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'Helping me do better for my daughters': State pilot program offers education, job training for young fathers

The SouthtownStar - 6/17/2018

June 17--Jarvis Thomas has a job interview Monday.

It's a big opportunity for the unemployed father of two young girls from the far South Side, and he's determined to make the most of it.

Without a reliable means of transportation and a personal computer to search and apply for jobs, finding work has been tough for Thomas.

"Everybody wants you to go online and fill out an application, or come all the way somewhere," he said. "It's just too much commute, you know. People can't just travel like that."

The lack of income has forced Thomas to rely on benefits such as food stamps and has made it difficult for him to keep up with child support payments to his daughters' mother.

So when he received an invitation in the mail recently to join a pilot program that connects fathers who receive state aid to stable job opportunities, he jumped at the chance to enroll.

"It's helping me do better for my daughters," he said of the new program, known as the Fatherhood Project. "I want to make a change for them, a difference, you know."

While Thomas said he hadn't previously sought out employment training and assistance from the state, this new program appealed to him.

"It was for fathers," he said Thursday, after the program's kickoff event at an Illinois Department of Human Services facility in Chicago'sWashington Heights neighborhood. "And I'd rather be a father than a dad."

The distinction, as one of the IDHS employment and job-training providers who'd spoken to Thomas and a group of young men in similar situations had explained to them earlier in the day, is that "a father raises and takes care of his children," while "daddies make babies, but don't care for them."

The Fatherhood Project, a joint venture of IDHS' Office of Workforce Development and the Division of Child Support Services, is the first state-administered program of its kind that caters specifically to men like Thomas, said LaTanya Law-Fountain, associate director of workforce development for IDHS.

"We have employment and training programs all the time, but we have not ever targeted non-custodial parents," she said. "Currently, they are our focus."

IDHS identified approximately 350 non-custodial fathers age 18 to 30 who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits in Cook and DuPage counties to target as part of the pilot program, Law-Fountain said.

Its goal is to provide these men with the education and job training necessary to obtain gainful employment so they can support themselves and their children without government assistance.

"You can't have a strong family, a good relationship with your child, if you really can't support your child," said Janet Hampton, IDHS bureau chief of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and Teen Parent Services. "It's not about us wanting (separated mothers and fathers) to be connected and be able to sing 'Kumbaya,' but we want them to understand that it's about you and it's about your child."

About a dozen young fathers attended the program's inaugural event Thursday, where they received an overview of the project's mission, learned about expungement -- since some of the participants have criminal records -- and heard motivational speeches about personal responsibility, entrepreneurship and employment. The event closed with a cooking demonstration inside a mobile kitchen that served as an advertisement for the Greater Chicago Food Depository's job training program, Chicago'sCommunity Kitchens.

The 12-week program, which helps unemployed and underemployed adults transition into food service careers, is just one of the many job-training options available to Fatherhood Project participants.

Quantrell Taylor, a former chef instructor who now manages production and catering for Chicago'sCommunity Kitchens, shared his own story of uplift with program participants and encouraged them to consider a career in food service.

Taylor, or Chef Q, as he's known in the kitchen, said he was returning from a fourth stint in prison around 13 years ago when he entered a food service training program like the one that now employs him.

"I was looking for some permanent work," Taylor said. "Something that can give me a skill to develop it into a career."

Before long, he was working in a restaurant, where he quickly ascended to kitchen manager. From there, he took a job teaching students in the food service program he'd graduated from, and eventually received a grant to attend culinary school.

Since finishing school, he's worked at the food depository, where he's currently responsible for developing recipes and managing distribution of the packaged meals the depository delivers throughout the county.

Taylor said he shares his story so that others in situations like his realize that another way is possible.

"You can start at the bottom and you can rise to the top," he said. "It's just what is the individual willing to go through."

Thomas, who aspires to work in security, said he hopes his interview Monday with Allied Universal will help put him on the road to success and expressed gratitude for the opportunity the Fatherhood Project has given him.

"It's definitely a great program," he said, adding that he plans to spread the word about it to friends who are looking for steady work.

"I'm going to help 'em out, just like I got help," Thomas said. "You just need a little push. One little push will go a long way."

zkoeske@tribpub.com

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