Leadership Summit on Fatherhood - Akron, Ohio

As a forum to discuss the primary issues affecting responsible fathers in Summit County, Ohio, the Leadership Summit on Fatherhood took place at the Akron Summit County Public Library today.  Summit Dads was there as one of the registered vendors to premier contents of the latest submission of the Unmarried Families of Ohio Act proposal, which has been in the hands of the 129^th General Assembly since January 2011.  Several key people attended this initiative, including Zack Milkovich (Ohio House of Representative - 45^th District), John Galonski (CSEA Assistant Prosecutor) and Pastor Eugene Norris (Fame Fathers CEO).  Additionally, administrative directors and other operatives were available from both the Summit County Prosecutor's Office and various agencies under the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services umbrella, counting the Child Support Enforcement and Summit County Children Services agencies among them.

After meeting several people at the Summit Dads vendor table and a morning overview from a number of speakers, separate groups were formed to discuss an assortment of fatherhood subjects.  In the second room, which is the one I chose to participate in, the topic of interest was young fathers and child support.  Specifically, under the premise that responsible fathers pay their child support payments, the fundamental issue was to discover suitable methods to reach young fathers, in hopes of increasing their willingness to engage the system and pay their ordered amount of support.  I could see that a few influential people were there from CSEA to contribute the conversation as well, which was interesting, indeed.

A brainstorming session ensued.  When it came time for Summit Dads to represent fathers throughout the state with spoken words, which would assumedly make a difference to the outcome or evaluation of the day, dads everywhere will not be disappointed in realizing the solution I offered.  In essence, I stated that if we expected fathers, young or old, to perform in ways that traditionalists would consider as being responsible, significant changes are needed to the methods we use to determine child support orders and enforce them.  The premise behind this is that, without such adjustments, all else is just academic in nature.  One idea from this meeting suggested that fathers may be feeling trapped or intimidated by involving themselves in the support process for their children.  Certainly, this was also talked about for some time and appeared to be kindly understood by everyone present, according to what I experienced.

Aside from the intelligently, and sometimes even scholarly, presented facts in discussion, two very attractive details were released from the CSEA representatives on hand, which seemed to deserve further inquiry.  First, CSEA Director Jennifer Bheam advised that genetic testing in hospitals for unmarried parents had been in practice for approximately one year.  This new pilot type program is being used at two out of the three leading hospitals in Akron, explicitly the Summa Health System locations Akron City and St. Thomas hospitals.  The second thrilling fact came from CSEA Case Management Administrator David Crook, who talked about a program that would give fathers relief from child support arrearage issues, in instances where they meet the criteria for such reprieve.  Although not every father will necessarily qualify under its terms, it appears to be a notable and worthwhile effort to pursue.  More will be written about these information pieces in another article.

In the end, positive connections were made because of this conference.  Summit Dads will continue to follow up on the leads and associations formed to further all successes made towards substantial parenting rights for fathers everywhere.  The notion to gather the chief components of the system, along with the most influential advocates in our area, is extremely helpful to allow each aspect to compare notes with one another.  Optimistically, these conventions will not be needed in the future. However, until the day that a father is equal in the eyes of local courts, Child Support Enforcement and Children Services agencies, along with other similar programs that covet parentage cases, such gatherings should continue to help fathers receive their inherent privileges.  These freedoms include the right to be a considerable force in their children's lives without undue interference or persecution.  With the assistance of contributors like the National Fatherhood Initiative, Ohio Commission on Fatherhood and several others, I suspect that they will do so.