Recently, a new dad walked out of a courtroom reunited with his infant daughter. As he took his first steps into a new future, Leroy Pascubillo, walked alongside him, providing resources and support to help him navigate this new chapter. Leroy is Amara’s Families Building Community Program Certified Lead Family Mentor.
“Today was a very good day,” Leroy said, tears welling at the incredible significance of this dad’s reunification. Leroy knows from personal experience. “It’s about that baby. That dad is going to be a great dad for his baby.”
Our Families Building Community Program (FBCP) mentors have the skills and lived experience that guide them when they reach out to a family with compassion. Having two dads on our team who know what it is like to navigate the child welfare system and successfully reunite with their children makes all the difference in reassuring dads that they can be good fathers.
As more dads become primary caretakers of their children, the child welfare system needs to change to be more inclusive of dads, said Bill Jones, Certified Peer Counselor and Family Support Services Peer Navigator at Amara. “Moms aren’t always in the picture.”
There are plenty of stereotypes and negative stigmas associated with parents involved in the child welfare system. Amara aims to disrupt those stereotypes and end those stigmas. One of the ways we do this important work is directly engaging with parents wherever they are in the system.
“I want other dads to understand that what kind of life they’ve led doesn’t have to define them forever,” Leroy said. “We have to break the stigma.”
Our FBCP partners with multiple parent-focused organizations across Washington and the country to help raise awareness of the importance of serving fathers in child welfare and about how we can help dads in our state. When we support whole families involved in child welfare, healing can happen sooner.
“Dads already have everything they need to be good dads,” Bill said. “They sometimes just don’t know how to use it.”