The Arkansas Fatherhood and Family Initiative: Fathers Engaged and Empowered to Learn (FEEL), a new program of Arkansas Head Start Association, is in the process of developing programs and services to assist fathers in living up to their crucial responsibilities.

“There is a need for fathers in the state of Arkansas,” says Dedric Davis, chairman of the task force behind the effort. “What we’re trying to do with FEEL is first address absentee fatherhood as far as being in the classrooms, spending time with your child, reading with your child, walking with your child. A lot of fathers think they need money to raise their kids, but they don’t. It’s just time and effort.”

The actions of an involved father dramatically impacts children’s lives in just about every category. From teen pregnancy and incarceration to childhood obesity and poverty, children who grow up with a present, engaged father stand a much better chance of developing healthy habits and positive outcomes than those who don’t.

Davis, a father of one, is uniquely qualified to lead the initiative during its formative stages. A preschool teacher, fatherhood engagement and parent engagement coordinator for Mississippi County Arkansas Economic Opportunity Commission (MCAEOC) in Blytheville, he sees firsthand how hungry many children are for a consistent male role model in their lives.

“Just going through the school building, with me being a teacher, a lot of kids call me Mr. Daddy. That touches me,” he says. “When I go into the classroom I’m probably the only man that they see during the day. When it comes to school, it’s nothing but women most of the time and when they go home they either see a grandmother or mother or maybe the babysitter. Dad is really nowhere around, he’s working or he’s really not in the family at all.”

Davis doesn’t have to try very hard to put himself in his students’ shoes. Raised largely by his grandmother, he went through many of the same struggles growing up and when his daughter was born, shared similar obstacles as those faced by fathers today. Truth be told, he could have very easily been one of the men he now hopes to help through FEEL.

“I see myself in some of those kids. I grew up without a father, I grew up without a mother at a certain point in my life,” he says. “When I get to school in the morning and get to class I look at some of those kids and I see the innocence in them. I see myself. It makes me want to work hard and do more for those kids.”

Davis says it is important to keep in mind the universal nature of the problem of absentee fathers. Thought often portrayed as an issue only within certain communities or segments of society, the problem cuts across racial, religious and economic lines. Even in two-parent households, children can be left wanting for a father’s attention and involvement.

“With families who have money, parents will go and buy a new Xbox or Playstation or Nintendo and they’ll tell the kids, ‘Well, I bought you what you need, what else do you want from me?’ They use it to replace spending time with their kids,” he says.

Formed in February of this year, FEEL recently landed $30,000 in funding through the state’s General Improvement Fund. The group is currently in an information-gathering phase to help determine the greatest areas of need in the state and is encouraging the public to weigh in via a survey available through their Facebook page. The survey will be live through Nov. 1, the date of the group’s first major activity. The Arkansas in Support of Fathers march and rally is planned for that day, starting at 11 a.m. at Capitol and Chester Streets in downtown Little Rock and proceeding to the steps of the State Capitol.

As they determine the needs of the community, FEEL is already spotlighting certain issues and hoping to offer programs, such as literacy courses, job training, and individual or group mentoring of parenting skills.

“We figured out a lot of our fathers out there are embarrassed about not being able to read, not being able to write,” Davis says. “I’ve interacted with a lot of men who are intimidated by some of the other men who have success, so when it comes to asking for help, they don’t ask, they’re like, ‘Well I’m not worried about it. I don’t need that.’

“It’s not just a thing for low-income or middle-income fathers; it’s all the fathers in Arkansas and across the United States, period. We’re struggling, our kids are struggling. We all need help sometimes and the only way to get help is to put it on the table and figure out how we’re going to get it done collectively.”

Arkansas in Support of Fathers March and Rally
When: November 1, 11 am
Where: A march will begin at Capitol and Chester streets in Little Rock and end at the State Capitol Building where the rally will be held.

Fatherhood by the Numbers

Nationwide, 24 million American children grow up without their father in the home and this lack of a solid father-child relationship has an enormous impact on individual’s’ long-term health and well-being. Jackie Govan, director of Arkansas Head Start, says the organization’s research uncovered some sobering statistics that served as the foundation for the effort to establish FEEL.

Children who are raised in father-absent homes are:

  • Seven times more likely to become pregnant as a teen
  • Four times more likely to live in poverty
  • Two times more likely to suffer obesity or drop out of school, and have twice the rate of infant mortality
  • One in five inmates grew up with a father in prison

What’s more, Govan says, engaged fathers can help head off behavior problems including risky and anti-social behavior, particularly in boys. And, research shows strong father-child relationships lead to a young person developing healthy peer group relationships and higher academic achievement.