Westchester County Executive Robert P. Astorino on Tuesday was joined by over 400 people at the County Center to participate in an all-day fatherhood conference filled with speeches, presentations, panels and workshops.
In addition to Astorino, Rockland County Executive Ed Day, Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers), White Plains Mayor Tom Roach, former New York Knicks legend Allan Houston, Joyce Thomas from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Thabiti Boone, President of the Obama White House Champion for Fatherhood, Tony Porter, co-founder of A Call to Men, and hundreds of fathers, non-profits and service providers took part in the conference.
Astorino said his initiative is designed to celebrate the role of the father, provide key tools and support, and help those in at-risk situations navigate and overcome potential barriers they may have to becoming effectively involved dads.
"Unfortunately, over the course of the past 40 or 50 years in this country, the critically important role of the father in the family has been degraded in popular media and in society, and the statistics of children of all races growing up without the loving and nurturing support of a father continues to increase at a disturbing rate," said Astorino. "The studies show that children in father-absent homes are four times more likely to be living in poverty, more likely to underperform in school, suffer child abuse, get involved in drugs, get in trouble with the law, get pregnant, and the list sadly goes on and on. We have to reverse the trend and our initiative seeks to do just that."
Among the 19 workshops at the conference were those dealing with:
- High conflict resolution in custody situations
- Fathers and daughters
- Preparing fathers for re-entry and family re-engagement
- Unemployment challenges
- Effective communications for successful co-parenting
Astorino said the conference was just the first step of many more to come:
"Two years ago, we started our Safer Communities initiative to look at the all the underlying causes of violence in society. Since then, we have addressed school absenteeism, mental health issues and drug abuse. But nothing may be more important than what we launched today, providing fathers and service providers, key tools and support to help men become great dads to their children. It not only can be done, it must be done."