Illinois Council on Responsible Fatherhood hosts annual Fatherhood Empowerment Symposium
On Nov. 3, the annual free Fatherhood Empowerment Symposium was held by the Illinois Council on Responsible Fatherhood at the Oak Park Public Library in Oak Park.
Hosted by governor-appointed chairman, attorney Jeffery M. Leving, the symposium focused on obstacles facing unwed and divorced fathers.
Leving set the tone for the day by saying, "If you can dream it, you can do it. It's never too late to protect our kids one kid at a time."
Following on this theme, the event focused on two areas: first, protecting children from threats online and in social media and, second, protecting and preserving the parenting rights of fathers.
The first speaker, former FBI special agent Robert Messemer, addressed online threats our children face. Agent Messemer held many positions within the Bureau throughout his career, including heading up their Hong Kong office and serving on a team of agents that cracked the Rodney King case. In describing his time on the FBI's cybercrimes unit, Agent Messemer revealed that 90 percent of their cases dealt with child predators.
First and foremost, the agent stressed that parents must be vigilant about their children's practices online. However, he reminded us that parents pay for their children's devices, internet accounts, and phone plans and therefore have the right to monitor their children's activities on the phone and on their computers. Predators will troll the websites of church groups, schools, and other institution where children are involved where they can find images of children online. Then, they stalk them. They will put themselves in positions trust, such as a tutor or volunteer driver to get near children, which is why Agent Messemer said he will not allow images of his children to appear on any websites. Among the tech tools Agent Messemer recommended to protect children were Net Nanny and Spyzee.
Similarly, detective Wayne Halick also encouraged parent-child communication as protection against any number of threats that children face, not merely child predators but also drug dealers and cyber bullies. Halick believes we must "equip, engage, and empower" our children to resist online and social media threats. One crucial step parents should take is to view their children's browsing history for common threats like searches pertaining to drugs or weapons but also, for example, when girls search topics like "how to lose weight fast."
Halick suggested girls can be vulnerable to peer pressure and bullying online. He recommended "Girls Just Want to Have Likes: How to Raise Confident Girl in the Face of Social Media Madness" by Laurie Wolk, which describes the pressure upon teen girls to be popular on social media. The problem is so severe that girls can experience the same dopamine effects that runners do. However, the last component of Halick's formula is "empower," which means that parents who engage with their children empower them to make smart choices.
The next speaker was Lois Rakoff, an ICRF council member, who pioneered the use of in-hospital voluntary paternity forms back in the 1990s. This meant that unwed fathers could choose to fill out a form and establish paternity in the maternity ward. Rakoff introduced a number of programs intended to assist fathers with parenting skills. One such program is Watch D.O.G.S., which stands from Dads of Great Students. Founded after the Columbia school massacre, the program is designed to get fathers involved in their kids' school. Other programs Rakoff recommended included Healthy Start, an organization devoted to lowering the nation's infant mortality rate, which is higher than most developed countries.
State Rep. La Shawn Ford gave a presentation on House Bill 4113, also called the Equal Parenting Law, which supports Leving's core mission of defending fathers' rights. Rep. Ford also made a little news when he announced that he is running for mayor of the city of Chicago, which was interesting because former Alderman Bob Fioretti was also in attendance, and he is also running.
Finally, attorney Maureen Gorman gave a presentation concerning her successful appeals in cases versus the Department of Children and Family Services which was extremely informative. Gorman has a great deal of experience navigating the complicated bureaucracy of DCFS. She has been particularly effective in protecting fathers from the loose evidentiary threshold. The message is never go up against a major agency without an attorney.
Mark Wallace of WVON radio who had interviewed Leving the day before on his radio show was also on hand. Overall, it was a highly motivational event and a great bonding experience for everyone.
At the end of the event, one of Leving's former clients who had attended gave him a big hug. He thanked him for reuniting him with his children and saving his relationship with them. All attendees left with knowledge that will advance the mission of protecting children forward into the future. The symposium reaffirmed Leving's commitment to fighting for those who cannot fight for themselves. He is already looking forward to an empowering symposium next year.