CONGRESSMAN DANNY DAVIS INTRODUCES FATHERHOOD LEGISLATION
CONGRESSMAN DANNY DAVIS INTRODUCES FATHERHOOD LEGISLATION
By Christopher Shuttlesworth
Congressman Danny Davis and U.S. Representative Andre Carson
recently introduced new legislation called The Julia Carson Responsible
Fatherhood and Healthy Families Act of 2017.
One of the goals of the legislation is to help fathers become more
actively involved in the lives of their children. The legislation seeks to
increase the upward economic mobility of custodial and noncustodial parents so they can actively participate in financially supporting their children. It also addresses issues evolving around child rearing as well as maintaining a positive, healthy and nonviolent relationships between fathers, their children and the co-parent.
“In some communities, finding a child with a father in their house or in their life is like finding a needle in a haystack,” Davis said. “Many of them are obviously incarcerated or many of them have never been married to the mother of the child, so they’ve never spent time with the child as well.”
He said the government is trying to change the fatherless cycle to the best of its ability by instilling values into the minds and hearts of young
people growing up, so they can feel a different sense of responsibility.
“In a community you sometimes have one area that has a two-parent household where a child has the opportunity to grow, develop and take advantage of everything that can be afforded to them,” Davis said.
“But if you come to an area where another child who is born on the same day to a single parent home that lives with their mother, then if she is working, she is earning poverty wages. But then, she can’t go to
work because she has no one to keep or watch the child so these children are seriously disadvantaged,” he said.
He added, community leaders must continue to do everything within their power to change the paradigm so that different levels of hope
and possibility can exist in childrens’ lives. For the last three years, Davis said he has taken children to visit their fathers on the day before Father’s Day who are incarcerated at The Sheridan Correctional Center.
“It’s proven to be a very successful effort,” he said. “[Survival] is important to Black life in America,” he added. “When you’re talking
about families…if any part of that unit is missing, then it further disadvantages that family,” he stated.
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