Male Involvement

At Bear River Head Start we recognize the importance of both parents being actively involved in all parts of their children’s lives. That is why we have the Fatherhood Initiative or Male Involvement piece in our Program. Male Involvement has been a part of Bear River Head Start since 1994. We do different activities throughout the school year and really focus on getting fathers involved in the education component of their children’s lives. We also do Skill Classes to help dads just be better dads. Some of the big events of the year are “Night out with Dad”, end of the year activities and breakfast for dads and kids.

The “Top Ten Father Facts” below show why we want fathers to be involved in their children’s lives.

1.	24 million children (34 percent) live absent their biological father.
2.	Nearly 20 million children (27 percent) live in single-parent homes.
3.	1.35 million births (33 percent of all births) in 2000 occurred out of wedlock.
4.	43 percent of first marriages dissolve within 15 years; about 60 percent of divorcing couples have children; and approximately 1 million children each year experience the divorce of their parents.
5.	Over 3.3 million children live with an unmarried parent and the parent's cohabiting partner. The number of cohabiting couples with children has nearly doubled since 1990, from 891,000 to 1.7 million today.
6.	Fathers who live with their children are more likely to have a close, enduring relationship with their children than those who do not. The best predictor of father presence is marital status. Compared to children born within marriage, children born to cohabiting parents are three times as likely to experience father absence, and children born to unmarried, non-cohabiting parents are four times as likely to live in a father-absent home.
7.	About 40 percent of children in father-absent homes have not seen their father at all during the past year; 26 percent of absent fathers live in a different state than their children; and 50 percent of children living absent their father have never set foot in their father's home.
8.	Children who live absent their biological fathers are, on average, at least two to three times more likely to be poor, to use drugs, to experience educational, health, emotional, and behavioral problems, to be victims of child abuse, and to engage in criminal behavior than their peers who live with their married, biological (or adoptive) parents.
9.	From 1960 to 1995, the proportion of children living in single-parent homes tripled, from 9 percent to 27 percent, and the proportion of children living with married parents declined. However, from 1995 to 2000, the proportion of children living with two married parents remained stable.
10.	Children with involved, loving father 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 compared to children who have uninvolved fathers.

The above list was taken from www.fatherhhood.org the National Fatherhood Initiative home page.