LOS ANGELES — Following up on last year’s decision to celebrate June as Fatherhood Well-Being Month, the Board of Supervisors called on its staff Tuesday to implement programs promoting relevant resources and conduct outreach events aimed at underserved populations.

The board directed the Department of Public Health to develop “dad- affirming” education and awareness efforts and evaluate services such as free health screenings for men and toolkits for fathers to support their own and their family’s health.

Following last year’s declaration of the fatherhood well-being effort, the county Chief Executive Office created a Fatherhood Workgroup to identify service gaps and make recommendations.

The workgroup met monthly from October 2023 through January 2024 to develop a baseline inventory of county services and community-based partnerships. Supervisor Holly Mitchell, who introduced the motion, said that on average, nearly half of all attendees at the meetings were men of color who said they did not know what fatherhood-centered services existed or how to navigate them.

Some of the recommendations developed by the group included providing community-based child support and criminal-record expungement clinics, addressing racial equity, identifying community agencies to co-host support groups, and suggesting the Department of Children and Family Services engage with judges/attorneys about bias against fathers.

Mitchell said such efforts would advance “father involvement, improve pathways to economic mobility, promote healthy and empowering lives and lead to increased positive childhood outcomes for their children.”

The motion approved Tuesday also directs the county CEO and other relevant departments to add fathers as a sub population to county prevention and promotion initiatives, including Anti-Racism, Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives.

Kelsey Gordon, a staff member at Children’s Institute who said she participated in the process, told the Board of Supervisors Tuesday that “one father expressed how good it felt to be open and speak about his experiences.”