Illinois Fathers

Illinois Fathers has moved to a different web solution for our website as a result, we’re migrating all our old site content over to the new site. So some links might not work immediately, and search results from Search engines may be somewhat askew for the time being. If you are a site administrator linking to our site, please update your links. If you are a member and are wondering if your account still exists, it does, but you will need to click on the “Forgot Password” link on login and set a new password. All accounts were migrated to the new website, so you shouldn’t have to register. Forum Content and Files are coming soon.

Thank you.

We are pleased to announce that the board of directors for Illinois Fathers meet with the staff at the Attorney Generals office today to discuss two key issues that many non-custodial parents face. For those who face restraining orders, we discussed ensuring that the accused receive similar treatment as the accusers when it comes to informing them of their rights and obligations during such a sensitive time. The second issue we raised was the importance of our state police being aware of visitation interference as a criminal law. Many of our members have mentioned that their own law enforcement services simply refuse to enforce this law. We would like to thank the folks at the attorney generals office for taking a moment to listen to us, and hopefully this will prove to be a productive meeting at helping out our fellow non-custodial parents and their relationships with their children. Much thanks goes out to our friends at ACFC and SAVE for their assistance in the meeting.

Hats off to the folks out at Slick Pennies for pulling off such a successful event in memory of Steven Watkins. It was really amazing to see such a large turn out of community support for the Watkins Family! We also greatly appreciate their generous support towards our own organization. Thanks everyone for coming out.

We have heard rumor of an upcoming protest against the Attorney General of the State of Illinois in association with our organization. Illinois Fathers does not condone, approve, or will otherwise participate in this event or other similar events. For official events that Illinois Fathers takes part in, please always refer to our website and newsletters for the official announcements of activities held by our organization. We apologize for any confusion rumors of this nature may have caused.

We had a very good turn out in Urbana last night, roughly 20 people showed up and we had a wide range of experiences represented in the room. We were all glued to our seats when a custodial mother came in and spoke about the difficulties she used to cause for her ex, but how when she allowed her children to have a relationship with their dad that life got a lot easier and how her children did a lot better. A round of applause was well deserved and we do ever so much hope that lessons like this can be spread to help the issues we see all too often. Overall, a lot was to be learned last night and the meeting was a great success. As our area coordinators become more developed, we are no doubt going to see many more great meetings like this. Thank you all who attended, together we can make things better. And a huge thank you to the hard working folks in the Urbana area who worked very hard to get the word out!

Earlier this month, three of the board members in Illinois Fathers were interviewed by the television show “Captions” that is broadcast out of the Peoria market. During this episode we discuss a number off issues that are faced by non-custodial parents in our state. We’d like to thank Andre Bohannon for taking the time to discuss these issues with us.

On June 18, 2010, Illinois Fathers hosted their second annual Fatherless Day rally in Springfield. We were honored to have Dr. Stephen Baskerville as our keynote speaker and we are please to have seen representation from the Children’s Rights Council of Illinois, and Fathers-4-Justice. Following the speeches we moved into the Rotunda of the Capital and continued with our keynote speaker and a follow on Candidates Forum where two candidates for public office came out to outline their platform’s stance on shared parenting and the involvement of both parents in their children’s lives. We are pleased to announce that our efforts were very successful and we appreciate everyone’s support in this event!

Tim Brown – President, Illinois Fathers

Tim Brown, the Master of Ceremonies at this year’s event, and current president of Illinois Fathers gives the overview of how Illinois Fathers did this year and also discusses some of the goals an objectives of the year ahead. Topics discussed include the ongoing fundraiser, the shared parenting petition, and the bill we spoke against this year. And yes, you heard him right. When we get 100 people to attend an event. We’ll start work on trying to get shared parenting passed in Illinois. But it takes ALL of us to make it happen.

David Ihben – Father

David Ihben, a father who went through the family court system in Tazewell County over many years voices his concerns about the practices in our family court system from a first person perspective. David has spent weeks at a time through the dead of winter standing outside the Tazewell County Courthouse in support of shared parenting. Forced to represent himself as Pro-Se due to a lack of resources to provide for a solid defense, David has had many bumps and bruises in the family court system in his attempts to secure shared parenting of his child. Unfortunately, David’s scenario is not uncommon. For those non-custodial parents who choose to continue to fight to be involved in their children’s lives, they can find themselves completely drained of financial resources facing a legal system that is difficult to understand, often times hypocritical, and many times disappointing. Years of continued litigation in their efforts to spend decent time with their children oftentimes result in bitterness for the litigant and ultimately the lost childhood of their children.

Mike Dockarty – Executive Director of Children’s Rights Council of Illinois

As executive director of the Children’s Rights Council of Illinois, Mike Dockarty has been vital to public outreach amongst the professionals working in the divorce industry, through decades of research, analysis, and personal interviews, CRC-IL has built up a formidable analysis of the current standing of the family court structure in Illinois and its impact on the society as a whole. Fathers as Uncles? And we wonder where “irresponsible” fathers come from?

Tony Taylor
The incomparable Captain Tony Taylor gives us a scathing review of the lessons we must teach our younger generation when it comes to marriage and divorce. He gives us a further breakdown of how our government officials hold accountability in the existing family court system. He speaks of the importance of teaching our children to avoid marriage and to avoid procreation due to the hazards that exist in family courts today. This concept is referred to as a Marriage Strike and has been discussed in a variety of groups around the nation. While somewhat extreme in its implementation, it does underscore the steps that need to be taken in order to protect oneself from becoming a litigant in family court. Through effective family court reform, by allowing parents to remain engaged in their children’s lives, there would be no need for such drastic ideas and actions.

Carrie Adams – Mother
It is with great dismay that we must report that the video of Ms. Carrie Adams speech did not come out. Due to the rising temperatures, we lost video during her speech and the file was corrupted. However, Ms. Adams, who’s heart knows no bounds, spoke about how women who are stuck as non-custodial parents feel the same wrath as those fathers that we focused on during this year’s event. Ms. Adams is herself a mother of two, who she hasn’t seen in about 6 years. On the tail end of a parental alienation front, Ms. Adam’s children are now becoming adults, and she has effectively lost their teenage years. Her speech this year was one that left tears in the eyes of the audience. Faced with a degenerative and ultimately fatal disease, Ms. Adams longs for nothing more than to see her kids again. And we hope that she may. Thank you Carrie for coming out and sharing your story with us.

Rev Kurt Simon

Originally slotted to give our opening invocation, Rev Simon gave us an inspirational speech and an opening prayer on the second half of our ceremony. This is the second year Rev Simon has been a part of fatherless day. Rev Simon spoke of how as a movement we can know that we are not alone. Often times parents who go through divorce feel exactly that way. He also spoke of anger and it’s implications on family law. How any expression of anger turns courts against fathers. And he spoke of the issues he’s faced through his own divorce process. He shows that no person, not even ministers are exempt from the problems that exist in family court. Even with evidence backing him from board certified doctors supporting him as a parent, it mattered not. Rev Simon speaks at how this blind treatment invokes anger and how that anger should instead be focused for good, for positive change, for motivation to engage in working for the movement. A call for responsible civil disobedience, for speaking out, and for getting engaged. Rev Simon then lead us in a prayer…

Ian Mitchell – Board Member, Illinois Fathers

One of the original co-founders of Illinois Fathers, Ian helped start Illinois Fathers by posting to an Internet Forum in 2008 that he was going to Springfield and to ask who on the Internet was coming with. This year he focused on the value of the non-custodial parent and how that value translates into the issues we face today. Key concerns raised included the mass exploitation of family courts under the guise of domestic violence, the implications it has on legitimate cases of domestic violence and how the legislation being considered this year adversely impacts non-custodial parents.

Part 1

Part 2

Keynote: Dr. Stephen Baskerville

Stephen Baskerville is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Patrick Henry College and past president of the American Coalition for Fathers and Children. He is a Fellow at the Howard Center for Family, Religion, and Society and a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute. He holds a PhD from the London School of Economics and for many years taught political science at Howard University and Palacky University in the Czech Republic. His second book, Taken Into Custody: The War against Fathers, Marriage, and the Family, was published in October 2007 by Cumberland House Publishing.

Baskerville is widely recognized as “the leading authority” (in the words of columnist Paul Craig Roberts) on the politics of divorce, custody, and family courts. His writings on family and fatherhood issues have appeared in leading national and international publications, both popular and scholarly: the Washington Post, Washington Times, Independent Review, Salisbury Review, Society, Chronicles, Political Science and Politics, The American Conservative, Human Events, Women’s Quarterly, Catholic World Report, Crisis magazine, Insight magazine, World Net Daily, Whistleblower magazine, The Family in America, Family Policy Review, American Spectator, The Spectator, American Enterprise magazine, National Review, Liberty magazine, the Sunday Independent, LewRockwell.com, New Presence, MovieGuide.com, and others. His work has also been published by major public policy “think tanks,” including the National Center for Policy Analysis, Institute for Policy Innovation, Howard Center for Family, Religion, and Society, and the Heartland Institute.

Audio is low quality due to technical difficulties. Our sound man was publicly flogged for his carelessness!

The “Save Our Families” Rally was a success. We would like to extend a tremendous thanks to the Chicago Police Department for their rock solid support in making sure today’s event was not only safe and enjoyable for all, but also a success. We would also like to thank the folks out at CRC-IL, not only for their support, but also their tireless research and dedication. We were also quite pleased to see Father’s Who Care, who’s outreach into communities that have been decimated by the Parentage Act and their efforts to engage fathers more in the lives of their children is ever much needed in our State. We were even quite pleased to see Laps for Love out there, an organization that shows that involvement across the family in events like racing helps build stronger families. We had a magnificent showing of folks today, from children as young as two, to grandparents, aunts, uncles, fathers, and mothers. We had representatives from Indiana, Wisconsin, and across our great state. It really underscored the impact that divorce and separation has on our community and showed that the issues affect far more than just fathers. We are also very pleased to mention that the work of the over 50 people who showed up did have some impact. Initial reports indicate that the committee took the need for better parental involvement as a serious enough concern to keep the discussion open. So today’s efforts from everyone involved were a success! Thank you ALL who participated!

Photos from the event can be found here, here, and here
Video can be found here.
Story was covered here, and here.
A copy of our letter can be found here.

On March 10, 2010, the board of directors for Illinois Fathers appeared before the Illinois House of Representatives Judiciary 1 committee (Civil Law) to speak on behalf of Non-Custodial Parents in defense of the visitation protections that exist in law in Illinois. HB5942 which was presented last month is designed to standardize contempt of court charges for visitation interference and then to pass 90% of those funds over to a new fund in support of domestic violence litigation. Worse, this bill provides an exclusion preventing prosecution of anyone who can demonstrate that the fine would impose an undue burden on someone who isn’t guilty of the interference. This will clearly open a wide door to prevent non-custodial parents from having any protection as it would be trivial for a custodial parent to demonstrate the fine would burden the couple’s child. You may read our full special report as presented to the committee.

On February 20th, the board for Illinois Fathers met and discussed the business goals and objectives for the year ahead. We have designed a very ambitious, and very impressive plan for the year ahead. As we work out the details, which should be forth coming soon, we will announce the results of this year’s board meeting for all of our membership. We hope that everyone will be as happy as we are! More to come!