Category: Moynihan Institute
You Can’t Close the Minority Health Gap While Ignoring Fathers
If father presence matters, then father health matters.
Father involvement has long been associated with positive child outcomes. If we celebrate engaged fathers when children thrive, then we must also care whether those fathers are healthy enough to stay engaged.
And if we want stronger families, then fathers must be included in minority health — not as an afterthought but as part of its strategy, its urgency, and its promise.
Addressing the Crisis of Black Maternal Health: A Critical Role for Black Fathers
Experts link dire outcomes for Black women to systemic racism, limited health care access, and chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension. While data quantifies the crisis, many personal stories indicate that Black women are dying in childbirth because their voices are often ignored.
Black fathers are an untapped resource often overlooked when considering support systems for Black mothers during labor and delivery.
But with increased recognition, proper guidance, education about health care systems, and knowledge of what to ask medical staff, Black fathers can offer crucial support. Their understanding of the specific needs Black mothers face during pregnancy positions them to advocate effectively, provide reassurance, and navigate medical situations.
Building Responsible Fatherhood Into the Architecture of Family Policy and Federal Funding
The opportunity in front of the responsible fatherhood field is not only to preserve resources but to clarify relevance. Our field has matured beyond the point where it should be treated as a stand-alone niche. It now has enough research, practice, and systems experience to demonstrate that father engagement affects outcomes across multiple domains: child well-being, co-parenting, family economic stability, system navigation, and community support.
The more clearly the field can connect this work to family outcomes that other systems already value, the more durable its place becomes.
Black Fathers Are Blocked, Not Missing: What Fulton County Teaches America About Father Engagement
Our study asks a question that the responsible fatherhood and human services fields sometimes avoid because it’s inconvenient: If we say fathers matter, why are so many systems designed as if they don’t?
Those that truly want to engage fathers must adopt a simple discipline: Stop confusing outcomes with intent. If a father is not consistently present, ask what has been blocking him before you make assumptions or lean on stereotypes.
Moynihan Institute Research Shows How Black Fathers Are Naturally Closing the Father–Daughter Divide
Father-daughter relationships can become strained or estranged more often than other parent-child bonds, and many adult daughters report discomfort in sharing personal issues with their fathers. It’s painful to read because it’s familiar. The daughter feels unseen. The father feels uninvited. Both are telling the truth, and the gap remains.
But our research shows what Black fathers are already doing – quietly, intentionally, and often without applause.
What Atlanta’s Young Black Fathers Say When We Finally Listen
The purpose of the study is both practical and corrective. Practically, the team set out to learn which supports exist for fathers in NPU-V and which supports are missing, so service delivery can match real needs. Correctively, the paper pushes back on a long tradition of policy and public narrative that treats fathers as an afterthought in “family strengthening,” even while research keeps reaffirming that fathers are a protective factor in child development.
A Fair Fatherhood, Not a Paper Fatherhood
Fathers Incorporated advocated for legitimation reform at a hearing held by the House Study Committee on Legitimation in Augusta, Georgia. Our role throughout this series of hearings has been two-fold: to bring forward fathers’ lived experience and offer workable solutions.
Georgia Legitimation Reform: Fathers Incorporated at the Columbus Hearing
Georgia’s goal should be humane and straightforward. It must ensure that when both parents want to parent, the law says “yes” quickly, safely, and consistently. And when the parents disagree, the law must sort out the “best interest” question without making children strangers to one of the two people they need most.
5 Critical Policy Changes to Remove Legal and Economic Barriers Faced by Black Fathers
We believe – and it’s supported by the “Breaking the Chains” report – that Black fathers are fighting to stay involved with their children even while contending with barriers that many never face. Some of the most important support we can provide involves not only helping fathers navigate the hurdles but eliminating them from the path for fathers now and in the future. The reforms and policy directives outlined above move us in that direction.
When Fatherhood Requires a Court Order: What Georgia Must Fix Now
For the first time in years, lawmakers gathered publicly to confront an issue many Georgians have never even heard of—legitimation.
The Maze of Fatherhood: Why Georgia Must Reform Legitimation Now
In Georgia, a child born to unmarried parents is not automatically granted the legal right to both parents. While this may come as a surprise to many, to the thousands of fathers served by Fathers Incorporated, it’s a harsh and often heartbreaking reality.
Op-Ed: Empowering Black Men — Reclaiming Our Health, Rewriting Our Legacy
How many aspects of our lives could drastically improve with just a few minutes of intentional care daily? This revelation prompted me to emphasize one critical truth: “Not taking care of yourself, particularly when you have children and family, is the most selfish act you can engage in.”
The Vanishing Act: Why Black Fathers in Media Still Seem Like Ghosts
Despite research showing that Black fathers spend as much (if not more) time with their children than fathers of other races, they are still more likely to be portrayed in media as absent, uninvolved, or, at best, comedic.
How Companies Depict Black Fathers in TV Commercials
Researchers from the Moynihan Institute for Fatherhood Research and Policy are hosting a critically important webinar: “Can You See Me Now? A Closer Examination of Black Fathers in Television Commercials.” A must-attend event for anyone interested in media representation of Black fathers and families, the presentation is based on Moynihan Institute’s qualitative study measuring attitudes and reflections about Black fathers in television commercials.
Empowering Fathers to Change the Odds in Atlanta
Fathers Incorporated understands that economic stability is a cornerstone of effective parenting.