Project Title: STEPS - Stabilizing Through Employment & Parenting Skills
Applicant Name: Passages Connecting Fathers and Families, Inc. (DBA: Passages, Inc.)
Address: 4600 Carnegie Ave., Cleveland, OH 44103-4371
Contact Phone Numbers:(voice, fax, cell): V-216.881.6776, F-216.881.7357, C-234.804.2509
Contact Person: William Liber, Project Director for STEPS
Email Address: williamliber@passages-oh.org
Website Address: https://www.passages-oh.org
PROJECT DESIGN: Passages seeks to help fathers become better parents, partners and providers by providing integrated services and classes that fall under the three required "Promoting Responsible Fatherhood" categories of the Fatherhood FIRE grant. Specifically, Passages will provide: (1) workforce development training (job readiness, time/situational management, interview readiness, resume building, interview appropriate clothing, interview and employment placement services); (2) parenthood enrichment training (developing healthy relationships/social networks, knowledge of parenting and child development, healthy nurturing and attachment); and (3) personal development/barrier removal services (child support navigation, visitation and custody, child support order reviews, license suspension removal, transportation, GED services, substance use disorder referrals, and housing referrals).
NEEDS TO BE ADDRESSED: The needs to be addressed by STEPS include high poverty rates, high unemployment, low educational attainment, high number of fathers with a history of incarceration, high number of absent fathers and high levels of child abuse and neglect.
SERVICES PROVIDED: Passages will provide all direct services to participants, including recruitment, engagement and retention activities related to increasing job readiness and employment, improving parenting skills, improving relationship skills and strengthening family resilience. A significant subset (66% in the past two years) of the community fathers that Passages serves are formerly incarcerated. These men face additional barriers which Passages proposes to address through Post-Release Intervention Mentoring (PRIM). Community fathers with a history of incarceration will have the opportunity to work with a mentor who is a restored citizen, who has successfully reentered his community, who has completed fatherhood programming at Passages and who has been trained in motivational interviewing and peer mentoring.
POPULATION: Passages will target low-income urban community adult fathers (age 18 and older with children 24 and younger), including married and unmarried biological fathers, adoptive fathers, stepfathers, and fathers who are noncustodial and custodial single fathers.
PRIMARY WORKSHOP HOURS (PWHs): 27 hours of classes will be provided using the NFI curricula, 24/7 Dads and Understanding Domestic Violence.
140 fathers will receive 90% of PWHs in Year 2. Forty (40) of those fathers who have a history of incarceration will also complete the PRIM mentoring program each year.