Ignite Study of the Jewish Family and Children's Service of the Suncoast, Inc.

In each full year of the grant, this program will serve a minimum of 250 community-based fathers or expectant fathers (custodial or noncustodial) who are age 18 and older and who have a child or children under the age of 24. While the program will be targeted to fathers, mothers may also be served, as might individuals who play a father figure role such as adoptive fathers, foster fathers, grandfathers, etc. Ignite will serve the geographic area of Sarasota, Manatee, and Charlotte counties on the Gulf Coast of Florida. The goals of the program are to help struggling fathers and father figures improve the parent-child relationship, sustain healthy marriages and relationships (and help those who are single identify ways to enter into safe and supportive relationships that may ultimately lead to marriage), and identify and support fathers in their economic stability and employment objectives. These outcomes will be achieved through the provision of a series of workshops addressing responsible parenting and marriage and relationships as well as a complement of employment services and comprehensive case management. Additional services needed by participants will be identified and provided either through the extensive wraparound programming provided by JFCS or through collaborative agreements with local partner agencies.

Additionally, Ignite will incorporate a comprehensive employment program combining both job and career advancement. This will help fathers in crisis reach improved financial stability, which will in turn improve the ability of individual participants to be better parents and better partners, furthering the goals to foster more stable parent-child relationships and promote healthy marriages in the region. Nationwide 35% of children live in single parent families. Growing up in a single-parent family increases a child's risk of growing up poor, becoming a teen parent, dropping out of school, and disconnecting from the labor market. Coupled with its successful history of providing healthy marriage programming, JFCS as an agency is well-positioned to help families in crisis (both due to current economic conditions and in more long-term tenuous situations) become more stable and self-sufficient. Notable within our local demographic data is a significantly higher than average rate of unemployment and higher percentages of income in the past 30 days less than $500. Understanding the inextricable link between financial security and family stability, Ignite is truly targeting and reaching the most vulnerable individuals based solely on economic risk factors.