[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 6]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 8087-8088]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




    MARVIN CHARLES--CONGRESSIONAL TESTIMONY TO REPRESENTATIVE DAVE 
                 REICHERT'S LAW ENFORCEMENT TASK FORCE

                                  _____
                                 

                         HON. DAVID G. REICHERT

                             of washington

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 7, 2016

  Mr. REICHERT. Mr. Speaker, I submit the following testimony:

       Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today. I'm 
     honored to be here. I first met with Congressman Reichert at 
     his District Office last year, just before I drove my 18-
     year-old daughter to Oklahoma to start her freshman year in 
     college.
       This is the daughter who started my journey. She was the 
     baby girl I was about to abandon on the steps of a hospital 
     18 years ago. But as I held her that day, my heart changed. I 
     looked into her little brown eyes and I started to cry. I 
     realized that's not what a father is supposed to do. A father 
     is supposed to protect and take care of his child. But I had 
     no idea whatsoever of how to do that. Because of her, I have 
     the opportunity to come before you today and tell you the 
     story of DADS (www.aboutdads.org).
       DADS stands for Divine Alternatives for Dads Services. We 
     are based in Seattle but serve fathers and families in the 
     Puget Sound region and throughout Western Washington. Our 
     vision is ``Stronger Fathers, Healthier Communities.'' Our 
     mission is ``To give fathers hope by walking together in 
     supportive community, helping them navigate relational and 
     legal barriers that separate them from their children and 
     families.''
       I believe--from personal experience--that the biggest 
     problem facing our nation today is not crime, drugs and 
     alcohol, or gang violence. These are just the results of a 
     larger problem, which is fatherlessness. So many of the 
     problems in our communities today are direct results of 
     fatherlessness.
       Far too many of our young people have not had strong, 
     responsible fathers engaged in their lives. As a result, too 
     many go off the rails. They begin committing crimes, abusing 
     drugs and alcohol, dropping out of school, and running away 
     from home. Another common side effect is teenage pregnancies 
     and out-of-wedlock births.
       The National Fatherhood Initiative has identified 
     fatherlessness as the root cause of $100 billion a year in 
     taxpayer costs. A few statistics:
       90 percent of all homeless and runaway children are from 
     fatherless homes.
       85 percent of all children that exhibit behavioral 
     disorders come from fatherless homes.
       85 percent of all youths in prisons grew up in a fatherless 
     home.
       80 percent of rapists motivated by displaced anger come 
     from fatherless homes.
       75 percent of all adolescents in chemical abuse centers 
     come from fatherless homes.
       71 percent of all high school dropouts come from fatherless 
     homes.
       70 percent of juveniles in state-operated institutions come 
     from fatherless homes.
       63 percent of youth suicides are individuals from 
     fatherless homes.
       I sometimes compare fatherlessness to AIDS. The AIDS virus 
     doesn't kill you, but it breaks down your immune system, so 
     the infection that you catch is what kills you. 
     Fatherlessness works the same way. If you

[[Page 8088]]

     remove a father from the home, the family doesn't die, but it 
     is opened up for infection--which comes in the form of 
     teenage pregnancy, crime, gang violence, drugs and alcohol 
     and other negative impacts. So what can be done about the 
     nationwide problem of fatherlessness? DADS is a faith-based 
     organization that addresses this problem in our Washington 
     state. I founded this organization in the year 2000 along 
     with my wife, Jeanett. I had spent many years of my life on 
     the wrong side of the tracks, but when faced with the 
     decision to leave our daughter on the steps of a hospital, I 
     knew then that I needed to turn my life around and become a 
     responsible father. It wasn't easy--in fact, it was the 
     hardest thing I had ever done. But the rewards of being a 
     real father to my children made it the best thing I have ever 
     done. And it made me want to help other men do the same 
     thing.
       Over the last 16 years, DADS has helped over 3,000 men 
     reunite with over 6,000 children. Our client population is 
     predominantly minority, with 66 percent African American. The 
     rest are Hispanic, Asian and Caucasian. Of those clients, 
     approximately 90 percent have a history of incarceration. Of 
     the thousands of men who have received services from DADS, 
     their main motivation is the desire to reenter the lives of 
     their children.
       With the help they get through our program, many of these 
     men are able to regain visitation rights, pay child support, 
     share or get custody, find and keep jobs, provide stable 
     housing, become taxpaying citizens, and even reunite with 
     their families. As a result, their children stay in school, 
     keep off drugs and out of gangs, avoid teenage pregnancies, 
     graduate from high school and even go on to college.
       The effectiveness of our program depends on the trust that 
     each individual develops in our staff as we help them 
     navigate systems. For this reason, DADS does not charge for 
     our services. We focus on building a vision for healthy 
     fatherhood and then finding the resources that each 
     individual needs to achieve success.
       Law-enforcement officers see firsthand the legacies of 
     fatherlessness. Children from fatherless homes often become 
     casualties, victims or offenders themselves. Then they are 
     challenges for our school systems, social-service programs, 
     drug and alcohol recovery services, law-enforcement agencies, 
     legal and court systems--and ultimately our jails and 
     prisons.
       With Father's Day just around the corner, it is my hope 
     that all of us would recommit to the goal of helping create 
     stronger fathers and healthier communities.


     

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