Spencer Bokat-Lindell photo
Files with his children.
Accepting a certificate of achievement in Scantlebury Park on Saturday, Kendall Files was hoping to start a new legacy for his family.
Files, 26, brought his two children on stage as Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison applauded him for completing “24/7” Dad, an eight-week parenting education program offered by the New Haven Family Alliance.
Files was one of 18 fathers who received the same certificate at an inaugural New Haven “Dads Matter Too” event in the park Saturday. John Rogers, a supervisor at the Connecticut Department of Children and Families and director of the event, said the purpose of the campaign is to encourage and celebrate fatherhood in New Haven. The “Dads Matter Too” campaign, which started in 2013, has hosted similar events in Waterbury and other cities across Connecticut, and Rogers wanted to bring it to New Haven this year.
DCF’s Rogers at Saturday’s event.
“We want to promote dads to be more involved with their children’s education, to be providers in different capacities … to be more involved with their children’s lives,” Rogers said. He said he hopes that the event will raise awareness about available resources for fathers in New Haven who are struggling to remain involved with their families.
For Files, a single parent whose own father left when he was 5 years old, the 24/7 Dad program helped him get on his feet and provide for his two young children.
“I was in a bad spot in my life, and I was just ready to give up … I didn’t know how to deal with a little girl,” Files said. After taking advantage of the New Haven Family Alliance’s fatherhood classes and job assistance program, he was able to secure a job at a Toys ’R Us in Waterbury and feels better equipped to care for his children: “I’m gonna make sure [they] have the best time on this Earth.”
The New Haven Family Alliance was one of dozens of organizations that showed their support for the campaign. Also present in Scantlebury on Saturday were ’R Kids, which offers reunification programs for vulnerable children and parents, the Family Centered Services of Connecticut, and My Father, My Son, a youth counseling agency for children with incarcerated parents.
The Greek Olive provided pizza from its truck, while New Haven police officers sat perched in the nearby dunk tank.
“It’s not about fathers as add-ons to the equation,” said Ken Harris, the director of the New Haven Healthy Start Association and the keynote speaker for the day. “We have to get to the point where dads know that their worth to their families is priceless.”