Having an engaged and supportive father in their life has lasting benefits for children. Studies have shown that children with involved fathers are less likely to get into trouble at home, school, or in the neighborhood. An active and nurturing style of fathering is associated with better verbal skills for infants, greater patience for toddlers, and better intellectual functioning and academic achievement among adolescents. Children with involved fathers are more likely to exhibit self-control and pro-social behavior.

For non-custodial fathers and those facing challenges in their own lives, providing the kind of support and forming the kind of relationships that will provide a positive influence in the lives of their children is not always easy. Strained relationships with custodial parents, past family issues, and various challenges in their own lives can lead fathers to disengage or engage in a way that is not beneficial to children or families.

Rising Ground’s Fatherhood Initiative works with non-custodial fathers to improve relationships with their children and to enhance their children’s development through programs that encourage fathers to become personally involved with their children and relate to their co-parents. This free 3-month program helps fathers to obtain greater insights on parenting while also providing programs focused on various life skills that might impact their relationships with their children.

We help fathers develop greater parenting skills while also understanding and addressing the circumstances facing non-custodial fathers as we work with them to establish positive, healthy, supportive relationships with their children. Some of the challenges that are addressed may include past trauma and past family struggles that are being repeated; difficult relationships with a child’s co-parent; and surmounting challenges such as unemployment, financial hardship, homelessness, and incarceration.

The Fatherhood Initiative includes workshops twice a week, one-to-one mentoring services, credit repair workshops, co-parenting workshops, employment assistance, free monthly family activities, and domestic abuse intervention classes. By bringing fathers together, we look to share insights and struggles and take a holistic approach to improving the father and child’s relationship and experience for those we support.