‘Missouri Fathership Project’ plan sent to Senate

     A plan to help good fathers overcome anything that keeps them from being with their children has been given overwhelming bipartisan support through the House, and has been sent to the Senate.

     House Bill 1948 would create the “Missouri Fathership Project” in the Department of Social Services. Representative Jamie Gragg (R-Ozark), the bill’s sponsor, said the Project would promote fatherhood engagement and empower dads to become successful in engaging with their children.

“This doesn’t take dads who do not want to be dad. This will take dads who want to be dad who have barriers that are in the way and help him navigate that,” Gragg said. “Whether it’s the court system, whether it’s job security insecurities, whether it’s working through and trying to navigate legal issues that he has gotten himself into. Whatever it takes to get from where he’s at today where he’s not with his children, to with his children, because we have children that need their dads.”

     Gragg’s proposal would create the Missouri Fathership Project Grant Program and an accompanying fund. This would support grants for family-focused community agencies, faith-based agencies, family advocacy programs, and nonprofits to have Fathership Project specialists on staff.

“Those fathership engagement professionals will help those dads maneuver those roadblocks, and it’ll help them be dad again so those kids can succeed and we can get children away from these statistics and they can succeed in life.”

     Another provision in the bill states that fathers participating in the program are eligible for limited driving privileges when those might have otherwise been revoked, and protected from having occupational or professional licenses revoked.

Representative David Dolan (R-Sikeston) said his experience as a prosecutor and a judge showed him why that addition is needed.

“I would see these fathers that would come to court, and they were responding to come in for non-payment of their child support. And they would look at me and say, ‘I’m doing the best I can, but how do you expect me to pay this support if I can’t get a job, or if I can’t get to a job?’ So this would provide that if they’re participating in a program, they’re trying to work, that the court can give them their driver’s license to participate in the program and make them better fathers for providing their support.”

     That section also prevents participating fathers from losing hunting or fishing licenses. Dolan said this is because for many fathers, especially those who are struggling, hunting and fishing allow them to provide for their families.

     The legislation received unanimous votes in two committees and passed out of the House 141-4. Along the way, some of its most vocal supporters were Democrats, including Representative Raychel Proudie (D-Ferguson).

     “There are fathers who are working and trying to reintegrate back into their children’s lives or to do better in their children’s lives. And it is a value of this country to have those two-parent homes when and where possible, where safe and where feasible. This is our way of doing our part to be pro-father is not to be anti-mother.”

     Representative Marlene Terry (D-St. Louis) said it’s a shame that such a program is needed, but there is no doubt that it is, and some of the state’s own systems are the reason for that.

“There are a lot of good fathers, great fathers. Just like there are a lot of great mothers. But our child support system needs a total overhaul. It is biased and it is not fair. And so fathers have to go through organizations like this in order to make things happen within their children’s lives,” Terry said.

     Representative Pattie Mansur (D-Kansas City) said this program could prove vital for men who are coming out of the Department of Corrections.

     “It is not only good for kids, but it’s in fact really important for successful reintegration because helping these men re-establish a family network, helping these individuals feel that they have a purpose and a connection and obligation to their family supports their ability to get work and to get stabilized and then become contributors to our community,” said Mansur.

     In addition to creating the Missouri Fathership Project, HB 1948 would make Jone “Fathership Month,” encouraging activities and events to raise awareness about the importance of fathers being a part of the lives of their children.

     The bill is now in the Senate.