“Father disengagement” — the fact a large number of Inland Empire families live each day without a father in the home — was cited as a key problem in the region at the two-day 29th annual Children’s Network Conference that opened Wednesday at the Ontario Conference Center.
“We really want to bring an awareness to one of the biggest negative social trends here in the Inland Empire, being father disengagement,” said Lesford Duncan, co-chairman of the Inland Empire Father Involvement Coalition.
“We see that 35 percent of all homes are absent of fathers, so we want to bring awareness to that and we also want to encourage county agencies and community-based organizations and attendees of this conference to really implement father-friendly practices within their organization.”
Another key focus at the conference was homelessness.
Kent Paxton, homeless policy adviser for San Bernardino County, said there are about 36,000 children, or 12 percent of the student population, are homeless. The event, he said, is a way to raise awareness, and provide an opportunity for all attending agencies to connect and work together toward helping the homeless.
[For more of this story, written by Neil Nisperos, go to http://www.sbsun.com/health/20...-for-engaged-fathers]
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