QUESTION
Council Member Stevens Asks Dionis Fernandez About Collaborating with DYCD's Fatherhood Initiative
1:42:59
·
120 sec
Council Member Althea Stevens queries Dionis Fernandez on whether he has utilized or collaborated with the Department of Youth & Community Development's (DYCD) Fatherhood Initiative. Fernandez, founder of a movement advocating for fathers' rights, shares his efforts to highlight fathers' struggles in gaining justice and custody rights. Stevens expresses interest in connecting Fernandez's work with DYCD's programs to enhance support for fathers and discusses the potential for collaboration among various organizations dedicated to uplifting fathers' roles.
Speaker 1
1:42:59
I didn't have a question for the young man with the father's initiative.
1:43:04
Have you taken advantage of any of the services that the YCDs offering with their father's initiatives, and have you worked collaboratively with them at all?
1:43:13
Yes.
1:43:13
That's right here, Michael, maybe.
Speaker 4
1:43:16
No.
1:43:17
I just started this movement now.
1:43:19
I got a big platform.
1:43:20
So what I do is I just go to the 5 barrels, If the father's been doing everything they can as fathers, what I do is I make an interview about what they're going through.
1:43:29
We don't talk about the mother.
1:43:30
We just talk about how we fathers and everything we're doing to be there for our children, and we still are not able to get the justice we deserve.
Speaker 1
1:43:39
Yeah.
1:43:39
We'd love to see how we can connect you with the work that they're doing with the positive initiatives and what you're doing because it definitely sounds like there's some health overlapped there as well.
1:43:47
And I know that there's, like, a whole bunch of organizations doing, you know, not necessarily that piece, but, like, I know, like, council member rally.
1:43:54
He's part of the decking and all those things, and I would love to just see how all of those things could be integrated because it is true.
1:44:00
We often talk about the mom and and don't talk about the dad and wanna make sure that we're highlighting
Speaker 4
1:44:04
So so what's going on now was, like, let's see if the child is fourteen, fifteen years old, and he's able to reach out to his father.
1:44:11
So what what what kids are doing when they get that age, They wanna reach out to the father to see why he wasn't in my life, and now the fathers are so improved.
1:44:19
I've been trying to be in your life, but they're just not giving me the justice.
1:44:23
So now a lot of kids are being mad at the mother.
1:44:26
They don't wanna be with the mother, and they just wanna be with the father for taking his right away to be with the dad.
1:44:32
So We need to do something about this because I believe it's very important for children to have their fathers and their life.
1:44:39
And when you go to court, is supposed to be what is in the best interest of the child.
1:44:44
But like I said, they always talk about harm and that problem.
1:44:46
And if we're not able to work things out, we're always gonna make one look better than the others.
1:44:51
So I just wanted to be about what can we do so we could both just be able to be there for ourselves.
1:44:57
Just moment.
Speaker 1
1:44:59
Absolutely.