The Club is running a series of programs designed to increase our understanding of race relations and, hopefully, point us in ways to be more helpful in dealing with these issues.
Our speaker on August 27, 2020 was Marvin Charles, the Executive Director and Co-Founder of DADS (Divine Alternatives for Dads Services).
Marvin Charles has emerged as a community and national leader in creating stronger fathers and healthier families. Because of his own powerful story of separation from and then reunification with his own family, parents and children, and his 15+ years of helping others reclaim the positive role of fathers to their families, he is an experienced and trusted mentor and advisor. He has traveled all over the U.S. to speak about empowering fathers, to learn from other national leaders and to share our successes with other organizations hoping to implement fatherhood programs. Marvin Charles is an ordained minister and his extraordinary effectiveness comes from his ability to see through the pain and threats of those he counsels to the powerful change possible by embracing a living God and larger purpose. Neither class or ethnicity poses an obstacle to him being heard.
“A General in Satan’s Army.” That is how Marvin Charles describes himself in the first portion of his life. He had eight kids. Four were born crack addicted.
“High. Crime. Time.”
He was about to abandon his seven-month old daughter, when he began to turn his life around.
And turn around, he did. Today, he is Founder and Executive Director of DADS (Divine Alternatives for Dads Services), and organization dedicated to model healthy relationships as a means of creating healthier fathers and families, to stop to cycle of family violence and brokenness in order to improve the lives of children, and to encourage fathers to become agents of change in their communities. Operating now for twenty years, DADS has helped over 4,000 fathers. DADS helps fathers understand child support issues (including both rights and obligations) and works to help create parenting plans.
Fatherlessness, says Marvin, is the #1 problem in this country that costs our nation $100 billion per year. Marvin experiences were both illuminating and meaningful to our Club.
Fathers, he said, are critical role models. It is better to have a bad father role model, than no role model. Bad fathers, he said, at least show kids a path to avoid.
Lots to think about from this presentation.
