RIVERDALE — Sequoyah Middle School is on a mission to encourage, inspire and inform fathers.
Every third Thursday at 9:30 a.m., the school hosts a fathers group, but Sequoyah recently held a special Dialogue with Dads event that featured two organizations that are providing resources for fathers — CHAMP Fatherhood and Furthering Fathering.
“We not only need to highlight the good that they do — the fathers and father figures — but also do our best to highlight information and resources that are also available in the community,” Chris Latson said as he was giving an overview of CHAMP Fatherhood.
“Fathers are the pillars our households,” he said.
Representatives from Furthering Fathering also shared information about what they do — including working with and equipping fathers who are in jail.
Often those who are in jail have no idea how to be a father, Furthering Fathering’s Frank Culbreath said.
“We’re excited about where we are and what we’re doing because we know that the things that we’re doing are impacting the future,” Culbreath said.
Two Clayton County commissioners were at the event — Chair Jeff Turner and Vice Chair DeMont Davis (who hosts an annual back-to-school brunch for fathers).
“This is a great initiative,” Turner said. “We need to have more conversations with dads in our community about playing a larger role in our school systems — especially for our children.”
The closing speaker didn’t have a perspective on being a father but spoke about the importance of fathers being involved in their children’s lives.
“It helps us very much and we also have those father-son moments and if you’re a daughter — those father-daughter moments,” Sequoyah Middle seventh-grader Jaiden Lee said. “You want to always keep that father figure in your life and to always just have them — someone to…
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