us
about your lunch and talk about
your award.
First Lt. Edwards:
Well, I just came from
lunch with President Obama.
(applause)
Thank you.
It was me and three
other fathers.
They're all right
down over here.
We went out for barbecue,
and it was pretty cool.
(laughter)
So I'm very honored to be
presented with this award,
2012 Military Fatherhood Award.
I just wanted to thank a few
people actually for this award.
NFI, you know, President Roland,
Vince DiCaro, Renae Smith.
They've been very helpful
through this whole process.
I don't know if anybody
really knows kind of what the
award was.
For the last month, America's
been voting for the Military
Fatherhood Award on Facebook.
So I won through Facebook the
Military Fatherhood Award,
oddly enough.
(applause)
But I would like to thank Ben
O'Dell, Patrick Patterson.
You know, they hooked
us up here in D.C.
It's been a great time.
Obviously all the sponsors
and family and friends on the
Facebook community, you
know, voting, Chicago style,
early and often.
(laughter)
Thank my father-in-law,
Al Peterson.
He told my wife about the award.
She put me in for it.
So shout out to him.
A lot of things in my life
made me the man that I am,
a lot of events and people.
But my parents are here.
Mom and Dad, can you stand up?
This is Russ and Kathy Edwards.
(applause)
Thank you, Mom and Dad.
I would like to thank my
beautiful wife, Esther.
We just had our 13th wedding
anniversary two days ago.
So she's here.
She's put up with me through
a lot for the last 13 years.
But she's always
been by my side,
always supported me
in everything I do.
And I really wouldn't be the
father to my four kids that I am
today without her support.
So thank you.
(applause)
And of course, I just wanted
to say thank you to my
Heavenly Father above.
You know, he's blessed me
so much through my life,
given me four
beautiful children.
And you know, Lord, I just pray
that people would glorify you
because of me.
So I thank you.
Thank you.
(applause)
Michael Strautmanis:
Thank you for your service.
Thank you for being
such a great dad.
And congratulations to you.
First Lt. Edwards:
Appreciate it.
Thank you.
(applause)
Michael Strautmanis:
And of course, the First Lady
and Dr. Biden would want me to
give just another round of
applause to the family.
When one person
goes off to serve,
the whole family
goes off to serve.
So we deeply honor and
appreciate your service.
Thank you so much.
(applause)
Well, let's see if
we can top that.
And I think I have
a way to do it.
Let's go to Dr. Barbara
Williams-Skinner.
Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner:
You would not do that.
(laughter)
Michael Strautmanis:
You know, doctor, you're here
on this panel as a woman who is
personally and professionally
passionate about this work of
supporting fathers and families.
And you're such a leader
in the faith community.
You're such a leader in
the community here in D.C.
And you're such a
leader nationally.
Tell us why fatherhood, why
this work is important to you,
considering where you stand
and the important national work
that you do.
Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner:
Well, thank you so much.
And I want to thank Joshua
DuBois, yourself Michael,
and especially Paul Montero who
I've worked with since this
program began at the outset of
the Obama administration for
this award.
I'm really grateful.
I'm humbled by that.
As a strong African
American woman,
I grew up without a father.
And as I'm looking -- you know,
I'm thinking about people who
complain about their fathers.
I'm like a bad dad would
be better than no dad.
But the reality is that I grew
up at a time when each child was
everybody's child.
I lived in a neighborhood
where, wherever you went out,
there was somebody out in
the neighborhood who had the
opportunity, responsibility,
to stand in for your parents.
And you hated
every moment of it.
Every neighbor
could chastise you,
anyone on the street who
was part of that community.
That does not exist today.
There were men in my life.
Even though I didn't have a
father, didn't know my father,
there were people.
My mother had guys who were
part of my extended family.
When I got an award or
did something at school,
they would show up as my uncles.
Half of them, I don't even
know their last names.
But they were there.
And so it provided what the
absence of a father would have
provided for a girl
especially, a sense of safety,
a sense of security.
The first guy who tells
you you're cute should be
your father.
It should not be a guy
other than your father.
And so I had that.
But I must agree with Roland
Warren that there's still,
even though I had a
phenomenal mother,
my first teacher who didn't
get past the 8th grade,
a God fearing woman who told me
every day you could be anything
you wanted to be,
and I believed her.
But she could never be one
thing, and that's a father.
And so I believe that -- there
are a couple of things that I
suggest to men who say have
left their wives or they never
were married.
It's very important for children
to know that they didn't do
anything wrong, that they're
not the reason why you left.
Because children grow up with
this feeling that they blew it.
If they hadn't been bad,
dad wouldn't have left.
And that -- I don't care how
many awards you get or how far
you get in school, Michael,
that stays with you.
Secondly, I liked what the
brother at the end said,
that men in schools
create order.
I applaud single-parent women
all over the country like
my mother.
They have made the difference.
They've stood in the gap.
But I don't think they can ever
provide the kind of authority,
the kind of structure, the
kind of ark of safety that
men provide.
And I'm saying that as a
strong African American woman.
There's a male/female balance
that's missing in that child.
So I'm really happy
today, Michael,
to be able to sort
of stand in the gap.
I'm like Roland Warren.
I'm sort of a wounded warrior,
a wounded healer if you will.
And so I have the opportunity
every day to be part of Ballou
High School here
in Washington, D.C.
Now, Ballou is a school
that many have written
off completely.
It's statistics.
Police are parked
down the street.
They expect the kids to go
to jail or to be killed.
And some of us
have just said no.
That's not God's way.
And so we're there bringing in
jobs and after school mentoring
and connecting the young
men with the presence of
caring adults.
One thing I noticed, seven years
ago when I was at the school,
there was so much disorder.
It was almost scary to be there.
I noticed today, with the
presence of more men in the
hallways, the presence
of the principal,
the associate principal,
they stand in the hallway.
They know the kids by name.
The pants go up.
The combs are out of
the hair, you know.
The girls have their, you
know, all their body closed
up, you know.
Nothing's exposed.
I mean, they have developed
a caring structure that the
kids respect.
You have to be
around to do that.
You cannot send a check to
get that kind of rapport with
children who are hurting.
And the prisons are filled
with people without fathers.
Teenagers are pregnant
without fathers.
Sociological statistics could
be reversed by the presence
of fathers.
So I'm more than excited
about being here.
(applause)
Michael Strautmanis:
I think you all would say I
made a good choice turning it
over there.
Thank you so much
for those comments.
Lastly, but certainly not least,
I want to turn this over to
John Sowers.
John, you were with us
three years ago when we
launched this work.
It was the 100th anniversary of
Father's Day in this country.
And we had an event in the East
Room at the White House with the
President, with the
Vice President of the United
States to talk about it.
You were there.
Your organization, The
Mentoring Project, was there.
Tell us, now looking back, about
that event and how that event
affected you, affected
your organization,
and affected your work.
John Sowers:
Thank you.
Thanks so much for having me.
It's an honor to be here.
That event was really --
I caught myself barely on
the video.
I could see it, and I'm
nodding the whole time.
I'm just doing this and I almost
look silly because I'm just
amen-ing it in my heart.
That moment for me was catalytic
as well as galvanizing of my own
personal calling.
Someone like us,
Roland said this,
growing up without a father
-- no bitterness toward him,
but he just wasn't around.
When I heard President Obama
say his dad wasn't around,
I began to relate.
And I began to hear.
And I felt like President Obama
was saying, I'm with you,
I'm here with you, we're locking
arms in this and let's do this.
And so I left that
room on fire, excited,
and feeling like the fatherless
and the fatherhood conversation
is getting its rightful
place in its country.
I watch the news
and I get so upset.
I'm like foreign
policy is important,
the economy is important.
But what about fatherhood?
Why don't we make
that a voting issue?
Why don't we see what Presidents
are doing for this issue.
And I'll vote for that.
So I left that day and I got
so fired up and so passionate.
And from that day, we began to
look and we began seeing the
fatherless story all around us.
In one high school in Memphis,
with the 90 teenage pregnant
girls, in my old hometown in Los
Angeles and the gangs of Los
Angeles and the current gangs of
Chicago where I used to live on
the North Shore, begin
seeing these things and say,
how do we rewrite
the fatherless story?
How do we change this?
How do we begin to see
and capture these kids,
mentor these kids, show up in
these kids' lives before the
gang leaders do?
How do we change the
future of our country?
How do we do this?
And for us, it really was
about mentoring these kids.
You spoke, Jerry,
about woundedness.
These kids have been wounded
the most in relationship.
When dad leaves, something dies.
And there's a wound
that takes place.
And we began to say, you know,
if these kids have been wounded
in relationship, what would
happen if we began the healing
there in relationship?
And that's where
a mentor steps in.
For us, it's my great joy.
And I wish all of my mentors and
every monitor in this country
could be up here right now.
But it's my great joy to see
mentors as the quiet heroes of
the movement, mentors that step
into kids' lives faithfully
every day and say I'm with you,
the same way that God steps into
our lives at Christmas,
Emmanuel, God with us.
A mentor steps in and says,
I'm with you, I'm with you.
And you don't have to be cool.
You don't have to be smart.
You don't have to be rich
or have a job to show up in
a kid's life.
But when you do that, it
makes a huge difference.
And so we as an organization
at The Mentoring Project,
we call men and women to
show up in kids' lives.
And we say, what would happen if
we showed up in every kids' life
that needs it?
In Portland Oregon
where we're based,
there's 2,400 kids on
waiting lists for mentors.
Twenty-four hundred.
And these are single moms.
A lot of them are heroic moms.
And we said, what if
we ended that list?
What if each one of
these kids had a mentor?
So we're a few hundred in there.
We're doing the same thing in
other cities across the country.
And we're just calling naively
and maybe a little bit crazily
enough to say what if we end the
list all over the country of men
and women who, like Joshua, is
a mentor of -- 8 years?
Speaker:
Ten years.
John Sowers:
Ten years a mentor, Big Brother.
What if all of us follow Joshua
and other's example and stepped
into these kid's lives?
How would that rewrite
the fatherless story?
And so that's our passion.
It's a great joy to
advocate for these kids.
It's the honor of my life to
stand for them and give voice to
those who have no
voice, fatherless kids,
and to say how can
we change that.
And so that's what we do
at The Mentoring Project.
We recruit and train mentors.
And we're honored.
And we're excited and we're
humbled to stand and that this
administration is standing
for the same thing.
Michael Strautmanis:
Thank you, John.
(applause)
I want to follow up and talk
a little bit more with you
about mentoring.
The First Lady runs the
mentoring program here at
the White House.
Actually, she runs the mentoring
program for young ladies and I
run a mentoring program here at
the White House for young men.
And you can see who gets the
better deal out of that bargain.
It's okay.
You all are thinking it.
I understand.
We just actually had a
graduation for our 40 young
people with this
mentoring class this week.
And it's been a joy.
I keep hearing from these White
House staff people who come up
and they give me updates
about the young people that
they're mentoring.
This one got into college, this
one is dealing with this issue.
And I know through their eyes
that they're getting as much or
probably more out of this
mentoring relationship as the
young people that
we bring in here.
But give us a
little conversation.
We have so many people here
in the audience from so many
different walks of life.
Everybody's busier.
Everybody's working harder.
And I know that sometimes
mentoring can seem a
little daunting.
Tell us a little bit about
how you bring mentors into
your program.
And give us some lessons
learned on what works.
John Sowers:
Probably the smartest thing I
did was plagiarize a book called
Championship Fathering.
And that was written by
Carey Casey to my right.
And Carey talks a lot about
what translates, I think,
to good fathers translates
to good mentors.
And the first thing is
mentors win by showing up.
You show up.
You show up.
I said everyone can do it.
I would venture to say that the
people that mean the most to you
in your life, each
person in this room,
you could think of a person
that showed up in your life.
For me it was my grandmother.
Everyday after school
-- she raised me.
She showed up.
She was first in line.
She would be in the car.
I would come out
of sports practice,
whether that's
football or whatever.
And she would have this frozen
Gatorade slushie in a jar.
And it was wrapped
in aluminum foil.
And she would always say
something like you're such a
right handsome
young man, you know.
And she would hand
me this Gatorade.
Everyday.
When I went to college,
she wrote me a letter.
She found how to be present in
my life, even when I was away.
She wrote me a letter once
a week on a Monet print,
a full card about how she loved
me and was praying for me and
sent me ten dollars.
She did that through seminary,
when I was at Trinity in Chicago
and then into my doctored
at Gordon-Conwell.
She showed up in my life
faithfully from the time I was
two years old.
And I would say that's
true of all of us.
Those that mean the most to us
are those that have showed up
in our lives.
Same thing for those that maybe
have wounded us the most,
those who have left or
those who've abandoned us,
like you spoke of, Jerry.
And so the first place
that mentors have to do --
and I think that's
very encouraging,
because mentors get burned out
sometimes when you wonder,
am I doing the right thing,
is this making a difference?
But as you show up, what begins
to happen is this relationship,
you find out where they are in
college and you begin to learn
about them.
And you're texting and you're
talking about the game.
Did you see D. wade last night
and some of these things.
And when you show
up, that's the basis.
And then you begin to model
integrity and sincerity and
humility like Tony
Dungy does so well.
And then you begin coaching.
You get this sacred place
to speak into their lives.
At the end of the movie "Up",
it's the most brilliant piece of
writing I've ever seen.
And I won't talk about it too
much because it makes me cry.
And my friends make fun of
me for crying on a cartoon.
But I do it.
At the end of the movie --
Michael Strautmanis:
I cried at that point too.
John Sowers:
That's right.
At the end of the movie --
it's an older gentleman,
and he's been showing up in
this kid's life the whole movie.
The kid wanted his Helping the
Elderly badge because if he got
his badge -- it was like
Cub Scouts or Boy Scouts.
If he got his badge,
his dad would show up.
And the old man realized --
he softened, and he said,
this is a boy that
doesn't have a dad.
So our generation is longing
for the blessing of a dad.
They're longing
for the blessing.
This boy was longing for
the blessing of his father.
So he's up on stage,
end of the movie.
The old man has shown up
for him the whole movie.
And every kid is up
there with his dad.
The boy is up there alone.
That's a perfect picture
to me of this generation.
He's up there alone.
The announcer gets to him.
It's awkward.
All of a sudden, you hear the
old man come out on stage.
And he says, I'm here for him.
I'm with you.
Presence.
Brilliant.
He walks out, he gives
the boy a button.
He salutes him and basically
says, I believe in you,
I'm proud of you.
I'm with you.
I believe in you.
I'm proud of you.
That's it.
And it makes me cry because I
watch and I say, that is it,
speaking the words of blessing
like you spoke of, doctor,
speaking into this child's life.
That's the most brilliant
picture of mentoring I've
ever seen.
I'm with you.
I believe in you.
I'm proud of you.
And that's it.
You can boil it down to these
things and that makes all the
difference in the world.
Thank you, Michael.
Michael Strautmanis:
Sure.
Thank you, John.
Roland, I know you
wanted to add to that.
Why don't you
speak to mentoring.
I'm going to raise one more
question after that and we're
going to go to the next panel.
Roland, please.
Roland Warren:
I just wanted to sort of add to
that because I think that's very
powerful, what John said.
And you know, candidly,
if you look at the data,
there's 17 million
kids that need mentors.
There are about four
million mentors.
And the dirty little
secret is that frankly,
most of the mentors are not men.
And most of these kids who
are waiting for mentors,
the vast majority of them are
boys that are looking for men to
connect with them.
And my view is that, you know, a
key to changing that strategy is
helping fathers define what
it means to be a father more
broadly in this day and time.
And what I mean by that is
that a good father, you know,
you provide, nurture, and
guide your own children.
That's what good fathers do.
And that's what's been said many
times here is sort of a model,
from my perspective, a
Christian perspective,
a heavenly father who does
the same kind of thing.
The other thing that a good
father does is he's a father to
the fatherless.
I know that that, from a
transactional perspective,
can be a little difficult to do.
But the reality is that what
you need to do, frankly,
is not to look out but
look down and around.
And what I mean by that is that
there's a kid within your own
circle of influence that
could use a father's touch.
And we started an initiative a
couple years ago called Double
Duty Dads.
You can go to our website,
which is fatherhood.org,
and you can get a downloadable
free resource to help
you do that.
But if you just think
about that for a second,
what really makes mentoring
work is if you have a long-term
sustainable trusting
relationship with a primary
caregiver, which
tends to be a mom,
and if you have a long-term
sustained and trusting
relationship with the child.
Now, if that child is within
your circle of influence,
in other words, your
niece, your nephew,
the neighbor next door's
kid, someone in your church.
I mean, you think about it.
In most churches, what's the
connection between men's
ministry and the
children's ministry?
We know about the
orphans and the widows.
But the fact of the matter is
that a lot of those are right
down the hall from us in
church and we don't make
that connection.
So from my standpoint, a very
practical way to really turn the
corner -- there are 24 million
kids growing up without dads and
we have 65 million fathers.
If each dad just looks within
their own circle of influence
for kids that need
a father's touch,
that would turn
the corner on that.
The other thing I think that's
really powerful about this --
and I'll close with this -- is
that it's difficult to be what
you don't see.
Difficult to be
what you don't see.
Not impossible, but difficult
to be what you don't see.
See a little boy needs to see
what fathering looks like.
And when you're a
father who mentors --
you're not coming in to
be that kid's father.
You're coming in to show him
what a loving father looks like,
feels like, interacts
with, what that means.
It casts a vision for him.
And when a little girl sees
that, she understands, oh,
this is what I should look for.
Can help her find her prince
without kissing all the
toads okay.
So I really believe that one
of the key strategies around
mentoring is really mobilizing
our nation's dads against our
nation's fatherless.
And I think it's a
powerful strategy that,
I think if dad's just do that,
reach one kid within their own
circle of influence, it
will be transformative.
Michael Strautmanis:
Thank you.
Let's do this.
We have people in the audience.
Many of you are part of
the fatherhood field.
But many of you are not.
Many of you are in business.
Some may be in government.
Some are in social service
fields and others.
Can I have our panelists give
some advice to the people in our
audience about how they can
join this movement and pull this
work forward?
Just some simple things that
people who are not in the
fatherhood field can do?
Dr. Williams-Skinner:
I would say as a woman, it's
really very important for
fathers -- men.
You're impacting the way
women see themselves,
the way they mother their
children, by not being there.
So if you want to grow up in an
environment where you're scared
of 10-year-olds
and 14-year-olds,
then don't show up.
But if we want to
reverse this --
and we can, we've got
so many examples --
I think there are a couple
things that you can do.
First of all, most people
are wasting a lot of time.
Thirty-five hours a
week on television.
You know, beyond NBA playoffs --
(laughter)
Michael Strautmanis:
It's getting
uncomfortable over here.
Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner:
Beyond the NBA playoffs,
there's not a whole lot that's
really important.
NFL is over.
So I think, look at your
schedule and ask yourself is
every hour of CSI and NCIS
really critical for
your presence?
And ask yourself can you afford
to just give one hour a week?
Don't start an organization,
because they're already there.
They're in the room.
Connect with those.
The other issue is houses of
faith can do a little bit more
in this area of partnering with
the fatherhood initiatives.
A lot of the houses of faith
-- I know our church and others
don't necessarily connect
with organizations like Roland
Warren's or Casey's.
Could do a lot better.
But I just think that the issue
is you have 168 hours a week,
you have to do a
little time budget.
You have to ask yourself
is every hour of --
football is over.
So you've got a lot of time.
And, you know, Thunder are
going to win so don't worry.
So once you get over that --
(laughter)
-- once you get over that,
then you've got a lot of time.
And just think, all of your
time is your Creator's time,
because if he didn't give
you another breath you
wouldn't have it.
So what can you do with the
Creator's time to care for
changing the paradigm about how
children and how young boys and
girls view themselves.
Michael Strautmanis:
That's wonderful.
You know, I often think about
what the President has said
about this issue.
As we often talk about this
issue as one that only folks who
are struggling with
some disadvantages,
it's an issue around people,
it's a middle-class issue.
It's all classes have
to deal with this.
And he often says --
sometimes he says it to me --
you can turn off SportsCenter.
You don't have to watch that
second loop of SportsCenter.
You can turn that off and pick
up a book and spend time we
either your child or a child
that, as Roland has said,
is in your circle.
Casey, do you have
anything to add to that?
Carey Casey:
I would think also, in our
society today with social media,
thinking about how we all
have tweeting, Facebooking,
all of this, just like
Barbara was stating, you all,
we need to be one another's
greatest fans right here in the
room as we in fact -- social
media, websites, fathers.com,
and all of us guys here, Jerry
and John and all of us here,
Roland as well as Barbara
and your own organizations.
I ask a lot of folks that were
involved in the Civil Rights
Movement -- in fact, my
daddy, August 28, 1963,
he was here when a man
talked about his dream.
My daddy had a dream for me.
But I think about it.
Dr. King was talking about
public accommodations and all of
us having the rights
and privileges.
But I hope that my children will
one day live in a culture and a
country where they're not judged
by the color of their skin but
the content of their character.
But I asked his
colleagues today,
some that even trained me, how
did you all get the word out?
How did you all network?
You didn't have cellphones
and all of this.
Barbara talked about it.
She talked about it just now,
turning SportsCenter off and
all of this.
But we have to be on
one another's websites.
Fathers.com, go there.
Get the information.
I'm so very thankful that we
have a team in this room --
and I'm in NFL locker
rooms, the Bears and all of
them -- Da Bears.
Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner:
You need a lot of help.
(laughter)
Carey Casey:
White players, black players.
But when they put
that uniform on,
I love praying with them
before they go on the field.
And they don't care where you
have come from or what town.
But we're wearing
the same uniform.
And after you pray and
they break that huddle,
they do not think, even if
they're the Washington Redskins,
that they might lose
or whatever, you know.
Michael Strautmanis:
It's getting uncomfortable.
It's getting uncomfortable.
All right.
Hang on now.
Speaker:
But the social media, if you
will, as we come together there,
that's a great way we
can take advantage of it.
Not watching other things,
but in fact the websites,
and the helps that each have.
Michael Strautmanis:
Joshua, come help me out.
Joshua DuBois:
Hey, Mike.
We have a special guest, the
Secretary of Education of the
United States of
America, Arne Duncan.
(applause)
Michael Strautmanis:
You came just in
time, Mr. Secretary.
Secretary Arne Duncan:
I'll be quick to get
back to the real show.
But I'm thrilled to be here
and just want to appreciate
everybody for their hard
work and their commitment in
this area.
And obviously one of the joys of
my job is I get to travel the
country and visit young people
in elementary schools and middle
schools and high schools
around the nation.
And you have some times where it
gives you great hope and a great
sense of inspiration.
And you have other places where
you feel the real challenge of
what our kids are facing.
And I just can't overstate --
and obviously I'm preaching to
the choir here -- how important
it is for more dads to step up
and be part of their
children's lives.
And we have young people
literally crying out, asking --
from our toughest high schools.
I sit down and talk to
these young men and women.
They say my life would be
totally different if my father
was involved in their life.
So for all of you who are
helping to bring dads back into
the families, all of you who are
making that tangible difference,
I want to thank you
so much for that.
I went to -- as Josh said
-- and Josh is doing a great,
great job leading this effort.
I have a ten-year-old daughter,
an eight-year-old son.
My daughter had a band
concert last night.
And we went, it
was a great time.
I don't know if she's going to
go play in an orchestra someday,
but she loves
playing the clarinet.
And we've managed to survive
at home this year with her
practicing the clarinet.
(laughter)
But I had literally three or
four people come up and say,
you know, we know
how busy you are,
it's so nice that you're here.
And on one hand it was
really nice to hear that.
On the other hand, I just think
we sort of have this dummying
down of expectations.
This is my child.
I'm supposed to be here.
I mean, there's nothing more
important I could be doing.
And for this to be the one
band concert for the year,
for me to have something
else more important,
that's sort of
unfathomable to me.
And somehow, I
think for all of us,
we've sort of given us
as dads a pass somehow.
It just didn't quite make sense.
So it actually bothered
me a little bit.
And so I just want to
challenge all of you to do
everything you can.
If we want strong schools, if
we want strong communities,
we are not going to get there,
we are not going to get there
until we have a heck of a lot
more dads actively involved.
And you guys know the
stats better than I do.
In many of our African American,
Latino communities, 50, 60, 70,
80% of young people,
their dad's not around.
And I think that's way too much
of a burden to place on all of
our strong moms and grandmas.
It's way too much of a
burden to place on our great
school teachers.
Everyone's trying.
Everyone is trying
to do their part.
But we all have to
be in this together.
I watched a film, a very,
very tough film called
"The Interrupters", which
some of you may have seen.
It's about the horrendous gang
violence that we face back home
in Chicago.
It's the toughest
issue I've dealt with.
But you have these, you know,
hardcore guys on there talking
and just saying straight up, I
know my life would be different
if my father would
have been in my life.
It's amazing these guys that
are so tough, so street smart,
been locked up and
just flat out saying,
I would be a different
person if my dad was there.
So we have just, again,
amazing examples,
these champions here that you
guys are helping to provide,
redoubled your efforts,
challenge us to be a
good partner.
I'll just say personally, on
our side of the Department of
Education, in some ways I
think we've been helpful.
In other areas, I think we've
been part of the problem,
quite frankly.
And one of the areas where I
think we've been part of the
problem is we have underinvested
in parental engagement.
Great teachers make
a huge difference.
Great principals make
a huge difference.
But they can't do
it by themselves.
And so in these very
tough economic times,
we're asking Congress to double,
100% increase our funding for
parental engagement, to go from
about $135 million to about
$280 million.
(applause)
And what we want to do is to
invest in programs that are
making a difference.
I don't want to create
programs from Washington.
That doesn't make any sense.
But you show me
what you're doing,
not the feel-good program,
not looks good on a
PowerPoint presentation.
But you show me what your
program is doing to raise
student achievement, to
increase graduation rates,
to reduce drop-out rates.
And we want to take to
scale what is working.
I've visited many
of your programs.
I've traveled the country, been
extraordinarily impressed.
My challenges is, how
do we take to scale?
How do we take to
scale what is working?
And so we want to use
our resources, again,
not to create things here
but to just help you guys
impact more kids.
And if we can do
this systemically,
then I just have the
highest of hopes,
highest of expectations
for our young people.
But if we don't do that, and if
we continue as fathers to walk
away from our responsibilities,
it troubles me not just for
children and communities
but for our country.
So the battles here are huge.
The stakes are very, very high.
But again, just thank
you so much for your
collective commitment.
Thanks for the
difference you have made.
Thanks for the difference
you're going to make.
And please challenge me and my
team to be a better partner than
ever before as you try
and transform the lives
of young kids.
Thank you so much for having me.
Sorry for interrupting
the panel.
(applause)
Michael Strautmanis:
Well, let's give our first
panel of Champions of Change a
terrific round of applause.
(applause)
Thank you so much, everyone.
I'll be lurking in the
background keeping an
eye on all of you.
So stay as well behaved
as you have been.
Joshua DuBois:
Straut, if you can hang
with me for a second.
Hello everybody, by the way.
How's it going?
I'm Joshua DuBois.
I head up the Office of
Faith Based and Neighborhood
Partnerships in the White House.
And as Mike said, this day is a
culmination of a lot of work,
a lot of hard work
by a lot of people.
And we wanted to just
acknowledge some of the people
in the room.
And then I want to say a special
word about a very special father
as well before we move
to our next panel.
You know, at the end of
the day, this day is about
celebrating you.
We do a bit of work in the
President's fatherhood
initiative lead by Mike and
myself but you all are doing
this work every single day, on
the front lines doing research,
running programs,
connecting with schools,
working with ex-offenders,
working in federal agencies on
this effort.
And we can't thank you enough.
And I just want to shout out
some of the folks in the room.
I don't think I'm
going to hit everyone,
but when you hear your group
called, just raise your hand.
We have folks from public
housing authorities around
the country.
Thank you so much.
(applause)
We have barbers participating in
Barbershop Buzz and other folks
connected to barbershops.
Thank you.
(applause)
We have some great coalitions.
Allan Shedlin from Reel Fathers
and New Mexico Fathers & Family
Alliance came all the way
from New Mexico to be here.
Allan, are you here?
Hey, buddy.
We have Gill Coleman in the room
doing great work with the mayor
in Philadelphia.
Hey, Gill.
And David Hirsch from the
Illinois father's coalition.
We have great authors here:
Zorro and Jamiyl Samuels and
Rick Johnson and other folks who
are impacting culture through
the books that they're writing.
Raise your hands for us.
(applause)
Wonderful non-profits: The
Osborne Association in New York
and David Bell from
the Young Men's Clinic,
Brothers of Concern from
Chester, Pennsylvania,
The RIDGE project in Ohio,
Alliance of Concerned Men in
D.C, my buddies from strive
over here in New York.
Let's thank them
for their good work.
(applause)
Businesses are stepping
up to the plate.
We have Starwood and Wired
magazine and Visa and other
folks in the private sector
who are contributing.
Lamell McMorris.
Is Lamell in the audience?
Thank you.
Fraternities, we have Tabede
Boone from Omega Psi Phi as well
as Joe Briggs in Omega Psi Phi
in the NFL Players Association.
Allan Houston up in New York.
We have researchers here,
Jermaine Brown from the Joint
Center studying this work every
single day and friends on the
livestream doing tremendous
research and practice down
in Florida.
Hello, friends.
Let's give them a
round of applause.
(applause)
Dr. Robert Franklin, the
President of Morehouse
College, is here.
I think he may have just
stepped out for a second.
But he's coming back.
So we'll acknowledge
him when he gets here.
Carlos Duran, doing great
work in the Latino Community.
Dr. Jeff who lifted up
fatherhood through Dad Camp
on VH1.
I'm almost done.
Dr. Jeff, are you here?
Hey there.
(applause)
Mervil Johnson just held a
fatherhood heroes event in Texas,
doing great work in Texas.
Where are you at, Mervil?
There you go.
(applause)
Tray Chaney.
Where's Tray?
If you don't know Tray Chaney,
go on YouTube, google Tray.
He was on The Wire and
does wonderful songs
about fatherhood.
We always talk about the
negative messages that are being
sent about dads.
Tray was on 106 & Park talking
about how dads can step up
to the plate.
So thank you, Tray, for
the good work you're doing.
(applause)
Haji Shearer from the Fatherhood
and Co-Parenting Initiative
in Boston.
Jeff Johnson from the
National Partnership for
Community Leadership.
Kirk Harris doing
great work in Chicago.
The National Coalition on
Black Civic Participation,
bringing women into the
fatherhood movement.
Where are you, Melanie?
Hey there.
And William Killebrew
doing tremendous work.
Bishop Donald
Hilliard, Raymond Levy,
Pastor Eugene Norris from
Ohio doing tremendous work.
Where are you, pastor?
There you go.
How's it going?
Gary Simpson.
I know I missed some folks.
I promise I'll shout
you out in a minute.
But before we move
to the next panel,
one of the most stellar examples
of a father that we know --
I have to give him special
acknowledgment now.
You know, folks know the
President's imprint on
this issue.
They know his story, growing up
without a father and then having
a significant impact
through the President's
fatherhood initiative.
But the reason this
runs day to day,
the reason why White House staff
are inspired to step up to the
plate on this
issue, on mentoring,
on so many issues of
concern for our community --
and quite frankly,
our pressure valve,
when things gets
tough around here,
the person that we go to
for mentoring and support is
Michael Strautmanis.
Let's give him a warm standing
ovation for his great work on
The Fatherhood Initiative.
(applause)
Michael Strautmanis:
That was a set up.
Joshua DuBois:
That was a set up, Mike.
But thank you.
Michael Strautmanis:
Thanks a lot, everybody.
Joshua DuBois:
And now we're going to
head to our next panel.
Another round of applause for
Secretary Arne Duncan please.
Thank you.
(applause)
Okay we've heard from national
fatherhood champions.
And now we're here to honor five
local fatherhood champions who
are doing tremendous work at
the local level on fatherhood.
And we're excited
to have them here.
When I call your name, if you
could please come to the stage.
We have Stacey Bouchet, the
codirector for Women in
Fatherhood Incorporated or WiFi.
(applause)
Thank you.
We have Bob Johnson, a father
who was recently featured in the
movie "Bully."
Bob, if you could
join us on the stage.
We have Mike Hall, the founder
and President of Strong
Fathers - Strong Families.
Mike, if you could join us.
(applause)
Dr. Michelle Foster, CEO of the
Kanawha Institute for Social
Research & Action or KISRA.
(applause)
And my dear friend, Joe Jones,
the founder of Center for Urban
Families in Baltimore, a model
for fatherhood work around
the country.
(applause)
Friends, let's go ahead
and get right into it.
We have to know not just what
you're working on every day but
what inspired you to get into
this field and to do the
tremendous work
that you're doing.
Stacey, maybe we'll
start with you.
We heard from Dr.
Williams-Skinner about why
fatherhood is
important to women.
Tell us how you are
operationalizing this every
single day through WIFI.
We would love to hear from you.
Stacey Bouchet:
Okay, great.
We're a national organization
and we do place based work as
well, so in Baltimore and
New Orleans right now.
But we hope to expand to
additional communities and
eventually have chapters.
But we started this work
because the Annie E.
Casey foundation
actually recognized --
they were heavily invested
in the fatherhood movement.
And they said, you know, it
would be great if there was an
organized voice of women
that thought fathers were
important too.
And so they brought about a
dozen of us together from all
across the country, all
different political beliefs and
areas of specialty.
But we were all somehow
connected to the
fatherhood field.
And Joe was involved
in organizing that.
And it stuck.
So it was tried by Dr. Ron
Mincy when he was at Ford.
He tried to do the same thing.
And he brought women together,
particularly women that were
advocates for other women who
were in poverty because he saw
their agenda as the biggest
barrier to moving the fatherhood
agenda forward.
And it didn't --
there wasn't success.
No one took a leadership role.
So when Casey
brought us together,
we have maintained the course.
They've been
wonderful supporters.
We have connected with many of
the fatherhood organizations
in the field.
And what I feel like we bring to
the table is the perspective of
low-income women.
So we are working with
women in communities.
We do qualitative research.
And what they tell us is that
they care about the men in their
communities, that they want
fathers to be involved,
that they are overwhelmed, that
they're worried about their
children, they're worried about
what's going to happen in the
absence of fathers
in their communities.
And these are women that are --
we've interviewed in domestic
violence shelters who have said,
I don't want him near me but I
still want him to
see our children.
So this is something that's
very important to women.
And we know that.
It has become a
platform for our work.
But it's not something
that is widely recognized.
And I don't think it's something
that a lot of men realize,
particularly men who face
other types of disadvantage or
structural issues
like racism, poverty,
and things like to that.
A lot of times, they don't
feel like women support them.
But they do.
The devil is in the details of
course because interpersonal
relationships come into play.
We at women at fatherhood,
we are trying to say --
you know, it's funny because it
irritates me a little bit to
hear people say, come on
dad, step up, step up.
My father was not around
when I was growing up,
so I do understand that.
But what women, what women
in low-income communities,
racially and ethnically diverse
communities tell us over and
over and over again
is the dads are there.
They are there every day.
I live down the street from
Morgan State University.
I cannot drive one block outside
of my house that I don't see men
walking with their children.
They're at the CVS.
They're at the gas station.
They're everywhere
with their kids.
So I don't understand why
this isn't recognized.
And women tell us over and over
again, he pays when we can,
we have an informal
agreement worked out.
And then what happens is
research shows that as children
get older, the parents enter the
formal child support system.
And the assumption is dad's
not paying, he doesn't care,
he's shirked his
responsibilities.
And that's not the case.
What happens is the moms
don't have enough money,
even with the dad's help, even
with the dad's parent's helping.
It's not enough.
So when she has to go and enter,
become engaged with a formal
system, a government
system that says, hey,
if you want us to help
you, give up the dad,
and then the dad says, why
did you take me downtown,
I thought we had an
agreement worked out.
It's not that dads -- you would
be hard pressed to find a parent
that said, I don't care about
my kid, I'm not interested.
So I think it's time we let that
go, because it is not the case.
What happens is
things interfere.
Structural issues interfere.
Personal and relational
issues, for sure, interfere.
Women interfere sometimes.
So let's address that.
Let's stop saying, step up!
Because you know
what, they're there.
They're trying to step up.
I'm sorry.
Joshua DuBois:
Well, thank you so much, Stacey.
It's a critical topic.
And I appreciate
you lifting it up.
We're so honored to have
Vicki Turetsky here.
We're going to hear from her
toward the end of the program on
some adjustments to the
child support program around
the country.
They may be a little
technical and wonky,
but they're going to have a
significant impact on this issue
of making sure that families can
remain intact and that child
support does not become a
barrier to father involvement.
So thank you so much
for raising that.
Let's give Stacey a
round of applause.
We're going to continue
with our panel.
But just continuing in the theme
of tremendous special guests,
we have another individual
here who's doing great work on
this area.
We know that he is our nation's
chief law enforcement officer,
enforcing all of our laws.
But what is not as often
reported is the great work that
the United States Department
of Justice is doing on issues
related to fatherhood, on
persons returning to our
communities after incarceration
on juvenile violence and
delinquency and on
mentoring as well.
This is because of the
tremendous work of the Attorney
General of the United States,
Eric Holder who is here with
us today.
Attorney General Holder?
Attorney General Eric Holder:
So I'm a surprise?
Is that the deal?
No really, am I?
Joshua DuBois:
Yes, you are.
Attorney General Eric Holder:
All right.
You guys thought Denzel
Washington was coming or
something, right?
And you got stuck with Erik.
Oh well, oh well.
I understand Arne Duncan
was here just a while ago.
Did he have a jacket on?
Audience Member:
No.
Attorney General Eric Holder:
The guy is incorrigible, you know.
He's the Secretary of Education.
He's a good friend of the
President of the United States.
He's a cabinet member.
He's a representative
of this administration.
And we can't get him
to wear a jacket.
Were his sleeves rolled up?
Audience Member:
Yes.
Attorney General Eric Holder:
Josh?
Come on, Josh.
Let's make this
happen here, you know.
Or maybe I'll just
take -- you know.
No.
I want to thank you,
Josh, for having me here.
It's a pleasure to be
among such good folks.
It's a pleasure to join with a
group of advocates, leaders,
and partners from across
the administration,
also from the non-profit
and private sectors.
Today, together, we have
an important opportunity,
not only to recognize and to
celebrate the work of our local
and national fatherhood
Champions Of Change but also to
advance a critical nationwide
dialogue about the importance of
fatherhood and the impact that
strong role male models can have
on our children,
our communities,
and really on our
entire country.
Now, I particularly would like
to thank Josh and his colleagues
in the White House Office of
Faith Based and Neighborhood
Partnerships for all that
they're doing and for bringing
us together here today.
And I also want to express
my gratitude to each of the
champions who have demonstrated
such an extraordinary capacity
for leadership, innovation,
and also for public service.
Now in big cities and small
towns across this country,
you have worked to promote
responsible fatherhood in
prisons, in schools, the
military, tribal areas,
and also in
communities of faith.
You've helped to connect kids
with fathers who are serving
time in prison with mentors and
also with positive role models.
And you've enhanced not only our
understanding of the unique and
urgent challenges facing young
people whose fathers are not
involved in their lives but also
our ability to address these
challenges and to fight back
against some of the troubling
trends that, unfortunately, we
see developing in our nation.
Now, especially today, as we
prepare to celebrate Father's
Day -- and you all have gotten
my Father's Day wishes, right?
So everybody, send
those presents.
(laughter)
Why is there
laughter about that?
I'm serious.
And we work to highlight
the difference that really
responsible engaged
parents can make.
I'm really glad to be in the
company of so many fellow dads
and dedicated
parents and partners.
I also want to commend
my boss, the President,
for his efforts in
launching such an important
national conversation.
I am very glad to be a
part of this conversation.
And I believe that today's
event presents really a vital
opportunity to consider and
discuss what our communities,
as well as the
federal government,
can do to strengthen families
and to provide assistance to
young people and also to support
fathers who are really trying
just to do the right thing.
Now, of all the titles
I've held in my life --
I've been a lawyer,
a prosecutor, judge,
U.S. Attorney, Deputy Attorney
General, Attorney General --
the one title that I'm most
proud of is father, dad.
I have two teenage daughters
and a 14 year old son.
Helping to raise them
has been, in some ways,
the biggest challenge of my life
but also the most rewarding
experience that I have ever had.
It is certainly the most
important job I've ever had.
And I think even compared
to what I do in front of
congressional committees is
probably the most demanding
thing that I do.
Although, I would much rather
hang out with them then with the
House Republicans.
(laughter)
(applause)
They're all concerned because
this is being livestreamed.
I mean, do you think I
want to hang out with the
House Republicans?
(laughter)
I understand that
in these, you know,
especially difficult
economic times,
families and
specifically fathers,
really face significant
challenges.
We often need and always deserve
the strongest support that we
can give to fathers, from
military dads who are coming
home after deployment to
unemployed fathers who are
struggling to make ends meet.
It can be hard for even the most
dedicated dads to fulfill their
core responsibilities.
Now, the unfortunate reality is
that father absence is a growing
problem in this country, one
that can have a negative impact
on the lives and the futures
of millions of young people.
And that, in so many ways, it
has reached crisis proportions.
When you look at some of these
numbers, the U.S. Census Bureau
has indicated that 24 million
American children, 24 million --
that's about 1 out of every 3 --
currently lives in homes without
their biological fathers.
Now, studies have
consistently shown that,
when dads are not
around and involved,
kids are more likely to drop
out of school, to use drugs,
and to become involved with
the criminal justice system.
They also face an elevated
risk of incarceration in
their own lives.
And many are much more likely
to be exposed to violence,
either as victims
or as witnesses.
Now, on the other hand, research
has also demonstrated that men
who maintain strong family ties
while incarcerated are often
more successful and less likely
to commit crimes after they
are released.
So there's no question that
family connections improve
public safety.
This is a Justice issue in
addition to everything else.
Responsible and engaged
parenting improves public safety
as we all have the
responsibility as well as the
ability to make a positive
difference for the young people
in our own lives.
Now, of course each of you is
here today because you all
understand the magnitude of
the needs and the obstacles
that we face.
You've heard the tragic stories.
You have seen the
alarming statistics.
And in the course of your
work, you have witnessed the
devastating consequences of
father absence firsthand.
All of you have dedicated
yourselves to remedying and
calling attention to the
impact of this problem.
And today, thanks to
President Obama's leadership,
I'm proud to say that this
administration stands shoulder
to shoulder with each of you in
identifying the solutions that
we need and that our
children deserve.
At the highest levels of
government and in communities
across the country, we are
devoting more attention
to family.
We're focusing on strategies for
supporting fathers and helping
them to be responsible
loving parents.
And we're also working to reach
and to empower the children who
need our help the most.
Now, through innovative new
programs like the President's
Fatherhood and
Mentoring Initiative,
we've issued a national
call to action.
And we're forging and
strengthening key partnerships
with groups and organizations
all across the country that are
focused on promoting fatherhood
and strong families.
Thanks to the National Forum
on Youth Violence Prevention.
That's an initiative that was
lead by the Department of
Justice and the
Department Of Education.
And that has brought together
scores of federal, state,
and local allies in six cities.
We're implementing comprehensive
tailored approaches to combating
youth violence.
And we are planning to expand
this program to include four
additional cities and bringing
that total up to ten.
Through the Justice Department's
landmark Defending Childhood
Initiative as well as the
research that's being supported
by mentoring programs and Second
Chance Act grants in efforts of
the Federal Interagency Reentry
Council which I'm proud to
chair, my colleagues and I are
working every day to better
understand the causes and the
consequence of father absence
and to more effectively
address this really
devastating phenomenon.
Now, of course, as the people in
this room know probably better
than anyone else, problems
like re-entry, youth violence,
and a host of other problems
associated with father absence
really have no simple solutions.
There are really no
silver bullets here.
Their affects are felt
nearly everywhere.
And it won't ever be
possible for government,
government alone, to tackle
these challenges or to improve
relationships between
fathers and children.
This is not something that the
government can do on its own.
There can be no doubt
that everyone here has an
indispensable role to play.
Community leaders,
private sector partners,
non-profit and faith based
organizations and passionate
individuals all have important
contributions to make to deal
with this issue.
But at the end of the day,
whether we're developing local
initiatives or working to
implement global policy
solutions, the effectiveness of
our efforts will ultimately be
measured in the direct impact
of individuals who need our
help the most.
As fathers, we have
an opportunity today,
as we do every day, to act
responsibly in the lives of our
own children.
We have an obligation to spend
time with our sons and with our
daughters, to help them
with their home work,
to show them how to
play well together,
to teach our sons how to respect
women and to teach our daughters
to demand respect
for themselves.
These are basic things.
But they are important things.
We can serve as role models for
how to interact with others and
how to handle the
challenges of life,
however daunting those
challenges might be.
And by setting a good example,
each of us can have a
significant impact on the future
of our nation in profound and
very positive ways.
So today, as we explore
ways to advance this work,
I'm grateful for the commitment
and for the passion demonstrated
by each of the champions that
we're gathered here today
to celebrate.
I am privileged to count you all
as colleagues and as partners in
taking our collective
efforts to the next level.
And I look forward to where
each of you can and must lead
us from here.
I can think of really no more
important issue than the issue
that we have gathered
here today to discuss.
I have a lot of responsibilities
as attorney general,
everything from national
security and dealing with
terrorists groups.
But what we're talking about
here is really the future of our
nation, what kind of an
America do we want to have.
So I want to solute you for
the commitment that you have
demonstrated, for the work
that you undoubtedly will do in
the future.
And please understand that you
have, in this administration,
a great many friends and people
who are committed to the very
same things that you are.
So thank you all
very, very much.
(applause)
And I also want to thank Michael
Strautmanis and the Office of
Public Engagement for helping
us put this together today.
There he goes.
Thank you.
Joshua DuBois:
All right.
What a wonderful treat.
Let's give another round of
applause for our Attorney
General of the United States.
(applause)
Okay.
Well, let's continue
with our panel.
We're excited to hear from
some very special guests,
champions that are up here doing
great work on fatherhood at the
local level.
We're going to ask -- because we
have a number of things that fit
in in the next 40 minutes, we're
going to ask that your comments
be three minutes each.
And we'll keep moving
down the panel.
Next we're excited
to have Bob Johnson.
Bob is a wonderful
father himself.
And by the way, that reminds me
to acknowledge some other groups
in the room.
We have the Family
Equality Council, PFLAG,
and the National Center
for Transgender Equality.
Are you all here in the room?
Thank you.
Hi there.
And that's connected to a bit
of a story that Bob had the
pleasure of sharing
in the movie "Bully."
Bob, I hope you'll tell us a
little bit about the movie and
about your story as well.
Bob Johnson:
Yes.
I don't know if I can adequately
convey how humbling of an
experience this is sitting
in this room today.
I feel like I'm sitting
among giants in this field.
And I would also like to
recognize my wife of almost 22
years who is the true
champion of our family.
Thank you, Yolanda.
(applause)
As the proud and loving parents
of a transgender child,
we had to pull that child out of
school sophomore year because of
some issues that we had.
We could no longer feel like
we could protect her and
her safety.
And we had to pull
her out of school.
And as parents, we began
to sit back and think,
this can't be it, this cannot be
the end of our child's story.
We've worked so long and hard to
get her to where we are today.
So we began to sit back
and think, what can we do,
where can we go from here?
We do not want our child
to be defined as a victim.
We do not want this
experience to define her.
And I think that's probably a
common theme among every parent
in the room today.
So Yolanda reached
out to the Ellen show.
They did a story on bullying and
put us in touch with Lee Hirsch,
the director of "Bully."
And Lee flew out.
And the rest is history in
regards to how our participation
came to be in the film.
And that partnership with
Lee in the film Bully --
we've spent the past year
traveling the country speaking
at various venues and on
different panels about
the issue.
That relationship with Lee in
the movie "Bully" lead us in
turn to a relationship
with GLSEN.
And that relationship has very
much flourished and allowed us
to travel the country,
speak on a number of topics,
one of which is lobbying of
Congress on behalf of the SSIA
and SNDA legislation that is
currently pending out there.
I would also like to
take the opportunity --
because you don't get these
types of opportunities much,
to thank the Obama
administration for the
incredible leadership and
bravery shown in his endorsement
of both of those pieces of
critical legislation for
our children.
(applause)
The other thing that I began to
see as I traveled and spoke on
behalf of GLSEN and lobbied on
behalf of debt legislation was
that within the LGBT
community specifically,
which is obviously near and dear
to my heart because of my child,
there is a gaping hole in the
heart of that community from
lack of fatherly
leadership and love.
And so as a part of
my mission now --
not just to help persuade and
get this legislation passed but
it has now become a part of my
mission to get fathers of these
children to understand that
you fulfill an incredibly
critical role.
I mean, everybody
has said it up here.
A father fulfills such an
incredibly unique and specific
role within a child's life.
But there is a gaping chasm in
the heart of that LGBT community
from fathers who choose to not
be part of that child's life,
walk away from that situation.
And that cannot be.
And that's become my passion.
That's become my voice, to
get fathers to understand.
I'm not trying to persuade you.
I'm not asking you.
I'm telling you that is your
responsibility as a father and
as a man to let that child know
that you are proud of that
child, that you love that child,
and that you will be there for
them no matter what the
circumstances are in
that child's life.
(applause)
Joshua DuBois:
Thank you so much for
sharing your story, sir.
Appreciate you.
Next we have Mike Hall.
Mike has been on an amazing
journey from school principal to
working with dads and
kids after school.
Mike, we'd love to know
more about you and your
organization, as well.
Mike Hall:
Yeah, I am a recovering
middle school principal.
(laughter)
What we do at Strong Fathers
- Strong Families is,
I've been working in fatherhood
since I was a middle school
principal and we were trying
to get more parents involved,
like Secretary
Duncan spoke about,
trying to get more folks
involved and, of course,
more fathers involved.
Did our first dad's day in 1999,
and was sitting there telling
dads in the middle school
what happens when they're not
involved, all the stats,
realizing I had --
Bob, thanks, now I'm crying.
I had two kids at home that I
was spending more time raising
other people's kids
than I was my own.
And so I resigned that job,
I went back to teaching.
Some people said
that was heroic,
but I stopped being a
middle school principal,
which is akin to stop hitting
yourself in the head with
a hammer.
(laughter)
So --
Joshua DuBois:
Glad Arne's not here anymore.
Mike Hall:
No.
If I didn't have the world's
greatest job for me,
I would definitely be back.
My beautiful wife is here,
she's a middle school teacher,
and she works with those kids
every day, that have fathers,
that don't have fathers.
And she understands the
work that we're doing.
We've worked with over 110,000
dads face to face in public
schools and Head Starts
in over 30 states.
And it's exactly
like Stacey said.
They're coming out in droves.
For, you know, a short, fat,
white kid in a pasture in Texas
to be bringing in dads,
it's got to be simple.
And we have anywhere from 180
to 400 dads a day coming in to
visit their child's classroom to
observe their child in what I
call their natural habitat and
seeing what great things are
going on, number one, in
American public schools.
And number two, to see the
abilities their kids have and
now that future is
different for them.
And so we speak to these dads
after they visit class about
what did you see and why did
you see it and here's why we're
teaching kids differently,
but also the role of fathers
in education.
'97 report from the Department
of Education said the number one
predictor of student achievement
is father involvement.
And it lends itself -- I'm going
to agree with you twice today,
Stacey, so mark that down.
We see dads all the time.
I work in inner city Fort
Worth, inner city Dallas.
We work in inner
city Los Angeles with
Head Start programs.
And we never have a program
where the dads don't show up.
It doesn't matter
what color it is,
doesn't matter what
language we're using.
You got a red headed guy
speaking Spanish and English,
kind of freaks people out.
But when we invite the
dads, they show up.
At the bottom of our website,
StrongFathers.com --
I just learned that from
Carey Casey how to do that --
but StrongFathers.com --
(laughter)
At the bottom -- I learn
every day, brother.
There's a young man
with his daughter,
his kindergarten daughter.
And his kindergarten daughter
went home and took the flyer
that says "bring your dad to
school day" to her single mom.
And her mom said, I'll go.
And the daughter, after I met
her understood how she said it,
she says, you're not my daddy.
And said, well, fine, call your
daddy, your dad's in Chicago.
This is in Irving, Texas.
He had never been to Texas.
He had met them halfway, or she
had been flown up to see him.
Their kindergarten daughter
gets on the phone and says,
I have a dad's day at my
school, will you come?
And he comes.
Joshua DuBois:
Wow.
Mike Hall:
And day after day, we see dads
coming in to schools from 200,
300 miles away.
We have a program in Montana
called Strong Fathers -
Strong Tribes.
We had a dad that drove 13 hours
from South Dakota to Montana to
be at a Head Start "bring
your dad to school day,"
and we told the dads, in a month
we're going to have a dad and
kid math night.
He said, I'll be back.
That's 26 more hours, you know,
to play cards with your kids for
two hours because we know
he knows it's important.
And so we come from a
strength-based perspective of we
expect the dads to be
there, they never fail us.
The kids invite them.
So if you really want
to know the secret,
when your kid colors a flyer
and knows that they can invite,
they're going to show up.
But, you know, we're working on
that strength because all the
stats we've talked about today,
one that we really need to keep
talking about as a group,
as a group of professionals,
is 100% of the kids in this
country have a father, you know.
I mean, if I need to
explain that, we will.
But it's --
(laughter)
And we all understand, as
many of you do this work,
that not every dad is there.
But every day we go into
a school or Head Start,
I mean without fail, people that
didn't believe anybody would
come will come and tell us you
brought in guys we didn't
know existed.
Because the kids
know where they are.
And even if that child doesn't
bring in their father,
they bring in somebody that
they want to play that role.
And to echo what was said by
John and what was said by
Rollin, was almost every day
that these dads come in and we
say, what did you
see and what --
and they say, what
about these other kids.
And they say, I wish
we had more dads here.
And we tell them, your kid's
in kindergarten, first grade,
second grade.
You're going to be
here again next year.
So is that child that
sits next to your child.
So is that child that's
in your Cub Scout group.
So is that child that needs
to be on your baseball team.
And we have those fathers
on a day-to-day basis.
And so we're working like 10
to 12,000 dads a year in the
schools locally there
in Dallas/Fort Worth
around the state.
But we're in Head Starts
all over the country,
public schools, showing
them how simple this is.
And we have a curriculum.
But it's easy, because if you
reach out and you allow the kids
to reach out to their
dads, we're seeing that.
And it's a great opportunity
for those dads to become the
built-in mentors.
You know, we love it
when pastors come in.
We love it when church
members come in.
We love it when the Rotary and
A5A and everybody comes in to
mentor kids.
I'm a drum-dragging,
tuba-toting,
horn-hauling band dad.
And my kids were drummers, so I
didn't have to go through the
clarinet stage like
Secretary Duncan.
You know, our kids almost ask us
to not be band boosters because
it was so much
stress in our life.
Because it really
wasn't about our kids.
We were glad to be there, they
were glad to get cash from us.
But the kids that I see in the
community now that are 15, 20,
you know, that had us
hand them a sandwich,
had my wife and I both
and other family --
other community members
say, how are you doing?
Why are you hanging
out with him, you know,
or is that your boyfriend?
I can kill him for
you if you would like,
you know what I mean.
(laughter)
I'm a father too, you
know, other folks.
But that's what we're seeing
is this is imperative,
but it's also simple, you know.
And like I said, we're living
proof that this can be done and
we're trying to go around
training folks to bring those
dads in on a regular basis.
And the good part is anybody
that's followed the recipe,
it is working great for them.
Joshua DuBois:
Wonderful.
Thank you so much, Mike.
(applause)
Next we have Dr.
Michelle Foster.
Dr. Foster's organization went
from a medium sized church
ministry to a federal grantee
in just a few short years.
Dr. Foster, we'd love to know a
little bit more about your work.
Michelle Foster:
Yes.
Let me first thank you, Joshua,
for recognizing me and our --
and the KISRA team
with this honor,
and to our federal project
officer, Charles Sutton, who's,
you know, who has been
a great supporter.
He's with the OFA program.
And our fatherhood
program is funded by OFA.
Our work with fathers started
because of our concern
for children.
We were a small church
in West Virginia,
mainly African American church.
And our pastor, who is here
today, Pastor Hallager,
you can wave.
(applause)
He wanted us to be more
than just a church,
more than just having service on
Sundays and Wednesday nights.
He had a passion for really
making a difference in
our community.
So we started off with just an
after school program and really
with volunteers from our
church, working with the kids,
when they themselves
got off work.
And then it grew to the point,
during that time we also did --
we were blessed with funding
from the Safety and Drug Free
Communities Program, to do a
planning study of our community,
see where there were risks and
where there were resources.
And what we discovered was that
65% of the children in our
communities were
headed by single moms.
So there was an absence
of dads in our community.
We also have our personal
examples in our church with moms
who were raising children alone.
So we evolved from just an
after-school program with just
me as a staff person, to now a
team of 70 plus people who are
passionately working
towards making lives better
for children.
We're at the point now where the
fatherhood program is at the
core of what we do and we
provide comprehensive services
to fathers.
We're just not a
fatherhood program.
We've got after
school programming.
We've got a child
development center.
We have economic
empowerment programs.
So a father may come to us and
receive responsible parenting
coaching, he may receive money
management as well as economic
stability, programs like
transitional jobs or vocational
training, which research has
shown can lead to really
steady employment.
He may come for that, but he
may leave with a match savings
account, with a home,
with a business loan,
because of the comprehensive
approach that we have towards
giving children better dads
and strengthening families
as a whole.
So we're really excited
about this work.
We're a church that -- Dr.
Barbara says she wishes that
there were churches stepping up.
We have stepped up big time.
I mean, our first year -- amen.
(applause)
Our first year of really
operating programs in 1998,
the church paid my
salary for the first two,
three or so years.
Pastor Hallager was himself
working with another group.
And he -- they gave him a
stipend of $2,000 a month.
He gave that back into KISRA.
So we -- our church has invested
in our community and we're
really serious about it.
Joshua DuBois:
Thank you so much, Dr. Foster.
(applause)
Some great churches in this room
that aren't just sitting on the
corner, but they're changing
the corner around them.
And this is a wonderful
example of them.
Last, but certainly not least,
we have my dear friend,
Joe Jones.
Joe runs a Center for Urban
Families in Baltimore.
And if you don't
know about CFUF,
I would encourage you to
learn more about them.
Just tremendous comprehensive
programming for low income
families in some of the toughest
neighborhoods in Baltimore.
Joe, we'd love to hear from
you, both in your role at CFUF,
but also with the National
Fatherhood Leaders
Group, as well.
Joe Jones:
Thanks, Josh.
Hello, everybody.
Audience:
Hello.
Joe Jones:
And particularly hello to
those who are looking in live,
or hopefully the folks at
the International Fatherhood
Conference down in Florida.
Big shout out, I
want to, you know,
acknowledge a person who
accompanied me here today,
my board chair,
Mr. David Warnock.
Dave, thank you for being here.
(applause)
I know we've got Stacey here,
but I've got to acknowledge my
colleague from Baltimore,
Julia Hayman-Hamilton also.
Stacey Boucher:
I wanted to do that.
Sorry.
Joe Jones:
Yeah, yeah, okay.
I beat you to the punch.
(laughter)
But I also got some
soldiers here --
another soldier here from
Baltimore, David Miller,
with the Urban
Leadership Institute.
You know --
(laughter)
-- got to give a
shout out to home.
And then for my other colleagues
with the National Fatherhood
Leaders Group, Kirk Harris, who
is here, and Kenny Braswell.
Thank you so much for,
you know, all that we do.
I want to start off, though, by
making a point that goes back to
some of the data that Attorney
General Eric Holder shared with
us in terms of the number of
children with father absent in
the households and the impact
of that on our communities.
There is another group of people
who I would surmise are meeting
while we are meeting.
And those are people who take
that data and they began to
strategize on how to create and
lobby to build more prisons in
our communities relative to
the number of children they
anticipate to be in
those systems, right.
(applause)
If we don't understand that,
simply doing practice, right,
is not going to get us there.
So we've got to figure out
collectively how do we take the
advantage that we
have right now.
And if we work
really, really hard,
we'll have this advantage
for another five years, hint,
hint, reelection.
And I say that because we have
a champion in the White House
right now who has taken this
issue of father presence --
(applause)
-- and uplifted
it to a new level.
It's great when you have
Cabinet secretaries.
We need that.
It's great when you may have the
Vice President talking about it.
It's a different game when the
big guy is talking about this.
And somebody who talked
about it before they got to
the White House.
So in terms of street cred, I
was looking to whether or not
when he got here,
would he keep it up.
And I would submit to you, the
fact that we're here talking
about this issue today is a
validation that he kept his
word, all right.
(applause)
At the Center for
Urban Families,
our tag line is "helping
fathers and families work."
And we really attempt do
this in a number of ways.
And I want to share with you a
couple of examples of how we
approach the work.
But I want to share with you
also how I got to this work and
why it's meaningful to me.
Many of you who know
me know that, you know,
my personal journey was on
the other side of the fence
for a while.
I was a real knucklehead
involved in the insanity of drug
use and I had a son out
of wedlock that I wasn't
responsible for.
And it really bothered
me the whole time --
I started using drugs
when I was 13 --
for 17 years.
And when I had my son, I
wasn't in a position to be a
responsible dad.
And I think that one of the most
profound things that happened to
me was God giving me an
opportunity to turn it around
and to heal my
relationship with my son.
Today where we are in a
man-to-man relationship,
I'm his dad, he's my son.
He calls me too much about those
God durn Baltimore Orioles,
who he loves to death, right,
and thank God this year they're
winning for the first time in
almost 20 years, you know.
And so we really
look forward to that.
But then I met a young lady when
I was in drug treatment who,
you know, she wasn't
associated with the drug game.
She had nothing to do
with the subculture.
As a matter of fact,
as a black woman,
she doesn't even know
how to curse right.
On those rare instances
when she slips up, I'm like,
what did you say, you know?
It just doesn't make sense how
she, you know, she gets upset.
But we -- she has a little
girl that's my stepdaughter.
And then together she and I
have a son who's 20 years old.
He's a junior at the school --
in the School of Engineering at
Morgan State University.
And how this kid,
coming from me,
is in engineering is
beyond me, but he is.
(laughter)
But this, you know, talking
about this complementary
relationship between
moms and dads,
when he was a little guy around
two or three years old and,
you know, he's preparing
to use the potty, you know,
I felt like my responsibility
was to help him learn how to use
the potty.
But, you know, when you're in
training to use the potty,
you make a lot of
mistakes, you know.
And if you're a dad and you've
been potty training your son,
you know what I mean.
And for moms, you usually pick
up the back end and do the
cleanup, because we don't do
a great job of cleaning up.
And I remember I was helping my
son, you know, to figure out,
he's modeling watching me, and
he starts to use the potty,
but then I had
this extended trip.
And when I came back from the
trip and I said, come on, man,
we're going to go
back to the potty,
he goes into the potty
and he sits down, right.
So I'm like all that effort
I put in, when I went away,
my wife reverted back
to the safest thing,
because that was the way she
could prevent him from making
the mess, right.
Well, we had to have some
discussion, and we worked
on it, right?
And I created this one step
stool that allowed my son to
step up one step and be able
to have a better angle to
make the mark.
And when my wife saw him
make the mark, right,
she was very encouraged
that we were working on it
the right way.
And my son looked at me, he
couldn't say much about it,
but he had the sense of
accomplishment that was
associated with he and
I working on pottying.
That's the value of
our work, you know.
(laughter)
So I like to tell that
story, because this is
important, right.
(applause)
Start with the basics, you know.
And at the Center for
Urban Families, again,
our tag line is "helping fathers
and families" where we've got a
great team of folks who are
there who work across programs
from responsible fatherhood
to work force development,
working with couples and
working with our graduates who,
after they graduate from
a particular program,
they're in the space not unlike
when you graduate from college
and you want to
give them a network,
a set of resources to help
them take their game to
another level.
I think we do an excellent job
of helping people who are the
most challenged folks in
Baltimore City, right,
to get to the game of getting
into the labor force, right.
But for the guys that we're
talking about who owe
astronomical amounts
of child support,
who have been involved in
the criminal justice system,
who haven't had great
experiences in the educational
system, getting an
entry level job,
the euphoria associated with
that is only going to last two
to three to four months.
Now, what do we need
to do to move forward.
And when I was hearing Ms.
Foster talk about those
collaborations, we're now into
what we call our second decade.
We have this construct that
we call family stability and
economic success.
It's a blend of helping people
to manage their personal
behavior, to think about the
tools that are necessary to not
fall prey to predatory
lending practices,
but to acquire the
additional skills,
whether through education,
customized training,
or making themselves a very
good employee in an incumbent
position and moving
up the wage scale.
But we can't -- we could never
raise enough resources to do
this in isolation, not
partnering with other folks.
So we've created these
partnerships with --
in Baltimore with the Maryland
Department of Human Resources,
our child support office.
Not only are we
partnering with them,
but I sit on their policy panel
helping them to look at reform
efforts to help us to think
through how do we create
opportunities for guys who owe
arrearages where realistically
they're never, ever going
to be able to pay them off.
It's just not going to happen in
their lifetime given the amount
that they owe of
state-owed debt.
But some of the creative
things that we can do,
and I think that Vicki
Turetsky may talk about later.
But we also have a housing
partner to help us think through
how do we get people
into quality housing,
and particularly rental
housing, that then leads to
home ownership.
We have a housing partner that
we're working with with six of
our families who have moved from
being unemployed, to employed,
who are now being set up to own
homes that we're working with
our lenders on tax credits to
create price points at $100,000
so they can get starter homes to
be able to move from rental to
home ownership.
This is hard, hard work that we
can't do in isolation of having
key critical partners to
work on these efforts.
I mean, the last thing
that I'll say is, you know,
really this notion of
what it means to be a good
dad, you know.
You don't have to be perfect.
I screwed up my first chance
at being a dad, you know.
And so the notion -- and you heard Mike
Strautmanis give his personal testimony
about what's happening
with his autistic son.
These are the real stories.
These are real lives.
This is not make believe.
But unless we can create spaces
where these guys can let go of
the baggage that
they carry around,
because sometimes they
feel so inferior, right.
We've got to let them know it's
okay where you were yesterday.
It's not about what
you did, right,
it's about what you're going
to do, and create the systems,
the strategies and the pathways
to allow them to move forward.
And the last thing I'll say,
particularly for those in the
practitioner community, this
President at some point will not
be in office.
And so the future is not
clear in terms of the next
administration, right, what
we'll hold with respect to
responsible fatherhood.
So right now, we've got to make
sure that the work that we do
that's a part of the
social sciences, right,
is considered valid, right.
So as much as we talk about
evidence-based practice,
and you know, sometimes in the
hood you can't go around talking
about, brother, we going
to do some evidence-based
practice, right?
But we do know that we've got
to make sure that the program
evaluations associated with our
work are considered valued,
and are the kind of things that
justify the investment that the
federal government and the
private sector will make,
and the kind of efforts that we
take to get our children out of
poverty and keep guys involved
in the lives of their children.
Thank you.
Speaker:
Wonderful.
Thank you so much, Joe.
(applause)
Let's give a warm round
of applause for all of
our Champions.
Thank you all so much.
(applause)
Now we've got just
a few more minutes,
and this is a high wire act, but
we're doing something we don't
normally do in the White House.
We normally do panels and we're
doing to do a series of rapid
fire succession of
very, very brief,
two- to three-minute
presentations on some exciting
movements that are happening in
the fatherhood field even now.
And we have to make it tight,
but I think it will be valuable
and we're going to do a
two-minute presentation,
then followed by one or two
questions if folks in the
audience have them.
First, I want to
welcome Kenny Braswell,
and he's going to come up here
and talk about the exciting
movement that's happening with
fatherhood and barbershops.
Right before we came over here,
President Obama had a wonderful
lunch with a couple
sets of folks.
One, he was having lunch
with some military dads.
We have Captain Paulino here.
We heard from Lieutenant Bill,
who got the Military Father of
the Year award.
But he also had lunch with
a couple wonderful barbers,
as well, who also are
military vets themselves.
We have Mr. Mason here.
Mr. Mason runs Mason's
Barbershop for the last 51 years
in Northeast D.C.,
still cutting hair.
(applause)
Mr. Mason.
Big O has been cutting with
him for 45 of those years.
Hey, Big O.
(applause)
And the President sat down
and broke bread and had some
barbecue with them, talking --
kicking off something called
Fatherhood Buzz, which you're
going to hear a minute and a
half from Kenny about right now.
(applause)
Kenny Braswell:
He said three, and then he
went to a minute and a half.
(laughter)
I heard that.
I caught that, Josh.
I want to thank Joshua and
Michael for allowing me to talk
this afternoon.
And so I'm going to say,
I'm going to take 15 seconds
to do this.
I just want to invoke the
name of the New York Giants,
for those of you who have
mentioned all of those names
this afternoon as
the real champions --
(applause)
Okay.
I just wanted to say that,
for my friend, New York.
And also wanted to
thank my lovely wife,
who's here with me and
my children, as well.
(applause)
My son, who helped me understand
this experience last night by
saying to me and my wife,
were you guys at the
Obama's house yet?
And so he's clear
about where we are.
To Lisa Washington,
Thomas, thank you.
Patrick, my right hand man,
and our National Responsible
Fatherhood Clearing
House team, David, Ed,
and others who are in the room.
Thank you so much for your
leadership in this work.
So there's a wonderful buzz
that's taking place around
the country.
It is going to culminate
on Saturday, June 16th,
in 100 barbershops across the
country and that buzz is called
Fatherhood Buzz.
And so what the project is
to really find a way to both
broaden and deepen this work
into our grass roots communities
and our people and our
businesses on the ground.
It is an effort to build the
capacity of our barbers,
our most trusted institutions
in our communities,
those who have been
working, as you know, sir,
been working with men and
talking to boys and seeing boys
grow up right in your
barber chair for years and
years and years.
You are probably the closest to
the ills that are taking place
in our community.
And we wanted to be able to take
this chance to begin to build
the capacity of these barbers
to be productive information
dissemination points for the
communities that they serve in.
By taking all of the folks
who work within the federal
government, the resources that
are in their community and begin
to create relationships with
them so that when these barbers
are talking to the men and the
fathers who are in their chairs,
that they can release to them
information that's going to be
useful for them in being the
best fathers they can be.
Thank you.
Joshua DuBois:
Wonderful.
Thank you so much.
(applause)
We have time for one
follow-up to Kenny.
Pastor Norris, Akron, Ohio,
is doing tremendous work
on fatherhood.
I want to know, how can you
connect the great work that
you're doing in Ohio to the
barbershops that we're working
with around the country?
I'm sorry to call you --
tell us a little bit about
your work there.
Pastor Norris:
Good afternoon.
As Joshua mentioned, my
name is Pastor Norris.
I live in Akron, Ohio.
I'll make this quick.
Former home of Lebron James
and real home of (inaudible).
(laughter)
(inaudible)
We've been able to do something
in our community that's been
rather interesting, since we
found out the significance that
we have to have
in collaborating.
We don't have a
project like that,
which we'll work on
when we get back.
But one thing we were able to
do that we thought was rather
significant was in terms of
getting (inaudible) jobs.
When we did our surveys, jobs,
connection with their children,
and being able to take care of
child support issues were some
of the major issues
that they had.
One thing that we were able to
do was working in conjunction
with our utility companies in
our area, they have the dollars,
and we were able to bring those
together to help our dads give
what we call "green
dads making green."
And so we were able to work in
our communities with our utility
companies to help them with
some of those arrearages.
Another thing that we've been
very proud of that we've been
connected with is with our
children's services in our area.
We're one of the only ones in
the state of Ohio that actually
has a fatherhood office
in children's services,
where now the dads are becoming
a part of that case plan,
where the dads are actually now
becoming the custodial fathers.
We just looked at the numbers
just before I got here,
they stuck them in my hands,
over 495 cases that took place
now within those case plans,
only 62 of them do not have the
fathers involved.
Joshua DuBois:
That's wonderful.
(applause)
Yes.
Just a wonderful example of a
faith community coming together
around this issue.
Let's thank Pastor Norris again.
(applause)
Next, in rapid
succession, you know,
we talk a lot about nonprofit
organizations and indeed about
the private sector, and we're
going to hear from the private
sector at the end.
But there are tremendous -- and
I think there's no other way to
describe them -- but social
innovators within federal
agencies working on this
work every single day.
I see Amy Solomon and Marlene
Beckman back there working on
reentry related issues.
Our dear friends from
HHS, Lisa and others,
who are working on
Fatherhood Buzz.
But we want to call up a few
folks who are really leading
this charge within
federal agencies,
including Diana Zarzuela from
the Domestic Policy Council in
the White House, who has helped
to put together a comprehensive
interagency working group on
fatherhood and a report on all
the work the
administration is doing.
We also have Ron Ashford from
the Department of Housing and
Urban Development.
Hey, Ron, come on up.
(applause)
Who has brought fatherhood to
hundreds of public housing
authorities around the
country for the first time,
really innovative work.
And then finally,
Vicki Turetsky.
Vicki has done just really
life changing work bringing
fatherhood for the first time
to the child support system.
(applause)
So they're going to give two
minutes on their work and then
we're going to close out
with one final presentation.
Come on.
Diana Zarzuela:
Great.
So again, my name
is Diana Zarzuela,
and I'm with the
Domestic Policy Council.
I have the privilege and honor
of working with Joshua and
Michael and the teams behind
them on this important issue of
responsible fatherhood.
And in particular, I co-lead the
Responsible Fatherhood Working
Group, which is an interagency
team of equally dedicated and
passionate public servants
working on this issue every
single day.
And so we could have an entire
auditorium full of public
servants working on this issue.
But also knowing that they need
to do more and that government
needs to do more, with local
actors and partners in the
nonprofit and faith community.
But they're doing that every
single day and they're really
transforming how programs and
services connect with fathers,
support fathers and
children and families.
So really I just want to segue.
These folks, I've been
bugging them a lot.
And we've been working really
hard and they probably want to
hear from me less.
But it's been fun and it's been
such a great four months and I
look forward to spending more
time here and with them.
Joshua DuBois:
Thank you so much, Diana.
She has really lit
a fire under us.
Ron Ashford from HUD.
Talk to us about public
housing authority.
Ron Ashford:
Okay.
I'm a fast talker.
Men in public housing.
The phenomena of men in public
housing is men are all around
public housing,
not on the lease.
If you're not on the
lease, you're not legal.
It's hard to connect to your
family if you're not legal.
It's hard to connect to
services if you're not legal.
So we're walking down this road
and the road that we've looked
at is Father's Day.
So we have 300 housing
authorities all across the
country who are
celebrating Father's Day,
an opportunity to connect with
their children and also reaching
out to our other
federal agencies,
to the Boys and Girls
Club, to the NFL,
to a lot of different
partners to set up resources
for the dads.
We're going from Father's Day
to first day back to school to
community service to the Omegas.
We need everybody to work
with us in the area of
public housing.
I want to salute Alexandria
Housing Authority, who's there.
Baltimore, who's there.
D.C. is over here.
And Montgomery County.
Thank you.
(applause)
Joshua DuBois:
Before Ron started this work,
there were zero public housing
authorities doing a formal
Father's Day event.
And because he has been
an evangelist for this,
now there are 300.
That's truly innovation, Ron.
Thank you so much for the
good work you're doing.
(applause)
Also need to shout out a key
partner with Ron has been the
NFL Players Association have
sent players to support these
public housing events.
And we have Joe Briggs
from the NFLPA here.
Thank you so much, Joe.
(applause)
Vicki Turetsky, talk to us
about father and child support.
Vicki Turetsky:
Thanks, Josh.
I can probably go on and on, so
stop me when I've hit my limit.
So the job of the child support
program, as you all know,
is to make sure that children
receive financial support from
their parents, even
when they live apart.
And I know that we're not
the most popular program
in the room.
But we stand for parental
responsibility and
parental involvement.
Because when families
get child support,
living at the poverty level,
and they get child support,
the child support is 40%
of their family budget.
This is Elaine
Sorensen's research.
And moms contribute 43%
through their earnings.
Dads contribute 40%
through their earnings.
It makes a huge
difference for families.
Child support is more
than money, though.
It -- the research says that
receipt of child support
improves educational outcomes.
Kids stay in school.
They do better in school
when they get child support.
Now child support is probably a
proxy for parental involvement,
for paternal involvement.
And that's the point.
That's the point.
It's money, but it's also
meaningful in the sense of
family relationships.
If you're a mom and you're
getting child support,
you know that you have
someone who has your back,
someone who can step in if
something happens to you.
If you're a dad, you know that
you're doing for your child what
might not have been
available to you as a child.
You know that you're a man.
You know you're taking
care of your child.
And if you're a child and your
dad is paying child support,
you know you have a father
and you know that your father
puts you first.
So Stacey and I agree
about many things.
We've known each
other for a long time.
But look, I was a single parent
before the child support system,
the formal child support
system got underway.
And you know, it's
not all or nothing.
Sometimes my partner, my
former husband, was involved,
and sometimes he wasn't, over
the course of our children
growing up.
When he paid child support, my
son had money for saxophone
lessons at school.
And when he wasn't
paying child support,
my kids wore bread bags
underneath their boots because
they had leaks in them.
It makes a lot of difference.
The money makes a
lot of difference.
But even more, the involvement
makes all the difference.
And that's why we're here.
Dollar for dollar,
child support income --
dollar for dollar, child
support income makes more of a
difference in child outcomes
than any other source of income.
And that's because it's
coming from the other parent,
from the dad.
Now we know in our system that
some fathers struggle to pay
child support, 25 to
30% of our case load.
And so we're doing a
number of things to,
throughout our system,
throughout our state/federal
system, to improve our services
and to be more responsive to
dads in all kinds
of circumstances.
We really are shifting away from
a strict enforcement process to
one that focuses on
early intervention.
And that means setting
realistic child support orders.
That means debt reduction.
That means connecting unemployed
fathers to employment services.
That means making sure that all
the money that's paid is going
to families and not
repaying the welfare system,
as was the past
history of the program.
It means helping parents work
together better and working out
parenting time plans through our
partnerships with the court.
It means federal and state level
partnerships with fatherhood
programs, with work
force programs,
with prisoner reentry
programs, with prisons.
You know, a large number of
child support programs go into
the prisons at the beginning
of incarceration to produce
that order.
They bring their laptop right
with them and they go into the
prisons to deal with the case.
Fathering courts, and health.
Our program serves one in four
kids in this country and one in
two poor kids, and both parents.
So we have an opportunity to
connect those dads as one of the
largest systems that's
touching dads in the country,
to connect them to
health care services,
sometimes for the
first time ever,
through the Affordable Care Act.
So when we think about our role,
we think about the pathways
to services.
We think about the
spaces, as Joe said.
We think about how to
institutionalize services and
have some money flowing.
And when you're looking at
candidates for doing that,
the child support program
presents an opportunity.
Thank you.
Joshua DuBois:
Thank you so much, Vicki.
(applause)
Just tremendous work happening
through her work as Commissioner
of the Office of Child
Support Enforcement.
Our final presentation, and then
we're heading on out of here,
is connecting to
the private sector.
We've heard about
the nonprofit sector,
heard about the
government sector.
But talking about the work that
the private sector is doing to
advance responsible fatherhood.
My dear friend J.R. Kerr.
J.R. has been helping us form
public/private partnerships
around fatherhood.
We have two minutes for you to
share just a bit about some of
those partnerships that
are coming together and to
acknowledge the good work of
Wired Magazine, Starwood Hotels,
Visa, and others who are
stepping up to the plate.
J.R., two minutes for you.
Thank you.
(applause)
J.R. Kerr:
So the beauty to the American
system is that we aren't locked
off doing our own thing, not
integrating the great work of
different sectors.
One of the things that hit me a
couple of years ago as we were
endeavoring to move the social
needle forward was that we have
to affect the economy in
order to effect long-term
sustainable change.
So what we've done is we've
actually approached a number of
different organizations, folks
from Wired Magazine are here.
Maya -- is Maya there?
Maya, could you come
on over here, as well,
and I'm inviting
Laura up -- Lori up.
This is Maya and Lori.
Maya is from Wired Magazine,
welcome her, and Lori.
(applause)
And what we've done is we've
actually approached different
brands and they have actually
created economic offerings.
They've used their platform to
actually affect the way that
fathers experience
themselves as parents.
And so they're going to tell you
a tiny little bit about what
they're doing in
15 seconds or less.
Really fast.
Lori:
That is tiny, okay.
So I'm from Starwood Hotels and
Resorts and we're honored to
support this initiative.
We of course work in the resort
and hotel business and much of
our business is driven
by family vacations.
So as we worked with
J.R. on this initiative,
we realized that there was a
tremendous opportunity to really
talk about what family vacations
mean to strengthening families
and then extending that message
to what involved fathers mean to
strengthening families and how
important that is at every level
in society.
And that at every level,
everybody has something that
they can contribute to
strengthening fatherhood.
So we're excited to be able to
support that message through our
various communication platforms.
We're excited to donate room
nights so that families that may
not have the opportunity to
take vacations can do so.
And we're looking forward to
building on this foundation to
continue to support
this into the future.
Thank you.
(applause)
J.R. Kerr:
And Maya works with Wired
Magazine and has created this
really cool thing
called Geek Dad Day.
Tell them very quickly
about this project.
Maya:
Okay.
Thank you so much
for being here.
I am a mess because I've
been crying throughout all of
your great work.
(laughter)
So I just -- so we
are doing national --
taking over Father's Day
in our own way doing National
Geek Dad Day.
Our editor-in-chief,
Chris Anderson,
has five children of his own,
and he was trying to relate to
them and be a good parent and
they had differing perspectives.
So in the end, he decided he
would try a project that they
both liked, and they built a
robot and the robot shot him in
the back side.
So --
(laughter)
-- anyway, which was the
start of an amazing blog,
and I have with me the managing
editor of that blog, Matthew,
back there, as well.
But we -- so we have over 86,000
people registered to participate
in National Geek Dad Day to
do STEM activities, science,
technology, engineering and math
activities with their children
on Father's Day.
For those of you who don't
know, in the next ten years,
80% of all jobs will
require technology,
science and technology skills.
So while you have plenty on your
plates already as you look at
employment stuff,
science, technology,
engineering and math will
become very important.
As part of this initiative we --
so we are partnering with 13
museums across the country,
you should know this.
There's a sign out there
that has a list of them.
It's also on our website,
Wired.com\GeekDadDay, to have --
who are doing geek dad
activities on those days.
There's a lot of them that
have free entry for fathers
and grandfathers.
But they're also donating
tickets through this initiative.
For the rest of the summer we're
sending out a bunch of these
kits which are like basically
electronic Legos that you can
put together in
simple activities,
and it comes with
little wired activities,
as well as geek dad books,
which is a book of science,
technology, engineering and math
activities that will go to the
public housing programs.
Joshua DuBois:
Wonderful.
Thank you.
(applause)
Thank you so much.
Friends, as you can see, there
is tremendous work happening
around the country, and this
is just the beginning of
the conversation.
Let's continue this
work in the days ahead.
We have everyone, nonprofits,
faith-based organizations,
research firms, federal
agencies, NFL players,
we have Cato, June
and Nolan here,
so thank you so much for the
tremendous work you're doing.
So many folks contributing
to the fatherhood movement.
And the President,
the Attorney General,
the Secretary of Education,
are right there with you.
We are celebrating you
today, this Father's Day,
and every day.
Thank you so much for
being here with us today.
