What You Need To Know

• The initiative was jump started in 2012 through Ohio Job and Family Services


• The idea was to show how important fathers are, while highlighting their impact on the lives of kids and families


• Ohio’s commission is the only one written into law


• To learn more, click here

Calvin Williams, Fatherhood Coordinator of the Fatherhood Collaborative of Hamilton County, said the goal of the initiative is to promote and help every county in the state have their own initiative.

“If you look at the history of social services, it was built on the idea of serving widows and orphans, and so from the beginning, men were left out," Williams said. "Recently, starting in the 70s, we started getting research that showed how important fathers were to children's healthy development, their lifelong well being."

Williams said there is scientific evidence for why fathers being involved in their children's lives is so important and low-income fathers are less likely to be able to care or spend time with them. 

Williams said it's because of all the issues that come with being low income or being in poverty.  

He believes they have made quite a bit of progress over almost a decade.

“Which is to create and sustain consciousness and conversation and action on the needs and aspirations of fathers and their role in the development of healthy children and families," Williams said. "We are having those conversations. We are raising consciousness, we are taking action, the Fatherhood Collaborative with Hamilton County.”

He said the collaborative has elevated fatherhood across the county beyond Hamilton County Job and Family Services but in other departments such as re-entry, corrections, juvenile court and family court. 

"We're seeing people come into the collaborative asking for support on how can I make my organization, program or agency better at engaging, including dads," Williams said.