Thank you to all those who joined us on Thursday February 27, 2020 for the third of our 4-part SoCal Learning Community series:
Re-visioning Prevention: Exploring Systems Innovation and Best Practices in the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect
Shawndi Johnson, Dads Matter Program Manager, shared with us the critical importance of engaging fathers in the process of sharing services, family healing, and creating strong, healthy communities.
Children without father involvement are more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol, have behavioral problems, suffer obesity, and drop out of high school. Economic stability, health, education and safety are potentially impacted with a present father.
A few highlights from our wonderful Parent Partner panel discussion:
- Parents want to be seen as individuals.
- A system cannot raise children.
- A Parent Partner can advocate for families and bring challenges up the chain of command.
- It makes a difference to have a consistent cheerleader reminding parents that they can overcome their adversity and reunite with their children.
We were honored to have Lindsey Day and Cecilia O. Herrera from Santa Barbara County, and Roger De Leon and Amber Kopp from Riverside County speak on the Parent Partner panel.
Participant reflections:
It was eye-opening to hear about fathers involvement in the healing process. I'm going to make an extra effort to include fathers in my work.
I will encourage my agency to be available to families at times that work better for them.
It's inspiring to hear about how different counties are working with parents. Parents are with us on the journey of strengthening families.
See all the notes here, https://conta.cc/2TFqmdR
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