For a lot of men, being a father can be a daunting task. Some are unemployed. Many have poor relationships with the mother of their children. In the worst of circumstances, some are even in prison. But Steven Dandridge and his Detroit-based group, New Young Fathers, is working to help men learn how to be better men to their children–regardless of how rough their circumstances are.
“If you want to be a father, this is what it entails,” Dandridge told Fox 2 News Detroit. “You always have to be able to take care of your children, so you have to find employment. In order to do that, you have to be qualified for something. In order to do that, you also need to be able to get along with the mother of your children, whether you’re with her or not. You have to work together. You have to be on one accord when it comes to raising children.”
Being part of a family in which both parents are not together does not help. According to the U.S. Census, one out of three children live without a father at home. These children are at a high risk of ending up behind bars and abusing drugs and alcohol.
“A lot of children I come across, they come from single-parent homes and they don’t have a relationship with their father,” Dandridge said. “And that’s horrible because they didn’t ask to be here.”
Since the group’s site was launched in 2008, it has helped thousands of fathers across the state with advice on how to form better relationships with their children. The group helps organize field trips that helps fathers form loving relationships with their sons and daughters; it also leads conversations at local churches and schools.
Any way Dandridge can reach out to dads and help them to be better men to their children, he is willing to do it. More importantly, he wants take the fear out of fatherhood.
“It’s a wonderful thing to be a father,” he said before imploring all of the fathers out there to rise to the challenge. “Please step up to the plate and be responsible because [your children] are counting on you. They are counting on us every single day.”
For full article and video, go to: newsone.com
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From the article: “A lot of children I come across, they come from single-parent homes and they don’t have a relationship with their father,” Dandridge said. “And that’s horrible because they didn’t ask to be here.”
Absolutely, which makes evidence of corruption at the Friend of the Court which harms these children all the more terrible.
Please be aware that there is also evidence of illicit or potentially criminal activities with respect to parenting time enforcement at the F.O.C.:
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Please also be aware that, at Friend of the Court offices around Michigan, there is evidence of the appearance of illicit and potentially criminal activities. This evidence includes evidence of theft of child support, evidence of child custody fraud, evidence of tampering with witnesses, evidence of child support calculation fraud, evidence of obstructing a federal audit, etc.
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Please also be aware that one person who attended a F.O.C.B. meeting wrote: “You only need to go as far as the Genessee County FOC .. He openly tells of standing on line on his 1st day on the job as FOC, while an un-knowing clerk twice told him to “get behind the line” as she was taking a personal call on her cell, and told of another employee who came back from vacation, then proceeded to systematically dump over 90 voicemails from his phone while talking about the previous night ballgame with his cube-neighbor.”
[FRC@yahoogroups.com, Fall 2012]
Please also be aware that former FOC enforcement specialist Carol Rhodes explained: ‘I came to the 32nd circuit family court to make a difference, … but early on I realized … it was all about money … In the years I worked for the system I witnessed regular deception … that was mandated by office policy. I saw gender bias and discrimination. I saw records destroyed. … We were rated according to how much money we would bring in’
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Please be aware that Donna Pendergast, First Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division has stated in effect that the Attorney General will not investigate evidence of illicit or potentially criminal activities at the Friend of the Court. For example, when responding to the evidence of illicit and potentially criminal activities above, etc, she wrote: “the Attorney General lacks the power to oversee the Friend of the Court” (Correspondence dated December 10, 2012).
This can create the appearance that some people within the Friend of the Court may act as a criminal racketeering enterprise. They might appear to use “incentive payments” in a way which appears to bribe prosecutors, incentivizing them to turn a blind eye to their crimes, including theft of child support, child support calculation fraud, child custody determination fraud for title IV-D maximization, promote the use of illegal debtors prisons, refuse to enforce laws for parenting time enforcement, promote illegal gender based discrimination, and other actions or inactions which may tend to enhance the revenue of the FOC itself or the political or personal interests of parties within it.
Because the finances of the FOC and the local courts are intimately linked, the profit or loss of the FOC may create the appearance that they are redistributing fines and child support to the court to directly to judges in a way that appears to be a payoff scheme to keep them pacified and to hand over more authority to the F.O.C. For example, judges who get higher salary or bonuses thanks to the FOC’s finances might be more likely to hand the FOC rubber stamps with their names on it, to ignore grievances, to violate their ethical duties and ignore crimes at the FOC, to retaliate against parents who file grievances with adverse rulings, etc.
I invite parents, legislators, judges, and lawyers to educate themselves. Children depend on you to protect them from crime.