2010 In Celebration of Black Fathers' Week

The Real Dads Network (RDN) in conjunction with Assemblyman William Scarborough, Million Fathers Club, York College Male Initiative Program, Medgar Evers Male Development & Empowerment, United Black Men of Queens, Alpha Phi Alpha, Fraternity Inc (ZZL) and Celebrating Real Family Life is hosting In Celebration of Black Fathers’ Week. This week-long extravaganza marks the continuation of the Real Dads Network’s Annual Black Fatherhood Summits started back in 2005. This year’s events begin Monday, June 7th and end Saturday, June 12th, with events taking place in Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Bronx and Staten Island. The purpose of this historic event is to acknowledge BLACK FATHERS who are exemplary role models and positively impact our communities.

Originating as an outgrowth of the award-winning Real Dads – Black Men On Fatherhood documentary, Founder Derek Phillips created the Real Dads Network as a result of the unequivocal need for fathers to share their stories and experiences—a centralized resource where Black men could go to get AND share information. RDN provides information and opportunities to improve the lives of Black fathers through its activities and events, thus promoting and portraying positive Black fathers.

Continuing the momentum from last year’s successful series of events, we are looking forward to publicly honoring the important role that fathers play in the healthy development of their children and in strengthening their community. Our goal is to make this week of celebration a national event that is more empowering than Fathers Day alone.

What is Black Fathers Week about?

This is a celebratory week aimed at acknowledging BLACK FATHERS who are exemplary role models and key to strong communities. This is a week of social, cultural, and intellectual engagement that seeks to educate the public about the importance of fathers who are involved in the lives of their children, support and encourage positive fatherhood behaviors, discourage negative images as not being the norm, and link having healthy relationships to having healthy communities.

Who participates?

In Celebration of Black Fathers Week is the only week-long event in the New York region bringing together over 1000 men, from diverse backgrounds, to celebrate and promote fathers who are “Present and Accounted For” in the lives of their children.

Additionally, many, many more people will share in the celebratory messages through print and broadcast news stories, web reports by Real Dads Network and partner organizations, video blogs, social media (Face Book, My Space, You Tube, etc.), and press releases to fatherhood service providers and key state and federal legislators.