Graduation of 40 Black Dads – Gentle Warriors Academy

Fathers Incorporated host 2^nd Graduation of 40 Black Dads on 26^th Anniversary of the Million Man March in Metro Atlanta

NBA All-Star Veteran and NBA TV Analyst Dennis Scott to served as Keynote Speaker

ATLANTA (October 16, 2021)— Since April 2021, Fathers Incorporated (FI) has touched over 800 dads in Metro Atlanta, seeking responsible fatherhood services. October 16^th marked the 2^nd in-person celebration of Metro Atlanta dads completing 90% of the agency’s 40-hour fatherhood and life skills curriculums. The graduation will took place at Pittsburgh Yards in Atlanta.

Fathers Incorporated received a $5M grant in October of 2020 to provide Responsible Fatherhood Services in Metro Atlanta from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (Office of Family Assistance) through its Gentle Warriors Academy (GWA). Fathers Incorporated designed GWA 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 are tailored to help address obstacles that fathers and their families face on their journeys to attaining and maintaining healthy parental and partner relationships and program completion.

 “Fathers Incorporated has been serving fathers nationally for over 17 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. “We are excited to have NBA Veteran Dennis Scott serve as our Keynote Speaker. Scott serves as an ambassador of our #FatherhoodIsBrotherhood campaign. He has been a great support of our work and continues to inspire our goals of strengthening families one father at a time,” adds 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 are more likely to exhibit positive social behaviors. Additionally, children who grow up in single-parent families, which are more likely to be female-led, often do not have comparable socioeconomic resources available to them as children who grow up in two-parent families.

“As the Board Chair, Pastor, Father, Husband and formerly incarcerated Black Man, it was programs like this that gave me the tools to reach my highest potential. Also, how cool and significant is it to have this celebration of mostly Black Dads take place on the 26^th Anniversary of the Million Man March,” says Bishop Darren Ferguson, Board Chair of Fathers Incorporated.

Many fathers who enroll in the GWA will likely be struggling to meet their child support obligations and are single parents with dependent children (custodial and non-custodial). Furthermore, the recent impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing issues or barriers connected to marriage/relationships, responsible parenting, and 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 is often seen as the problem and sadly not explored as part of the solution for many societal issues.”

The GWA program targets fathers living in disadvantaged areas who are aged 18 and over with children ages 24 and under who reside in the following Metro Atlanta counties: Fulton County, DeKalb County, Gwinnett County, Cobb County, Clayton County, Henry County, and Rockdale County.