Fathers' Inc finds a home

Male parenting advocacy group, Fathers' Inc, has been given a permanent centre after two decades of searching.

Professor Gordon Shirley, principal of the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, formally presented the new centre at Bryce Hill Plaza, August Town, to the group on Tuesday, August 9. The launch of the Barry Chevannes Fathers' Resource Centre was part of the ceremony where the UWI Mona Source was also formally handed over to the university by Jamaica National Building Society (JNBS).

"The August Town community can benefit directly from the counselling, support meetings, sporting activities and other outreach programmes that will be a part of Fathers' Inc," Professor Shirley told the gathering. He pointed out that this would honour the memory of the late founder of Fathers' Inc, Professor Barry Chevannes, who had worked extensively in the August Town community.

"Fathers' Inc will not only be focused on August Town," Professor Shirley added. He said it is a national organisation, which will serve the entire country with its programmes.

"This final, stable place, in August Town, will serve Fathers' Inc in promoting its platform of good fathering," said Dr Herbert Gayle, director of the group. Among the plans being developed is a project to help young men become good fathers, a fathers' emergency telephone line for men in crisis, and a parenting DVD for men attending prenatal clinics.

"We want to affect people positively," Dr Gayle stated. He said Jamaican men are frequently told they are poor fathers when the data show that slightly more children have direct access to their fathers in Jamaica than in either the United States or the United Kingdom.

"There are no data suggesting that Jamaican fathers are the worst," Dr Gayle declared.

Earl Jarrett, general manager of JNBS, said the Source technology centre, being handed over to the university, had been initiated in conjunction with the UWI Township Project, in which Professor Chevannes had played a leading role. Jarrett stated that Professor Chevannes had been "a tireless advocate for the arts and societal transformation".

sharing the vision

The UWI Mona Source, formerly The Source, August Town, was developed by the JNBS Foundation along with four other centres in underserved communities, providing them with wireless Internet cafés, audio visual rooms for training and meetings, and community business offices.

"It is my hope that all who use this facility will share Barry's (Chevannes) vision of a better and brighter future for Jamaica," Jarrett stated.

A fixed home for Fathers' Inc had been a dream of its founders for more than 20 years, said Pauletta Chevannes, widow of Professor Chevannes. She stated that for them, "It was not an easy road."

With their new meeting facilities at Bryce Hill Plaza, Mrs Chevannes said the dreams of the founders had become reality. She declared that more Jamaicans "need to dream big and to fight the obstacles".