A recent U.S. Census Bureau report shows one in three children nationwide grow up in a fatherless home. A local organization in Clark County helps local men become better fathers. The organization has just received a new grant that will help the group called Urban Light Ministries serve more people.
The Ohio Commission on Fatherhood awarded Urban Light Ministries a four-year, $420,000 grant to partner with the Ohio Job & Family Services to offer fatherhood programs in Clark, Montgomery and Greene Counties.
Only six awards were given to agencies around the state.
Urban Lights CEO Eli Williams says the fatherhood improvement program is called POPS Project 2.0. Williams says children who grow up with a father actively involved in their lives, tend to have better outcomes.
"There more likely to not drop out of school, they're more likely to actually achieve in school, they're less likely to use drugs, join gangs, get pregnant and the kind of things that kind of sidetrack a child," Williams says.
More than 300 fathers and families have participated in the fatherhood programming since 2006. Urban Lights hopes to add at least 200 more with the new grant.