Introduction
This week, the team at Urban Light Ministries observes the completion of the first full year of the operation of Fathering Strong®. 2024 was a year of challenge and progress. In this blog post, we will report on our accomplishments and the remaining challenges, and we will lay out our vision for the new year. First, however, we will review the mission and vision statements of Fathering Strong.
Our Cause (Why this project.)
Because children benefit greatly from having present, deeply committed, and nurturing fathers, and because they suffer when they don’t, Urban Light Ministries provides helpful resources to strengthen, encourage, and inspire strong fathering.
Our Mission (What we are doing.)
Urban Light Ministries is making available Fathering Strong® resources that help turn fathers’ hearts to their children.
Our Vision (The future we see.)
Our resources have enabled every father who desires them to prioritize his children’s loving parenting and co-parenting.
The Desired Outcomes (The results of what we do.)
As a result of this work, the outcomes of children are improving, and their communities are benefiting in multiple ways.
2024 Accomplishments
Website
Over 171,000 people were reached online. More than 88,000 of them were interested in learning what the bible says about fathers, with 14,000+ clicking for more information.
They were directed to the Urban Light Ministries and Fathering Strong® websites, where they found informative and uplifting content, including devotionals, videos, blog posts, and fatherhood classes.
App
325 people subscribed to the Fathering Strong® App to connect with fathers and others who support them in their commitment to good parenting and co-parenting. The app encourages the engagement of dads in a fatherhood community for their mutual benefit. The Fathering Strong® App also empowers dads to form their own groups centered on similar concerns and circumstances.
Blog
Our 52 weekly Fathering Strong Blog posts in 2024 focused on topics ranging from helping kids succeed in school, building strong bonds with children, online safety, and male nurturance to managing holiday stress.
Podcast
34 Fathering Strong® Podcast episodes featured guest interviews with informative subject matter experts, fathers sharing interesting parenting experiences, discussions about healing father wounds, and many more.
Challenges
Generally, engaging men and fathers is a challenging endeavor. Most civic organizations, social service agencies, nonprofits, and even churches struggle to involve men meaningfully.
Why Engaging Men is So Difficult
Research suggests several potential reasons why some men may communicate differently than some women:
- Socialization and Gender Roles: Traditional gender roles often discourage emotional expression in boys and men. This can lead to difficulty expressing feelings and seeking emotional support.
- Communication Styles: Men and women may have different communication styles. Men might be more likely to communicate through actions rather than words, while women may value verbal communication more.
- Fear of Vulnerability: Men may be hesitant to open up due to societal pressures that emphasize strength and independence. Expressing vulnerability can be seen as a weakness.
These are generalizations, and individual experiences vary greatly.
What We Are Doing
Urban Light Ministries created The Fathering Strong® App to facilitate small fatherhood group formation using smartphones. We have made progress in that more than 300 have downloaded the app. Getting them to begin communicating with us and other dads remains challenging. Successfully achieving that requires creativity, understanding, and sustained effort.
We are exploring the tactic of working with preexisting groups of males and fathers, providing them with the Fathering Strong® App as a resource for enhancing their engagement with the participants. As we presented at various conferences in 2024, we found interest on the part of fatherhood programs in using the app to strengthen their relationships with program participants and enable long-term tracking of their participants’ progress as fathers.
Head Start centers see the Fathering Strong® App as a tool to enhance their success in engaging fathers and other male caregivers in their students’ care and early childhood education. One of their goals is to increase their children’s kindergarten readiness.
Looking Ahead to 2025
This year, we will focus more intently on helping prospective customers get started and effectively incorporate the Fathering Strong® App in their programs. A key prospect is Miami Valley Child Development Centers, which has committed to conducting pilot Fathering Strong® virtual groups at two Head Start centers. Success will result in the possibility of Fathering Strong® being sought after by Head Start agency operators nationwide.
Adding a church-based fatherhood curriculum will increase the platform’s appeal to more types of entities.
We will seek to add interactive devotionals to increase our engagement with those who download the app.
Inspiration from the Holy Scriptures
And he will turn
The hearts of the fathers to the children,
And the hearts of the children to their fathers,
Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.” – Malachi 4:6 NKJV
The work of turning the hearts of fathers to their children is worth every effort because of the impact on the children and their community. Pray with us for God’s wisdom, guidance, and His provision as we seek His will in these endeavors.
Watch the podcast with Pastor Eli Williams and Bruce Stapleton discussing this blog post.
About the Author
Eli Williams is a father, grandfather, and mentor to several men. He and his wife Judy have served in community outreach ministry since the late 1980s and founded Urban Light Ministries in 1995. Eli has been a professional fatherhood practitioner since 2006 and is an ordained Christian minister helping to pastor New Hope Church in Springfield, Ohio. Reverend Williams authored Father Love—The Powerful Resource Every Child Needs in 2016 and led ULM in the creation of Fathering Strong.
Join
We invite you to join Fathering Strong, a new and growing community of fathers. To register, go to www.fatheringstrong.com, download the free app, and turn on the notifications. Explore the many resources, converse with other fathers, and share your story.
Your financial contributions allow us to serve fathers at no cost. Please consider donating. Fathering Strong is powered by Urban Light Ministries, Inc., a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 in Springfield, Ohio. Our mission is to turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to the Heavenly Father. To learn more about Urban Light Ministries’ history, work, and mission, explore www.urbanlight.org. To support Fathering Strong and help us reach more fathers and continue to provide this important app, please click the button below.