AUSTIN When the first annual conference of the Texas Initiative for the Involvement of Fathers in Education meets this weekend in Austin, Dr. Stephen D. Green, assistant professor and child development specialist with the Texas Agricultural Extension Service, will be on hand to give a presentation on Extension’s role in promoting responsible fathering throughout the state.
“Basically, I want to educate people about the Texas Agricultural Extension Service and what we do in the area of fathering,” Green said. “My goal is to provide the public with information concerning the fathering resources we have to offer.”
Many of the programs offered by the Extension Service, Green said, are based on information from the Texas Community Futures Forum, which brought citizens in Texas towns together to determine what their communities needed most.
“One of the most common needs was the importance of strengthening families,” he said.
“There are about 24 million children in the United States living in father-absent homes. About four out of every 10 children will go to bed tonight without their fathers in the home.”
In order to help strengthen families all over the state, the Extension Service established such programs as Reaching Out to Fathers, which offers training for those who work with families. This series focuses on training participants on three established curricula: “The Seven Secrets of Effective Fathering;” “It’s My Child Too,” and “Achieve!” a video-based program.
The agency also offers several workshops geared to fathers, including “Fathers Teaching Character,” in which young dads are taught what it means to be a responsible parent.
“If you’re going to teach your children to have good character,” Green said, “then you need to have good character yourself.”
Other Extension workshops focus on communication and discipline, building self-esteem, “Keys to Successful Fathering” and “Ages and Stages of Child Development,” he added.
His goal for the conference this weekend, Green said, is to “contribute to the process (of teaching) the importance of responsible and involved fathering. I think we’re well equipped in Extension to address the problem of father absence.”
To that end, he hopes to not only spread the word at the coming conference, but to work with other agencies throughout the state and the country.
“We need to collabaorate if we’re going to solve the problem of father absence,” Green said. “We have to work together.”
In addition to Green, other speakers at the conference – which is hosted by Center for Successful Fathering in Austin – will include: Michael Gurian, therapist, educator and author of “The Wonder of Boys;” Leonard Pitts Jr., nationally-syndicated columnist and author of “Becoming Dad” and “Black Men and the Journey to Fatherhood;” Earl Maxwell, leading partner of the Austin accounting/consulting firm Maxwell Locke & Ritter LLP and author of “Service, Prosperity and Sanity,” and Ron Klinger, founder and president of Center for Successful Fathering.
Johnnie Johnson, former All-Pro with the Los Angeles Rams and now president of Performance Research International, will present two workshops based on Pathways for Youth program.
The conference, which will be at John H. Reagan High School in Austin, will open with a pre-conference Fatherhood Forum 7:30-9:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 1. Speakers and workshops are planned for 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 2, and 8:30 a.m.-noon Sunday Dec. 3.
Conference wrap-up will be on “How Will We Have a Positive Impact on the Status of Fathers and Their Children During the Next 12 Months?”
Up to 1,000 or more educators, professionals, parents both mothers and fathers mentors, civic leaders and elected officials, and representatives of many community organizations, churches, parent organizations and youth agencies are expected to attend.
Workshops will cover such topics as developing skills and awareness; parenting styles; child development; literacy; volunteer service; communication; fathers’ rights; models and ideas for educators to use when working with fathers and their families; research; assessment of issues and experience to use when promoting father-friendly schools, communities, workplaces and public policy.
-30-