Fathers Incorporated Receives $5M Grant to Provide Direct Fatherhood Services in Atlanta

ATLANTA - Oct. 9, 2020 - PRLog -- Fathers Incorporated has received a $5M grant to provide Responsible Fatherhood Services in Metro Atlanta from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (Office of Family Assistance). CEO, Kenneth Braswell has appointed Javin Foreman to serve as the Project Director. The grant will be operated through Fathers Incorporated's (FI) Gentle Warriors Academy (GWA).

GWA is designed to help adult fathers ages 18 and older incorporate practices and behaviors for managing the responsibilities of being parents/co-parents and partners through responsible parenting, healthy marriage/relationships, economic stability activities, and grant-funded participation through a 40-hr/6-week cohort-based approach.

These core areas are reinforced through GWA's coordinated case management process and wrap-around services, which is tailored to help address obstacles that fathers and their families face on their journeys to attaining and maintaining healthy parental and partner relationships as well as program completion.

 "Fathers Incorporated has been serving fathers nationally for over 16 years, we are excited to bring our national expertise in the field of responsible fatherhood to serve fathers and their families in Metro Atlanta," shares CEO Kenneth Braswell.

The lack of father involvement is strongly correlated with poverty, poor school performance, and risky behaviors. Research shows children with father involvement are more likely to perform better in school, are more emotionally secure, and more likely to exhibit positive social behaviors. Additionally, children who grow up in single-parent families, often do not have comparable socioeconomic resources available to them as children who grow up in two-parent families.

Many fathers who enroll in the GWA will likely be receiving or eligible for TANF and other forms of public assistance, are struggling to meet their child support obligations and single parents with dependent children (custodial and non-custodial). Furthermore, the recent impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will have likely exacerbated any previously existing issues or barriers connected to marriage/relationships, responsible parenting, and/or economic stability.

Javin Foreman, the Project Director adds, "While national conversations are taking place about lots of issues - this grant provides a major opportunity to impact one of the most underserved populations in the nation, and certainly Atlanta. This cohort of fathers are often seen as the problem and sadly not explored as part of the solution for a myriad of societal issues."

The GWA program will target fathers living in disadvantaged areas who are aged 18 and over with children ages 24 and under who reside in Metro Atlanta. As a result of the pandemic, the delivery of direct services will not begin until March 2021.

For more information on the work of Fathers Incorporated visit http://www.fathersincorporated.com.