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The National Fatherhood Initiative On almost every indicator of child well being, children today fare worse than their counterparts just a generation ago. The reason: the dramatic rise, over the last thirty years, in the number of children living in fatherless households. Indeed, children growing up without fathers are more likely to fail at school or to drop out, engage in early sexual activity, develop drug and alcohol problems, and experience or perpetrate violence. The National Fatherhood Initiative was created in 1994 to counter the growing problem of fatherlessness by stimulating a broad-based social movement to restore responsible fatherhood as a national priority. With the support and involvement of such notable Americans as former U.S. Education Secretary William Bennett, actor James Earl Jones, and pollster George Gallup, we developed the following three-part strategy for ensuring that more children grow up with a loving father. First, we are pursuing an aggressive public education campaign highlighting the importance of fathers to the well being of children and communities. In addition, we have developed, in conjunction with the Ad Council, a national public service announcement (PSA) campaign to raise the awareness of every American that fathers make unique and irreplaceable contributions to the lives of their children, and that collectively we need to encourage and support men to be good and responsible fathers. One of these ads has appeared nearly a half dozen times in USA Today. In partnership with Radio America, we have also developed a series of two-dozen radio PSAs featuring such prominent Americans as former HUD Secretary Jack Kemp, Senator Dan Coats, General Colin Powell, Senator Bill Bradley, former Seattle Seahawk and Congressman Steve Largent, and Penn State football coach Joe Paterno.
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