Mentoring Project

The Mentoring Project - Elephant Musth Cycle from The Mentoring Project on Vimeo.

In America, over 33% of children are raised in a single parent household, and climbing yearly. In the African American community, that number jumps to over 50% (this number has doubled in a mere 30 years).

• 84% of single-parent households are single-mother households.
• Children who grow up without a father are 5x more likely to live in poverty and commit crime as adults.
• They are 9x more likely to drop out of school.
• They are 20x (twenty times!) more likely to end up in prison.
• They are more likely to have behavioral problems, run away from home, or become teenage parents. You can easily see how the cycle propagates itself.

Differing between correlation and causation is tricky. As in, these numbers are related, but does one truly cause the other?

Of single parent households:

• 81% are gainfully employed
• 75% live ABOVE the poverty line
• 69% do NOT receive public assistance

Single parent households are not so drastically different from "normal" family structures economically.

It is not so hard to believe that just maybe the simple lack of having a male role model/father figure in the life of the child is causing that huge of a difference emotionally, developmentally and spiritually.