Die Rolle der Väter in der Familie stärken
Erstellt von Hans-Georg Nelles am Montag 27. Dezember 2010
Über ein interessantes Projekt berichtet die Kanzlei Scott David Stewart aus Arizona in Ihrem Blog. Es geht darum, Männer in ihrer Rolle als Väter zu stärken, in ihrem eigenen Interesse, aber vor allem zum Wohle ihrer Kinder. Ein spannender Ansatz, insbesondere vor dem Hintergrund der hierzulande geführten Debatte um das Kindeswohl im Rahmen eines gemeinsamen Sorgerechts.
„I encourage guys to go out there and get involved, to make better lives for themselves,“ says one Arizona father whose involvement in a Pima County program has reportedly changed his life and made him take paternity seriously. And if the goals of the Engaging Fathers program are being met, then not only has the father improved his own life, but that improvement will serve the best interest of his child as well.
Engaging Fathers is a family law program that reportedly works through the collaboration of different entities like: Pima County Superior Court, Arizona Child Protective Services, Arizona Division of Child Support Enforcement and more.
The program addresses fathers who need help creating and sustaining lives that can support their children, both financially and emotionally. Child support payments are obviously important for children to get the things they need for everyday life, but the personal and emotional aspects that a father can add to a child’s life are equally important.
An Arizona Child Protective Services (CPS) representative confirms that point: „Children do better in school and are less likely to be involved in the criminal justice system or use drugs if their father is active in their life.“
Called Engaging Fathers, the family program seeks to help and inspire fathers and not track down and badger them to support their children. In many cases, according to the Arizona Daily Star, fathers never know that they have children out there. Otherwise, many fathers are simply not in a position to offer any healthy support to their family. The program doesn’t target wallets but the deficiencies among the fathers that keep them from contributing to their children’s lives.
What reportedly makes Engaging Fathers promising is that the above-mentioned entities work together on each family law case. That collaboration allows all who are working each individual case the ability to get a clearer and more thorough understanding about a family’s situation. It’s not an adversarial environment surrounding the family, and all parties work together to identify what’s best for the situation at hand, taking into consideration the father, mother and children involved.
„I’ve got a car now. I pay insurance on my car. There’s food in my refrigerator, and these are things I never had before. These are things I used to have to steal or hustle for,“ reports the Arizona father we discussed earlier. It sounds like Engaging Fathers has turned the 29-year-old father’s life around and helped create a reality that he and his young daughter can be proud of.
