Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the uh Hampton City Council ceremonial session.

This is uh spotlight on Hampton citizens this evening, and so with that I'm gonna ask the clerk to call the roll.

Councilman Bowman.

Present.

Vice Mayor Brown.

Here.

Councilwoman Campbell, Councilwoman Faraby.

Present.

Councilwoman Harper, present.

Councilwoman Muggler.

President Mayor Gray.

President.

And tonight's spotlight topic is on family resilience.

And so I'm going to turn it over to uh Brian Marcese, a marketing and outreach coordinator to uh kick the program off.

Brian.

Thank you, Mayor Gray, members of Council, City Manager Bunting and City Attorney Sidner.

This evening's spotlight shines uh on a group of men who are helping to change lives.

One father and one family and one conversation at a time.

The Healthy Families Fatherhood Program is more than a city program.

It's a community movement that helps connect uh dads, who helps dads connect, reflect, and grow alongside their children.

Through the fatherhood program, fathers are given space to build confidence, learn new skills, and strengthen relationships, not only with their kids, but also with one another.

It's a place where being a dad is not something just something you do, it's something you grow into together.

At the center of this effort are five dedicated facilitators: Derek Neville's, Samuel Akban, Tyrone George, Arthur Edwards, and Darius Swift.

Each of these men have full-time jobs in places like Christopher Newport or Hampton University and the Commonwealth Victim, uh Commonwealth Attorney Victim Witness Unit and other organizations around the region.

But in the evenings, after their nine to five workday is done, they choose to spend their time leading fathers through this powerful program.

And they do it not for recognition or reward, but because they believe in the impact that it makes.

They believe in fathers and they believe in family.

The program's cornerstone, the 24-7 Nurturing Dad series, is a 12-week journey that explores topics such as men's health, positive discipline, co-parenting, and mindfulness.

During the winter months, the special level up your dad game workshop focuses on child development and financial literacy, offering real-world lessons that help fathers support their families every day.

Since 2023, Healthy Families, Antonette Edwards has transformed this program from only a few sign-ups and participants to nearly 600 fathers and family members who have participated in the programs today.

Also, thanks in part to one-time fatherhood initiative grant from the Virginia Department of Social Services, which advances the state's five-year plan to strengthen family engagement.

But tonight is more about that than the numbers is today is more about numbers, is not about numbers or curriculum.

It's about connection, excuse me.

You'll see that connection right here is in this room because of many of the fathers who take part in the Dad's 24-7 program, which meets coincidentally at the same time as council on Wednesday evenings, have come out tonight and are out here in uh the audience.

They decide to spend their time here together showing their support for their facilitators and to celebrate the program and the journeys they've had with uh as fathers.

That alone says everything you need to know about the heart of this program.

These men have built something special, a brotherhood of fathers who support each other, share wisdom, and grow stronger as parents and as people.

Whether through dad's day out events, the learning and literacy garden at Bluebird Gat Farm, which they help build, or simply through weekly conversations.

They are living proof that when fathers thrive, families thrive.

So tonight we honor both the facilitators who lead with dedication and the fathers who show up with courage and commitment.

Together, they are helping build a stronger, more connected Hampton, one family at a time.

So at this time, I'd like to invite uh some of those people up.

Uh first I'd like to invite um Antonette Edwards.

She uh actually um uh is in charge of the facilitators and and um coordinates them.

Um have Antonette come up.

Mayor Yeah, you can yes, you can stay under each one, yeah.

Uh next we'll have Derek Neville.

Is Derek not here?

He's he's working tonight.

Fair enough.

That's right.

Um next can we have um Samuel Acombong.

I I apologize.

Uh next we have Tyrone George.

Is he here?

Is Sammy's was still working?

Um should have had the meeting later so we could get uh uh people well from work.

Um next we have author Edwards.

And finally Darius Swift, who I believe couldn't make it tonight, correct?

Correct.

Um before we wrap up to the fathers in attendance this evening, thank you so much for the example you set and the love that you give.

You remind us every day that Fatherhood has the power to change lives and to strengthen our entire community.

And we'd love for to have everybody up here to take a group picture.

Um uh after the meeting here.

And with that, Mayor, I turn it back to you and uh or we can take the picture now.

Take the picture now.

If everybody wants to come up and take a group picture.

Okay, um we go all the way around the door stuff.

Come right here, it must be in right here.

Right here, we've got to be a little bit more.

So as I said earlier, Mayor, as you can see, this says everything about the heart of the program.

All the fathers and their families to come out to support uh the work that they've done.

And with that, I turn it back to you.

Thank you, Brian.

And uh thanks to all of the men who uh you know giving their time back to uh really kind of giving a great experience to some of the young people in our community.

Um have to admit I wasn't very familiar with the fatherhood program.

I I I need to be invited out to come out and see see it in action, and uh, but it's good that we have this uh this session so that we can sometimes kind of tease out those programs in the community that you know uh flying under the radar but doing some really remarkable stuff in our community, and there's so many people in the community, and that's what's special about Hampton is that we have programs like the Fatherhood Programs and others where people find that there's a need uh for their time and commitment and uh and we really appreciate those uh who kind of fill that void in the lives of those folks in the community, those young people in the community who may not have a dad around or may or may just need some some guidance and mentoring, and uh so it's really great that you all step in and fill into that role.

So thank you again from from all of us here.

Brian, that was a quick spotlight, but uh so with that I think we are done for this evening, so we will adjourn and uh uh next session will start at six thirty.