Saturday morning in the Housing Authority Area of Conway, children are bouncing, getting their faces painted, eating pizza, and seeing a magician. The Housing Authority held the event for children who live in low income housing. Organizers say activities are things these children might not otherwise experience.
"Probably about 95 percent of our residents are mother head of households," Montele Burton with the Conway Housing Authority says.
Burton is familiar with the pains of growing up fatherless in low income housing. He says he grew up not knowing his father in Section 8 housing in Charlotte, North Carolina.
"I didn't reconnect with him until I was 21," he says. "You often wonder you know did you do something wrong or how could you have done something different. You realize once you become a certain age it was never anything you did wrong it was just the choice of that father."
Now, Burton is one of the organizers of the Saturday event. Also on hand were Conway social service groups, who provided information about helping fathers with legal fees, education and job support.
"If we can get them the information so they can understand their position as a father, they can understand their responsibilities as a father. I think then we'll start seeing the desire from these men to do the best they can in regards to being in their life effectively with their children," says Sheldon Jarrett, an Intervention Specialist with a Father's Place.
