PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philly-based Focus on Fathers believes the answer to healthy conflict resolution may start at home.
The organization helps men, ages 18 and older, maintain a healthy and positive involvement in their children’s lives by offering parenting education classes and other services.
“A lot of the guys that we're dealing with never had a strong male father figure, you know, just the way the American families are constructed these days, that's sort of broken down,” said Larry Woody, program manager at Focus on Fathers.
He admits there is not one solution to the gun violence issue, but showing fathers how to show love, even if they’ve never been shown that same love, can make a difference in breaking the cycle of violence.
“If we can get guys to connect to their children, connect to their families — if we can help them do that — they're a lot less likely to walk around with a pistol in their pocket.”
Martin Rivera was a program participant and is now a peer educator for the group. He says many of the kids that get into trouble just need attention.
“They lacked that father figure, that big brother figure that tells you, ‘Hey, let's not get into trouble. Let's go play basketball, let's go play football. Let's go do physical activity,’” Rivera said.
He adds parenting styles also need to change with what kids are facing today.
“Are we going to keep on doing the same things that our parents were taught? And their parents, and so forth and so forth? Or are we going to stop and break the cycle and start a new chain?”
The organization's 13-session parenting course, free of charge, from now until Dec. 21. More information can be found here.
“Basically, we‘re just trying to give them information to give them an alternative view of what's going on,” Woody said, “and I think that there's real value in that.”