October 19, 2025
The Fathers & Households Assist Heart works to revive the dignity of Black males, who are sometimes dehumanized.
Based in 1997 by the late Halbert Sullivan, the Fathers & Households Assist Heart (FFSC) in St. Louis started as a program to assist absent fathers turn out to be energetic, nurturing mother and father. Over the a long time, the group has advanced with the instances—increasing its attain to incorporate management improvement, employment help, mentoring, and trauma-informed care—whereas staying true to its authentic mission of strengthening households and communities.
As Lucy Grimshaw, an FFSC social companies case supervisor, famous in what’s functionally a hybrid of op-ed and authentic reporting for Prism Stories, one of many heart’s important objectives is to maintain the Black males who come to the middle in search of assist from falling by means of the cracks into both homelessness or the authorized system, each of which may devour them entire.
As Chaz Harris, one of many males who makes use of the middle’s sources, advised Grimshaw, what the middle presents Black males like him is exclusive.
“I wanted to study sure issues. I wanted to be quieter and see different individuals going by means of what I used to be going by means of. I felt like I used to be the one one. [FFSC makes] positive that we all know that we’re nonetheless human beings and deserve respect,” Harris mentioned.
St. Louis, as Grimshaw notes, typically doesn’t prolong that very same courtesy to Black males. Tying collectively the experiences of Dred Scott and the 1857 Supreme Court docket ruling that bears his title, the Dred Scott resolution, and the 2014 homicide of Michael Brown Jr. in Ferguson, Grimshaw weaves collectively a story of Black males in St. Louis being repeatedly violated by the state and rendered within the overarching nationwide creativeness as beasts with out households or connections.
As Grimshaw notes, “The gap between the person and the media is the place coverage, prosecution, and public perceptions take form. These divides should not unintended or new.”
This, in accordance with Grimshaw, permits the middle to function a spot the place Black males can come and be handled like they matter, at the same time as they try and rebuild their lives and their relationships with their youngsters.
This extends to alumni of the middle, males like Charles Barnes Jr., Reginald Slaughter, and Greg Cooper, who as soon as upon a time, utilized the middle to assist them get again on their ft and discover extra stability. Now, all three males fill essential management and outreach roles on the heart. This enables them to function examples for the lads who make the most of the middle’s companies as avatars for their very own potentialities.
As Harris famous to the outlet, he desires his personal son to know that “daddy was a fighter,” and that as a person, he doesn’t must bind himself to strict, outdated beliefs of masculinity.
He desires his son to know that it’s okay for males to cry, to ask for assist, and never at all times have the solutions when coping with hardships. This, Harris defined, is what it means to reside a lifetime of dignity. This, Harris indicated, “means I can stroll with my head excessive.”
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