Promoting Positive Connections for Parents

The Children's Bureau, within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has estblished May as the  National Foster Care Month 2016

There are also resources available for helping foster parents and caregivers promote healthy connections with families. View our collection of real-life stories that provide first-person accounts of making successful, permanent connections. In addition, access the new Authentic Voices Videos section, a collection of videos that shares the stories of foster and adoptive parents, children, youth, and child welfare professionals, lending insight into issues of belonging, connection, development, and normalcy for children and youth in out-of-home care.

Visit the 2016 National Foster Care Month website today, and let us know your thoughts by taking our survey! For more information, contact Child Welfare Information Gateway at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 1.800.394.3366.

SAN DIEGO LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE

“Leadership is the capacity to influence others through inspiration motivated by passion, generated by vision, produced by a conviction, ignited by a purpose.” - Myles Munroe
July 28th and 29th
Early Registration Rate Starting at $125.00
One Day Only at $75.00

It is hard to grow in dry places. The ability to thrive in climates that go against growth is an amazing attribute of a leader. When you join us in San Diego, the planned program is not a training it is another level! Fathers & Families Coalition of America has been fortunate to work with so many different talented individuals to provide programs from tribal nations in Alaska to an attendee who flew from Japan and a couple from Australia. Unequivocally, this is going to be the deepest transformational event we have ever hosted over the past 18 years!

Front line services to children and families must be educated, trained, supported, and developed professionally in innovative ways to achieve better outcomes for children and families. However, what good is it to have workers, elders, ministers, volunteers and others when a leader needs to invest in themselves. This conference is more than about you that will join us but a transformational opportunity to grow your purpose inwardly, close relationships, family, employees and professional purpose.

San Diego Leadership Conference

4TH ANNUAL CARIBBEAN HEALTHY FAMILIES & FATHERS CONFERENCE

Facing The Future – Together | Elevating Families & Fathers
4th Annual Healthy Families & Fathers Caribbean Conference
June 21st and 22nd
Kingston, Jamaica
The University of the College of the Caribbean
Early Registration is Open Now
Early Rate Starting at $75.00

Facing The Future – Together | Elevating Families & Fathers will help expedite change in a region that has rapidly growing poverty and fragmented family formation with increased rates of a lack of paternal involvement. Consequently, it will change the constant conflict of elevation of children to transform into their deeper purpose, which is deeper than just living. FFCA has been asked to bring Jamaica the best of the best faculty members to support functional approaches to transform communities to augment building healthy communities, Jamaica, Caribbean and more.

Changing Lives Together! 

Consider joining us in Kingston as all excess revenue will go back as an investment into the lives of children who live in poverty. Fathers & Families Coalition of America is a 501C3 and our support from your investment will go to support children who live in orphanages. We want to build a purpose driven event to plant seeds of strengthening families and improving outcomes for children. If you want to register, sponsor an attendee and or sponsorship, please contact us today. We will provide a letter of charitable contribution for your generosity.

FFCA AFFILIATE AND ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED!

By becoming part of our circle of friends, you are inspiring and empowering youth, families and leaders globally. When you connect with Fathers and Families Coalition of America, you will be more effective with the right people, resources and purpose. 

The process of changing our abilities as individuals, parents, professionals, leaders or even organizations involves constant growth. Fathers and Families Coalition of America is calling us to go deeper daily to provide more to help others and to help each of you fulfill your purpose. The core of the ability to increase resources is based on relationship. At the core of FFCA, we are built on relationships. These relationships include parents, grandparents and youth who want to volunteer to support our programs. We have had over 150 volunteers formally recognized in the past few years.

Relationships that have determined to help others Find A Cause Bigger Than Self has allowed our organization to bring together some of the best minds in organizations and practitioners. These core relationships provide professional development for practitioners and leaders to be at their best and be more effective. We have brought together those who have a method to help others find their purpose and achieve their goal through our talented researchers to help transform the seed, the core of organizations to rekindle, revitalize and restore the core power of the organizations.

The essence of our support is to encourage people, professionals and organizations to address building healthy communities by reducing factors that foster fatherlessness. This is the seed of Fathers and Families Coalition of America. Additionally, we will help you as a member examine your core power of purpose. Myopia distorts destiny and often yields to find new relationships, methods and continuous improvement to support the Cause Bigger Than Self. Whatever seed that was put in an organization or person that has passion often needs relationships to help cultivate the specific purpose. FFCA is here to help.

Executive Summary: Calls for criminal justice reform have been mounting in recent years, in large part due to the extraordinarily high levels of incarceration in the United States. Today, the incarcerated population is 4.5 times larger than in 1980, with approximately 2.2 million people in the United States behind bars, including individuals in Federal and State prisons as well as local jails. The push for reform comes from many angles, from the high financial cost of maintaining current levels of incarceration to the humanitarian consequences of detaining more individuals than any other country.

Report Highlights

1. In recent decades, the U.S. incarcerated population has grown dramatically, despite falling crime rates.
2. Growth in U.S. incarceration has been fueled by criminal justice policies.
3. Interactions with the criminal justice system are disproportionately concentrated among Blacks and Hispanics, poor individuals, and individuals with high rates of mental illness and substance abuse.
4. Economics can provide a useful lens for thinking about the costs and benefits of criminal justice reform.
5. Improving safety and reducing crime are central goals of the criminal justice system.
6. Criminal justice policies have the capacity to reduce crime, but the aggregate crime-reducing benefits of incarceration are small and decline as the incarcerated population grows.
7. Investments in police and policies that improve labor market opportunity and educational attainment are likely to have greater crime-reducing benefits than additional incarceration.
8. The direct government costs of the criminal justice system are significant.
9. Criminal justice policies also generate a number of indirect costs, or collateral consequences, for individuals with criminal records, their families, and their communities.
10. Given the total costs, some criminal justice policies, including increased incarceration, fail a cost-benefit test.

 $ $10 billion dollar increase in incarceration spending would reduce crime by 1 to 4 percent (or 55,000 to 340,000 crimes) and have a net societal benefit of -$8 billion to $1 billion dollars.

o   At the same time, a $10 billion dollar investment in police hiring would decrease crime by 5 to 16 percent (440,000 to 1.5 million crimes) have a net societal benefit of $4 to $38 billion dollars.

Nuevo estudio demuestra que el amor del padre en más importante que el de la madre

 Reported by Despierta, vivimos en una mentira

*Studies are good resources to stimulate efforts to improve professionalism. The report based on a meta-analysis that draw attention  to the impacts of father involvement for child development. Fathers & Families Coalition of America's view is that children need healthy involvement from both mom and dad that contribute different impacts...

Blanco, negro, gordo, delgado, católicos, protestantes, ricos, pobres. No importa cuántos factores sociales, económicos, culturales o religiosas difieren entre las personas, todos tenemos algo en común:venimos al mundo gracias a un padre y una madre, y su amor por nosotros hace toda la diferencia en nuestras vidas.

Según un nuevo estudio, ser amado o rechazado por el padre afecta desarrollo de la personalidad y la personalidad en los niños hasta la edad adulta. En la práctica, esto significa que nuestras relaciones en la infancia, en especial con los padres y otras figuras responsables, forman las características de nuestra personalidad.

My Brother’s Keeper 2016 Progress Report Two Years of Expanding Opportunity and Creating Pathways to Success

My Brother's Keeper just released a two-year anniversary report highlighting the achievements of the initiative thus far. This White House initiative was created to address persistent barriers faced by boys and young men of color. Since MBK’s first anniversary report a little more than one year ago, more than 50 additional communities have accepted the My Brother’s Keeper Community Challenge, including those in seven new states, independent private sector support for grants and in-kind resources has more than doubled to more than $600 million, and more than 80% of the recommendations the MBK Task Force sent to the President two years ago are complete or on track.

Report Here

A Conversation with Researchers About Measuring Economic Security Outcomes in Fatherhood Programs:

Date: Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Time: 12:00 - 1:30 p.m. EST

A Conversation with Researchers About Measuring Economic Security Outcomes in Fatherhood Programs. Most fatherhood programs seek to improve economic security for participants and their children. This webinar will explore how these outcomes such as employment, earnings, child support payments and financial well-being, are measured using self-reports and agency records. The challenges associated with generating reliable information using each approach will be addressed. We will also discuss qualitative assessments of economic well-being that focus on stable housing, food security and other day-to-day indicators.

Click here for more information about the upcoming webinar. Register here!

Putting Youth Relationship Education
on the Child Welfare Agenda:
Findings from Research and Evaluation

Fathers & Families Coalition of Ameica Berkley, California Affiliate, The Dibble Institue is hosting a critical webinar for professionals and parents who share a passion to change the increased impacts from trauma and adverse childhood experiences that require child welfare systems with responsive, evidence based and emergining intervention strategies.

Relationships are important in helping youth achieve their goals and a successful transition into adulthood. Having the skills to manage healthy relationships can make a difference as youth make decisions related to school, employment, and pregnancy prevention. These skills may be especially important for youth involved in or aging out of the child welfare system.

This webinar will provide participants with a better understanding of the importance of healthy relationships for youth in foster care. This webinar also will summarize current research and evaluation evidence on relationship education for youth in foster care.

At the end of this webinar, participants will learn:

Fathers & Families Coalition of America hosted a special National Families and Fathers 17th Annual Conference, February 16-19, 2016. The feature of this conference that with virtual attendees and in-person reached just shy of 800 individuals throughout the United States and internationally. City Pride Magazine based in Southern California was generous to feature our national conference and agency as we have officially relocated to Southern California to continue supporting the needs of parents, professionals, organizations and leaders globally concerned about strengthening families, improvement of child outcomes with increased father involvement in building healthy communities. 

Read Pages 24-29 and all this special issue Here

Save the Date!

Tuesday, April 5, 2016 -9:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Parkway Central Skyline Room - The Free Library of Philadelphia

1901 Vine Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103

The Strong Families Commission Incorporated with the Stoneleigh Foundation will host a Public Forum on Responsible Fatherhood Integration in Philadelphia as part of the ongoing leadership and research focus on Responsible Fatherhood and the Child Welfare Systems. Featured guest and honoree is Mr. James C. Rodríguez, President and Chief Executive Officer of Father & Families Coalition of America. Mr. Rodríguez has been selected for this honor for his vision and commitment to building a national and international network of affiliate entities from around the country dedicated to supporting Strong Families that are welcoming and inclusive of Responsible Fathers.

The Importance of Community Partnerships 

FFCA has been built of relationships not funded programs that were and continue to be centered on community partnerships. Having a minimum of one or two strong community partners is vital to your long-term capacity. Many partnerships have led to the success of our 2016 National Families & Fathers Conference and all previous events FFCA has been a catalyst. Most importantly, partnerships will help make your program stronger and better known in the community ans we are very honored to share the outcome of a community partnership with a special featured video with the Executive Production by City Pride Magazine....

"

Join us for the 18th Annual National Families & Fathers Conference 

February 27 - March 3, 2017

Mexican-origin families are disproportionately exposed to sociocultural contextual stressors. However, how these stressors impact family processes, including parenting and marital relationship quality, remain unclear. In this workshop, we will examine culturally specific risks and strengths for family process pathways to be able to pinpoint key information to inform future intervention work aimed at strengthening healthy marriage and responsible fatherhood among Mexican-origin families.

"

PRESENTERS: Henry Gonzalez, M.Sc., * Cary Chatham-Hahn, M.Ed. * Melissa Barnett, Ph.D. Tucson, AZ

Fathers & Families Coalition of America is proud to share the efforts that Sesame Street is engaged for educators and providers supporting children and families with an autistic child

These are  FREEwebinars on the Sesame Street andAutism: See Amazing in All Childreninitiative! In the weeksleading up to Autism Awareness Month in April, we encourage you to join oneof these two interactive discussions with thecreators of this project!

Every child in his or her lifetime will meet someone who has autism—and See Amazing in All Children was developed to spread a message of respect, empathy, and kindness to all children, and to remind us all that everyone has unique qualities and talents that make the world an interesting place.

Sesame Street and Autism: Webinar for Providers
Date: Wednesday, 3/16/2016
Time: 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM (Eastern)
Registration and Audience Link: https://goto.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1090931
In this interactive discussion, you’ll learn more from the creators of this project about the variety of free resources that were developed, and ways these materials can be integrated into providers’ work with families and children. Whether you serve individuals who are directly or indirectly touched by autism, we know you will find something amazing to take away from this presentation.

Sesame Street and Autism: Webinar for Educators
DATE: Wednesday, 3/23/2016
TIME: 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM (Eastern)
Registration and Audience Link:  https://goto.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1091022

The ultimate goal of Fathers & Families Coalition of America to improve outcomes for children. Which raises a question, "What are is needed to improve child wellbeing for children with parents who are living one crisis away from not reaching their best?" We have so many children under-reported not living with a father in their lives around the world. The conversation Fathers & Families Coalition of America brought leaders together to at our National Families and Fathers 17th Annual Conference, February 16, 2016. These leaders include:

Dr. Blanca Enríquez, Director, Office of Head Start - Washington, DC.

Dr. Aida Díaz de Rodríguez, President, Asociación de Maestros de Puerto Rico - San Juan, PR

Brigadier General Richard Noriega, President and CEO, AVANCE, Inc. - San Antonio, TX

Dr. Allan McCray, President, Life Impact – San Juan, PR & Phoenix, AZ

We Have Failed Our Children

 Now What Is Needed For Their Futures - Prevention, Intervention and Emerging Models

Presented By Fathers & Families Coalition of America 

The distinctive of Fathers & Families Coalition of America is the introduction of very important grounded principles. However, do we hold to principles, evidence based interventions, best practices or so dogmatic to serve people without a greater understanding that the models that were very impactful in 1980 may not transform the lives of others in 2016. We brought some of the finest experts to test each of us to improve services to children and families. The test to pass is how to take this information and expand your model that you are using today. Is the model holistic for today's family? Listen to these leaders and the revelations to increase your capacity. Holding to principles, models or restrictions from grants do they impact the people you serve? 

 National Families & Fathers 17th Annual Conference Featured Speakers                                                                                                                                                               Honorable Carlis V. Williams, Regional Administrator for the Administration for Children and Families, Region IV Atlanta, GA                                                                                     Dr. Ginny Ehrlich, CEO, National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, Washington, DC                                                                                                               Honorable Alisha Griffin, Director for the State of California Department of Child Support Services Sacramento, CA                                                                                                     Ms. Diann Dawson, JD., MSW, Senior Consultant Global Peace Foundation USA, Lanham, MD

Fathers & Families Coalition of America is honored to share our gallery from the Dr. Ramon & Dr, Yolanda Nieves Family Affair Red Tie Red Dress Annual Gala at our National Families and Fathers 17th Annual Conference, February 18, 2016 in Los Angeles. The Honorable Danny K. Davis, U.S. Congressman of the State of Illinois 7th District bestowed Congressional Certificates of Special Recognition to outstanding fathers with Major General John R. Hawkins III (far left) and James Rodriguez, CEO & President of Fathers & Families Coalition of America (2nd far left) presenting awards recognition from Congressman Davis. Moreover, the U.S. Office of Head Start provided special certificates as well to these outstanding fathers, veterans of the Army, Marines and Navy with even a special guest as a single father, Mr. James Cannon raised his son Nick Cannon alone going through struggles as all of these fathers experienced, however, greater rewards as dads! We honored Couples of Excellence with marriages from 28 to 59 years as the Mistress of Ceremonies, Commissioner Josefa Salinas ushered in of inspiration…..

Join us next year!  Capture a glance of this year’s photo gallery here

Fathers & Families Coalition of America is committed to the elimination of poverty world-wide. We share a fantastic new partnership led by The Urban Instite to make a difference in the lives of all Americans, not just those in poverty

A partnership  made up of a group of 24 leading experts, advocates and academics from across the country. Harvard Professor David Ellwood, former Dean of the Kennedy School of Government and noted poverty expert, is Chair. Over the next two years, these remarkable minds will work to determine what it would take to increase dramatically upward mobility for those in poverty. They will situate the challenge in the broader global economy and US context; they will explore structural barriers to opportunity. And they will uncover the country’s most successful programs; collaborate with outside innovative organizations to test promising new models; and identify new approaches.

READ MORE HERE