08.26.2008 -  St. Louis, MO-- After a year of research and planning, the Greater Saint Louis Community Foundation is today awarding $600,000 in grant commitments to launch its new three-year, grant initiative “Fathers - A Missing Piece of the Puzzle”.

“The Fatherhood Initiative represents an important new direction in grantmaking for the Foundation and, we hope, the community we serve.  For the first time in the Foundation’s history, we will dedicate the majority of our discretionary grant dollars to a targeted number of organizations doing work in a concentrated area of community need,” said David R. Luckes, President & Chief Executive Officer. 

The primary goal of the Foundation’s Fatherhood Initiative is to enable and encourage nonresident fathers to play a supportive and nurturing role in the lives of their children.  The Foundation is optimistic that this focused initiative can help fathers fulfill their responsibility to be an asset in the lives of their children by advancing important work already underway and creating additional opportunities to further work in an area of real promise for vulnerable families.

The Foundation’s board of directors approved six agencies from the metropolitan area to participate in the initiative.  These six organizations represent a broad spectrum of program methodologies and strategies to support nonresident fathers and their children.  In addition,

• One serves the Metro East area and one serves West County (west of I-270), thereby augmenting the Foundation’s presence beyond St. Louis City and county;
• One seeks to bring a nationally, recognized model to the St. Louis area and the State of Missouri;
• Two have plans to replicate their programs upon completion of the initiative at other sites operated by the organization; and
• Five of the agencies are seeking to enhance and expand their existing program models, thus strengthening current services to fathers.

Click here for a complete list of grant awards.


Why Fatherhood?
For many years, fathers have consistently been a missing component of the family policy agenda. However, over the last decade, fathers have increasingly become the focus of inspired new approaches to addressing the obstinate set of problems that surround disadvantaged children, in particular those living in low-income, “fragile” families.  This work by community-based organizations, funders, researchers and public servants has shown impressive results.  The profile of fatherhood as a critical issue has been raised within the general public as well as among key decision makers.  Numerous nonprofit organizations have stepped to the forefront in their communities to reach out to fathers and help them become and stay involved with their children.  A national infrastructure has begun to link practitioners, researchers and advocates to leverage their respective work and support the continued development of this promising field of action.

During the last 10 years, father-related programming across the nation has come to play an increasingly important role in addressing the seemingly intractable set of problems that surround the children who call our nation’s most challenged communities home.  The metropolitan St. Louis region is, unfortunately, no exception.

Children with involved, loving fathers are significantly more likely to do well in school, have healthy self-esteem, exhibit empathy and pro-social behavior, and avoid high risk behaviors such as drug use, truancy and criminal activity.

“By focusing on fatherhood, the Foundation hopes to address the root causes as to why fathers are not as engaged in the lives of their children as they’d like to be,” said Albert E. Suter, board chairman. “We also bring critically needed attention to the often invisible and vulnerable families that need our support the most.”

Since 1915, the Saint Louis Community Foundation has been helping St. Louisans put charitable dollars to work addressing the issues most important to them in the communities they care most about.   It is a public charity, 501(c)(3), with more than $60 million in charitable assets that represent more than 280 individual funds.  Each fund represents a unique charitable giving partnership with an individual, family or business.

Fathers - A Missing Piece of the Puzzle
Grant Recipients

EMPLOYMENT CONNECTION was selected to receive a three-year grant award of $108,000 to provide comprehensive employment services, including work adjustment counseling and direct client supports to nonresident fathers. Its mission is to assist individuals who have limited opportunities to attain self-sufficiency through employment.   

The program begins with employment readiness training, job acquisition and retention skills such as learning how to fill out an application and dress for an interview (suitable clothing is supplied, if needed), interviewing skills, developing a resume, conducting a job search, and responding appropriately to difficult interview questions, etc.  Participants also attend workshops on topics such as coping with stress in the workplace and work ethics.  Helping fathers maintain employment will allow them to more readily advance in their careers, begin to actively support the costs of raising their children, and help them become better able to fully participate in the lives of their children.  The increased economic stability will also allow the men to become better fathers by participating in programs provided by other agencies that address the fathers’ social competencies and relationship/communication skills.

FATHERS’ SUPPORT CENTER (FSC) was selected to receive a three-year grant award of $110,000 to support its Family Development and Socialization program that strives to help nonresident fathers become emotionally involved parents and develop the skills and behaviors that will foster the well being of their child(ren). The first organization of its kind in the State of Missouri, FSC improves children’s lives, strengthens families and impacts communities by providing programs that effectively connect parent(s) and children. 

This program provides personal development, communication and relationship building skills which allow fathers to work with their child(ren), the mother of their child(ren), and their community.   Participants learn effective parenting skills, conflict resolution and child abuse prevention techniques, as well as participate in father/child bonding activities.  A key component of the program is the planned father/child bonding activities where fathers are able to bond with their child(ren) in a well-monitored environment.   In addition, FSC will work with both parents to establish a supportive, cooperative interdependent relationship aimed at optimal child development, regardless of the character of the parents’ personal relationship.

LUTHERAN CHILD AND FAMILY SERVICES OF ILLINOIS (LCFS) was selected to receive a three-year grant award of $105,000 to increase its focus on improving the ability of nonresident fathers to support and nurture their children.   It strives to improve the well being of families, individuals, congregations and communities.

Through the Fathers’ Center, the fathers will receive an employment assessment of their  health, social and behavioral attributes that affect employability, level of functioning, employment history including experience and training, skills and aptitudes, personal interests, preferences and goals.  An individual service plan will then be developed, based on the assessment and the individual’s own goals, both long and short-term. A quality resume is developed after which the individuals attend an employment workshop.

Individual counseling sessions are also provided in line with the service plan.  Upon securing employment, the Fathers’ Center maintains a supportive role, available to the participant and the employer for problem resolution.

NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSES was selected to receive a three-year grant award of $75,000 to facilitate the start-up of a nationally recognized program model called Meld.   Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Meld’s mission is to enhance the capacity of those who parent to raise nurtured, competent children. The U.S. Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and the Department of Substance Abuse Prevention named Meld “A Model Program to Strengthen Families,” in 2000. 

Using the Meld curricula, Neighborhood Houses will begin its Connecting Fathers and Children program at Caroline Mission (its South St. Louis site).  The program will strive to provide non-custodial, low-income fathers with the necessary social competencies and to facilitate any needed behavior changes to enable them to become responsible fathers.  Fathers will receive pre-program self-assessments that will measure their involvement with their child and identify barriers to involvement.  A support component will provide dads with an opportunity to discuss issues that they believe are keeping them from being responsible and involved fathers.  Personal development will assist with accepting personal responsibility, improving communication skills, anger/stress management, setting values and goals.   At the end of each program year, fathers who have successfully completed the first year will be eligible to return to the program as mentors and peer facilitators. The organization anticipates replicating the program at its other three centers beginning in year three of this initiative.

Neighborhood Houses is a neighborhood-centered, faith based organization that supports St. Louis families by helping children become hopeful, healthy, and self-sustaining members of the community. 

ST. LOUIS PUBLIC SCHOOLS PARENTING PARTNERSHIP  was selected to receive a three-year grant award of $105,000 to support  an initiative that will serve as an extension and broadening of their Fathers Forums outreach program that currently operates within the St. Louis Public Schools Parenting Partnership.  This new component will offer fatherhood support services and programming in five middle schools based on their consistent involvement with the Parenting Partnership and their strong administrative emphasis on family outreach and support.  The selected sites are Humboldt, Stevens, Williams, Long and Langston Middle Schools.

The Partnership will work with the same group of fathers and their children for three years.  Fathers who have children in the seventh grade will be recruited for the program; work with these fathers and their children will continue through the youths’ first year in high school.  Five teams of 50 fathers and their children, one team from each school, will work with staff in an effort to build skills and address individualized student needs.

Fathers and their children will also be matched with a mentor or support family during the three-year period. Support will be provided at each school to expand the potential for site-based program growth.  Training will cover topics such as parenting, decision-making, communication and life skills, time and anger management leadership training, conflict resolution, personal development; relationship building skills self-respect, projecting a positive self-image and preparing for high school and college.

The St. Louis Public Schools currently serve more than 40,000 students in 112 elementary, middle and high schools.

YOUTH IN NEED was selected to receive a three-year grant award of  $97,000 to provide opportunities and support to nonresident fathers whose children are enrolled in the agency’s Head Start and Early Head Start programs, so they can reach their full potential both as a father and an individual.

The program will provide meetings both with and without their child to give opportunities for leadership, training, and recreation activities; provide literacy classes where fathers learn how to read as well as read to their children; provide volunteer opportunities in the classrooms and socialization centers where dads can read and participate in meaningful activities with their children; provide a special event every year - planned by fathers - to have a fun-filled day for themselves and their children; provide counseling to fathers to help them develop a healthy parenting relationship; and provide training sessions to fathers on various parenting topics.

Its mission is to strengthen children, youth and families so they can grow and develop in safe, nurturing, healthy environments. This reflects the agency’s belief in the strength and potential of every child and family by providing a continuum of care. That belief in the strength and potential of every child and family is incorporated into all programs.

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