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 grow to be lively, nurturing mother and father. Over the many years, the group has developed with the occasions—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 providers case supervisor, famous in what’s functionally a hybrid of op-ed and authentic reporting for Prism Stories, one of many middle’s foremost objectives is to maintain the Black males who come to the middle looking for help 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 assets, informed Grimshaw, what the middle gives Black males like him is exclusive.
“I wanted to be taught sure issues. I wanted to be quieter and see different folks 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] certain that we all know that we’re nonetheless human beings and deserve respect,” Harris mentioned.
St. Louis, as Grimshaw notes, usually doesn’t prolong that very same courtesy to Black males. Tying collectively the experiences of Dred Scott and the 1857 Supreme Courtroom ruling that bears his identify, 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 space between the person and the media is the place coverage, prosecution, and public perceptions take form. These divides are usually not unintentional or new.”
This, in response to Grimshaw, permits the middle to function a spot the place Black males can come and be handled like they matter, whilst 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 toes and discover extra stability. Now, all three males fill vital management and outreach roles on the middle. This enables them to function examples for the lads who make the most of the middle’s providers as avatars for their very own prospects.
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 need to 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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