Making Fathers Count

Ralph Smith remembers the early days at the Philadelphia Children’s Network, “Folks literally laughed out loud when we said we would focus on fathers. In that era of ‘deadbeat dads’ neither the men themselves nor their issues were deemed worthy of time or attention. Things have changed in the past decade.”

In August 1993, a group of prominent thinkers with Republican connections… gathered to discuss family breakdown. “… the growing absence of fathers was the most consequential trend in the culture —for families and for civil society...” To help reverse the trend, (Don) Eberly and (Wade) Horn founded the National Fatherhood Initiative (NFI).

In 2002, the field faces serious and unresolved questions about how to deal with such basic issues as domestic violence and gender equity. And on a fundamental level, proposed government support for fatherhood activities raises core questions about whether—and how—government should become involved in the lives of families.

In an era of increasing public demand for measurable outcomes, no large scale responsible fatherhood demonstration has shown conclusive evidence that it improves the lives of children whose fathers have participated.