The Children’s Cabinet recently hosted an event at John Jay College that brought hundreds of parents, policymakers, and scholars together to celebrate the mayor’s expansion of the Fatherhood Initiative in New York City.
The primary goal was to discuss the city’s plan to assist fathers for the future. The Children’s Cabinet said the Fatherhood Initiative program is doubling the number of fathers served through the Department of Youth & Community Development (DYCD) from 1,500 to 3,000. The initiative is aimed at increasing non-custodial fathers’ involvement in their children’s lives by providing counseling, case management assistance, father-to-father mentoring, employment and education referrals, child support, and child visitation services.
The measure follows Eric Adams’s promise at the fourth State of the City Address, to make New York City “the best place to raise a family.” Adams opened the event early in the morning and was welcomed to the stage by Ana Almanzar, deputy mayor for strategic initiatives, where he shared his experience with the crowd.
The mayor recalled that his father “was in and out of our lives,” explaining how men in his family struggled, generation after generation, to keep up with their father roles. “What I saw my dad do, I saw my grandfather do, and probably his great-grandfather.”
Adams described welcoming his son Jordan into the world. “Those beginning years were crucial,” he said. While he is actively present in his son’s life nowadays, balancing fatherhood and work was a challenge: “[Jordan] says, ‘Dad, I understand what you attempted to do; now I understand even more of what you attempted to do,’ but the reality was I was invested in other children and didn’t invest in my child. And it hurts, you know. We must come up with a blueprint of how to balance the two.”
Adams welcomed Richard R. Buery, CEO of Robin Hood, an organization committed to fighting poverty and partnering with New York City’s government to provide better opportunities, serving as “an engine of upward mobility for all.”
Buery said “the leadership of the Adams’s administration” is in the fight to get fathers personally involved in their children’s lives and commended the expansion of the Fatherhood Initiative, “We are here because we share a vision that New York City can be the best city in the world to raise healthy, educated children,” he said.
Buery told AmNews, “Fundamentally, we know that when parents are involved in their children’s lives, children have better outcomes across the board. They are more likely to have positive outcomes like school success and they are less likely to have negative outcomes such as suicide, homelessness, or criminal involvement.”
Buery reiterated the importance of assisting fathers with prior involvement in the criminal justice system.“Fathers are essential,” he said “The challenge too often is that as policymakers, we create rules and policies that stand in the way of parents trying to be there for their kids.”
Jesus Lopez, an alum of the Fatherhood Initiative, told the AmNews about finding community in the program. “I believe that the Fatherhood Initiative has helped me give back to other fathers,” he said. He received assistance when he needed it the most: “I was mandated by the court when I went for visitation to my daughter.” He discussed growing up in the system from the age of 7 and how he refused to let his daughter go through the same experience. “I didn’t want that generational curse to be brought on her.”
Lopez is now seeking full custody of his 8-year-old daughter. “I already had a dream and aspiration to be a full-time dad, to get full custody of my daughter.” He attributes his success to the Fatherhood Initiative. “There is a whole bunch of support behind her.”