Young Fathers

Curtis Dorsey wasn't exactly a willing volunteer for the Young Fathers Program of Annapolis."I'll tell you the truth," Dorsey says. "They dragged me in, kicking and screaming all the way."Now, two months later, Dorsey appears grateful that recruiters for the program persuaded him to give it a try. "I'm thinking more about my son now," he says, referring to 5-year-old Curtis Jr.Dorsey and more than 20 participants in Young Fathers last night got together at the Stanton Center in Annapolis to celebrate Thanksgiving a little early with a dinner for their children, and the mothers of their children.

The young father told police that he was alone with his newborn son when he inhaled the spray from a can of electronics cleaner, an increasingly popular choice for those seeking a cheap high. Moments later, he went on to tell investigators, he awoke from a brief blackout to find his 15-day-old son bruised and disfigured. Kenneth George Ryan said he does not remember how the baby was hurt, but yesterday police announced that the 20-year-old Baltimore County man had been charged with murder.

INDIANAPOLIS -- For the seven young black men sitting in a classroom here one crystalline afternoon last week, the subject on the table was fatherhood. They were there to talk about strengthening their relationships with their children. But the long shadow in the room was the absence of their own fathers from their lives."I knew how I felt when you had father-and-son things at school and I couldn't just call my dad and say, `Let's roll up,' " said Isreal Burgess, a voluble 20-year-old who spent most of the day with his head buried in a thick directory of career options.

Clifton Bowens, 18, a former gang member with a bad attitude and strong dislike of school, had twice been incarcerated for car theft when he learned last year that his girlfriend was pregnant. He listened intently the other night as a former high school dropout, who had been arrested 13 times and fathered three sons by age 21, told how he got his act together and became a Baltimore city councilman, U.S. congressman and the president of the NAACP. Bowens, who with 29 other fathers heard Kweisi Mfume at New Shiloh Family Life Center in West Baltimore, said the civil rights leader's remarks late Thursday "let me know out of all the stuff I go through, don't give up."

A high-profile advertising campaign against teen pregnancy in Maryland is taking on an even broader challenge: getting young men to support the children they father."

In the complicated, troubled world of children having children, the fathers usually end up being the forgotten ones.But not in Anne Arundel County, at least not this year. At the urging of county Director of Social Services Ed Bloom, County Executive Robert R. Neall has proposed a boost in the contribution for a program for young fathers by nearly 120 percent, from $43,400 during the current fiscal year to $96,120 for next year.Young Fathers helps disadvantaged boys and men between the ages of 16 and 25 -- the kind you see hanging on the street corners, maybe even selling drugs -- find jobs so they can be responsible for their children and become decent members of society.

Christopher Gibson still remembers the sting he felt last month when a Baltimore social worker told him he wasn't a real parent but merely a "proxy" for his 6-month-old daughter.He even remembers the date -- June 1 -- when it happened. He had applied for welfare certificates for baby food and formula, and was at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School to pick them up. The social worker turned him away, telling him to get the child's mother, recalls Mr. Gibson of Forest Park in West Baltimore."I was treated like I was nothing, like I was nobody," said Mr. Gibson, 24, who is not married to the child's mother.

ANNAPOLIS -- A year ago, Marvin Cole Jr. suddenly realized his son's life was going to be exactly like his.And that was the worst thing he could imagine.Mr. Cole, 23, had lost his mother when he was 2. His father had been in jail much of his youth. Marvin III, 5 at the time, had lost his mother in a homicide. And, given that Mr. Cole was using and dealing drugs, jail seemed a likely outcome for him.Instead, Mr. Cole joined the Young Fathers Program of Annapolis, recruited by another former drug dealer, James Butler, who was "a guy I used to hang with," he said.

PRESTON -- A weekend fire that displaced six families probably was caused by a cat that knocked over a lamp, the state fire marshal's office said."It happens occasionally, where a pet will knock over a candle or something and cause a fire," said Deputy Chief Fire Marshal Allen Ward. "It's infrequent, but it's not unheard of."Tenants Sheryl Solomon and Robert Massey were not home when the blaze began Saturday night in their Preston apartment. No one in the six-unit complex was hurt, but the couple's cat died, Ward said.

Clifton Bowens, 18, a former gang member with a bad attitude and strong dislike of school, had twice been incarcerated for car theft when he learned last year that his girlfriend was pregnant. He listened intently the other night as a former high school dropout, who had been arrested 13 times and fathered three sons by age 21, told how he got his act together and became a Baltimore city councilman, U.S. congressman and the president of the NAACP. Bowens, who with 29 other fathers heard Kweisi Mfume at New Shiloh Family Life Center in West Baltimore, said the civil rights leader's remarks late Thursday "let me know out of all the stuff I go through, don't give up."

INDIANAPOLIS -- For the seven young black men sitting in a classroom here one crystalline afternoon last week, the subject on the table was fatherhood. They were there to talk about strengthening their relationships with their children. But the long shadow in the room was the absence of their own fathers from their lives."I knew how I felt when you had father-and-son things at school and I couldn't just call my dad and say, `Let's roll up,' " said Isreal Burgess, a voluble 20-year-old who spent most of the day with his head buried in a thick directory of career options.

New Year's Eve, 1997.Why don't you stay home tonight? Cassandra Fair asked her husband. Since their marriage in 1994, Cassandra and Aaron Tracey Fair had brought in the new year together.But Tracey, as everybody called him, wanted to go out with friends. Maybe go play video games at somebody's house. Tracey was a security guard for Johns Hopkins Hospital, was in the U.S. Army Reserves, was a husband and a father of two children -- but he still could be a kid. Still played tackle football with the guys, volunteered as a mentor at the Lafayette Square Community Center, still played video games.

PRESTON -- A weekend fire that displaced six families probably was caused by a cat that knocked over a lamp, the state fire marshal's office said."It happens occasionally, where a pet will knock over a candle or something and cause a fire," said Deputy Chief Fire Marshal Allen Ward. "It's infrequent, but it's not unheard of."Tenants Sheryl Solomon and Robert Massey were not home when the blaze began Saturday night in their Preston apartment. No one in the six-unit complex was hurt, but the couple's cat died, Ward said.

Joe Jones vividly recalls that first Men's Services meeting in 1993, attended only by Jones, two staff members, one client and two guys summoned off a street corner."

MYRON TURNER'S profile might not fit that of the usual Father's Day poster dad. But in the past year he has come much further toward that ideal than many of the other men who are being honored today for the positive roles they play.At 20, Myron Turner is the father of five daughters, ranging in age from 4 months to 5 years old. Despite his love of lacrosse, football and other sports, he dropped out of Walbrook High School in favor of spending more time as a gang leader in the lucrative drug trade on West Baltimore's mean streets.

Myron Turner never met his father. So when the West Baltimore youth became a father himself -- four times before his 19th birthday -- he didn't know what to do.He was addicted to sniffing glue. He ran with a westside street gang. He made thin attempts at being a good father. He lived a lifestyle that defied his nickname, "Luck."Strung out with almost nowhere to turn, Mr. Turner, still 19, got some advice about where to get help last year from the mother of one of his children. Today, he's enrolled in a curriculum at the Healthy Start men's center in West Baltimore, where he's learning to be a better father and stronger person with dreams of completing high school and then, maybe, college.

Six months ago, Howard Alexander Jr., a 26-year-old father of three, was flipping burgers at McDonald's with no ambitions for a career. Today, he is working toward a career as a printer and holding down a job to support his children.But Project Focus, the program that he and other minority young people say helped them get started, apparently is shutting its doors, a victim of federal budget cuts."I'm very disappointed," said Mr. Alexander. "All they're doing is making better criminals by cutting out a program like this."

James Davis, a father at age 19, bristles when he hears that black teen-age males are interested only in making babies."Ridiculous," Davis says of those assessments that teen fathers have little concern for the well-being of child and mother.He fumes at the perceptions that few black teen-age males will commit themselves to their girlfriends after they've given birth, and that the only contact they'll have with mother and child is through child-support payments.And, when it's brought up that some people feel that blackteen-age males are simply not good fathers, Davis cuddles Sharnice, his 10-month-old daughter, and kisses her gently on the cheek.

Six months ago, Howard Alexander Jr., a 26-year-old father of three, was flipping burgers at McDonald's with no ambitions for a career. Today, he is working toward a career as a printer and holding down a job to support his children.But Project Focus, the program that he and other minority young people say helped them get started, apparently is shutting its doors, a victim of federal budget cuts."I'm very disappointed," said Mr. Alexander. "All they're doing is making better criminals by cutting out a program like this."

Christopher Gibson still remembers the sting he felt last month when a Baltimore social worker told him he wasn't a real parent but merely a "proxy" for his 6-month-old daughter.He even remembers the date -- June 1 -- when it happened. He had applied for welfare certificates for baby food and formula, and was at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School to pick them up. The social worker turned him away, telling him to get the child's mother, recalls Mr. Gibson of Forest Park in West Baltimore."I was treated like I was nothing, like I was nobody," said Mr. Gibson, 24, who is not married to the child's mother.