{"id":12593,"date":"2024-06-20T14:50:11","date_gmt":"2024-06-20T14:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=12593"},"modified":"2024-06-20T14:50:11","modified_gmt":"2024-06-20T14:50:11","slug":"coalition-celebrate-fathers-hosts-discussion-about-urban-fathers-and-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/20\/coalition-celebrate-fathers-hosts-discussion-about-urban-fathers-and-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"Coalition Celebrate Fathers, Hosts Discussion about Urban Fathers and Violence"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mike and Avis Files, center, and the Brothers United team<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tricia Hall<\/strong><\/em>
\nThe Truth Reporter<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The Lucas County Fatherhood Coalition presented a week to celebrate fathers, titled \u201cFatherhood Fire, Igniting the Change.\u201d The fatherhood week began on June 10 and concluded on June 15.<\/p>\n

One of the activities was a discussion that centered around urban fathers and violence in the community. The discussion was facilitated by James Starks II, local news anchor of 13abc, and featured eight local fathers at various stages of life.<\/p>\n

The discussion was held on Wednesday, June 12, at Mott Branch Library.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you and welcome,\u201d said Avis Files, Pathway, Inc. director of Family and Supportive Services and Coalition chairperson. \u201cThe coalition is here to serve the community in a way that is different. We wanted to hear from fathers today. I thank the panel and James for their time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Panel – Pastor Williams Foster, Terry Crosby, Victor Coleman, facilitator James Starks II, Demarco Peacock, Eric Daniels, Devonne Fagan, Eduardo Adams, Eric Williams<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The panelists began the discussion by providing one word to describe either being a father or fatherhood, while sharing life experiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was raised by my aunt and don\u2019t want my children to be raised the same way,\u201d said Demarco Peacock. \u201cI want to communicate with my children and to be there for my children.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father was every other weekend father,\u201d shared Pastor William Foster. \u201cI felt unprotected but was raised with my step father and mother. I want my son to feel protected and not to operate in a space of trauma. I want to prepare him to be a father and husband.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a great father who was home every night,\u201d said Eric Williams. \u201cHe was there for all 11 of us. I give my kids the resources to deal with life and we have open conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was fortunate to be raised with my mom and dad,\u201d said Terry Crosby. \u201cWhen that happens it is impactful. Both parents need to be responsible. It was not just my parents but a village there for me. I feel the village is missing today. Even if we impact one person, collectively the village impact, we need to bring that resource back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy to blame the black man when he\u2019s not in the home,\u201d said Eduardo Adams. \u201cMy father wasn\u2019t in the home and I turned out okay. It\u2019s not just about being absent in the home, because that doesn\u2019t mean that he\u2019s absent.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Eric Daniels, center, with Mom’s House staff<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe need to keep being positive because impact won\u2019t occur overnight,\u201d shared Eric Daniels. \u201cWe can\u2019t save the world, but we can do our part.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we look at the prison numbers, you can\u2019t show me where 60-70 percent of crimes are committed by Black people. Once they are sentenced, more time is spent away from their kids at a higher rate,\u201d noted Devonne Fagan. \u201cWe need the village. It takes a lot and I\u2019m going to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to create safe spaces for our brothers, we are not enemies,\u201d said Victor Colman. \u201cWe\u2019re afraid to soften up because the streets have taught us to toughen up. I know there\u2019s two brothers on this panel that were impacted by violence and I should have reached out to them and checked on them. They are my brothers. Even though I wasn\u2019t affected, he was and I should have taken a pause from the grind to check on my brother. I shouldn\u2019t wait until someone is on a T-shirt to say that I love them.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the panel discussion, the week opened with a press conference on June 10, continued with a conversation with Lucas County Child Support and Ohio Means Jobs, discussion about health and mental health, community-wide fatherhood conference, fathers and family day at Port Lawrence and concluded with a health fair in collaboration with Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.<\/p>\n

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Panel and audience<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tricia Hall The Truth Reporter The Lucas County Fatherhood Coalition presented a week to celebrate fathers, titled \u201cFatherhood Fire, Igniting the Change.\u201d The fatherhood week began on June 10 and concluded on June 15. One of the activities was a discussion that centered around urban fathers and violence in the community. The discussion was facilitated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,17],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[235],"class_list":["post-12593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headline","category-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12593"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12598,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12593\/revisions\/12598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12593"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=12593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}