Some of the data around the impact of children growing up without a father –

90% of homeless men come from fatherless homes, 63% of youth suicides come from fatherless homes, 75% of substance abusers come from fatherless homes, 85% of children who show behavioural issues come from fatherless homes and our girls are 7x more likely to become teenage mums from fatherless homes.

The data above is something I’ve seen first-hand through my work in shelters, youth hostels, prison and around drug recovery. Children may seem resilient after the separation but around ages 10-14 the cracks begin to appear.

I spoke with a man recently around the impact of his father walking out of his life at 9 years old, he told me this isn’t something he has recovered from. He went on to become addicted to drugs, became homeless and has been in and out of prison. This fits the data I have researched, and there are many like him.

How can we stop fatherless homes and support our children suffering from fatherless syndrome?

As a charity we have a 5-year business plan which will look to support both parents after separation and encourage both parents to play an active role in their children’s lives.

If we want fathers to play an active role in their children’s lives, we need to start by valuing fathers and showing them how important they are to their children’s future.

Why does James’ Ark focus on fathers’ involvement?

The crisis is fatherless homes. Children are being brought up in single parent households, without fathers and this is having a significant impact on children and the community as a whole.

There are so many fantastic mothers out there who struggle daily bringing up children alone and do not get the emotional support, financial support or the praise for doing this. We want to avoid the stress in single parent households and encourage fathers to step up. We also want to avoid mothers who are withholding children from a loving parent, this has irreparable damage. It is often that the children will grow up, look for their birth father and realise that their relationship with a loving father was sabotaged, only to project this anger onto their mother. No child should be taught to hate, they should be taught to love and to forgive.