Project Fatherhood: A Story of Courage and Healing in One of America's Toughest Communities, by Jorja Leap
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Project Fatherhood: A Story of Courage and Healing in One of America's Toughest Communities, by Jorja Leap
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A group of former gang members come together to help one another answer the question “How can I be a good father when I’ve never had one?” In 2010, former gang leader turned community activist Big Mike Cummings asked UCLA gang expert Jorja Leap to co-lead a group of men struggling to be better fathers in Watts, South Los Angeles, a neighborhood long burdened with a legacy of racialized poverty, violence, and incarceration. These men, black and brown, from late adolescence to middle age, are trying to heal themselves and their community, and above all to build their identities as fathers. Each week, they come together to help one another answer the question “How can I be a good father when I’ve never had one?” Project Fatherhood follows the lives of the men as they struggle with the pain of their own losses, the chronic pressures of poverty and unemployment, and the unquenchable desire to do better and provide more for the next generation. Although the group begins as a forum for them to discuss issues relating to their roles as parents, it slowly grows to mean much more: it becomes a place where they can share jokes and traumatic experiences, joys and sorrows. As the men repair their own lives and gain confidence, the group also becomes a place for them to plan and carry out activities to help the Watts community grow as well as thrive.By immersing herself in the lived experiences of those working to overcome their circumstances, Leap not only dramatically illustrates the realities of fathers trying to do the right thing, but she also paints a larger sociological portrait of how institutional injustices become manifest in the lives of ordinary people. At a time in which racial justice seems more elusive than ever—stymied by the generational cycles of mass incarceration and the cradle-to-prison pipeline—the group’s development over time demonstrates real-life movement toward solutions as the men help one another make their families and their community stronger.
Project Fatherhood: A Story of Courage and Healing in One of America's Toughest Communities, by Jorja Leap- Amazon Sales Rank: #298422 in Books
- Brand: Leap, Jorja
- Published on: 2015-06-09
- Released on: 2015-06-09
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.28" h x .93" w x 6.20" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 256 pages
Review
“This book combines sociology, tough-love prescriptions, evidence of genuine growth (and the growing pains that come with it) and an eyes-wide-open account of men struggling to be better…Provides unique insights into a community intent on moving forward.” —Kirkus Reviews“With a sharp ear for dialogue, Leap profiles the Project Fatherhood men candidly and compassionately… Leap observes and captures, in members’ own words, the group’s development and its members’ four years of progress toward healing their families, and perhaps, their community.” —Publishers Weekly“Funny, hopeful, heart-warming and eye opening, Project Fatherhood has life-changing lessons for every reader.”—Shelf Awareness“I have known Jorja Leap as a brilliant researcher, but she turns out to be an even more gifted listener and storyteller. And this is a story about men, and fathers, and race, and poverty, and struggle, and hope. This book is delivered with street-level honesty, nuance, texture, and power—and should be required reading for those among us invested in a more hopeful urban America.” —Robert K. Ross, MD, president and CEO, The California Endowment“Jorja Leap’s fine Project Fatherhood is more than an anthropological study and ethnographic research project. It is a window and a promise. The reader is given a view of courageous men as architects of their own healing. As well, it offers hope for real solutions in our inner cities born from the community itself. Leap’s fidelity to these men’s voices offers us all hope, resilience and the kind of profound healing so longed for in urban America.” —Gregory J. Boyle, SJ, founder and executive director, Homeboy Industries“Jorja Leap breaks the mold. I've seen her in action, working with former gang bangers in Los Angeles’ most troubled parts, prodding battle-scarred men to be better husbands and fathers; indeed, better human beings. Witnessing her among these OGs, seeing the trust she has earned and the burdens she has eased, can best be summed up in one word—amazing.” —Kurt Streeter, ESPN
About the Author Jorja Leap is the author of Jumped In: What Gangs Taught Me About Violence, Drugs, Love, and Redemption, hailed as “an eye-opener and heart expander” (San Francisco Book Review). Leap has been on the faculty of the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs since 1992. An internationally recognized expert in gangs, violence, and crisis intervention, she is the senior policy advisor on Gangs and Youth Violence for the City and the County of Los Angeles.
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Most helpful customer reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful. Fatherless Men Fathering Each Other & Their Children . . . . By SundayAtDusk Author Jorja Leap, who was born in the mid-fifties and grew up in Los Angeles, can remember the riots in Watts in 1965. She had a Greek-American uncle, a high school history teacher, who explained to her the reasons for the rioting; explanations that were highly empathetic towards the blacks living in Watts. He obviously had a big influence in his niece's life, since she went on to become an expert in gangs and violence. Dr. Leap teaches at UCLA and has degrees in sociology, social work and psychological anthropology.It was her MSW that got her involved in 2010 in Project Fatherhood, a father's group that was going to meet weekly in the Jordon Downs housing project in Watts. This book is about those fascinating, heartfelt meetings. Most men attending have been in prison, and many have children by multiple women. While they love their sons and daughters and refuse to say a bad word about their mothers, their relationships with their wives or girlfriends or "baby mamas" tend to be a mess, and fidelity is something most of them think is an amusing idea. Unemployment is a huge problem, as are alcohol, drugs and gangs. Most of these men also had no fathers around to show them how to be fathers, and were basically raised by the neighborhood or the gangs.Yet, every week they show up in a room at the Jordan Downs community center and discuss fatherhood. They talk about their lives, their children's lives and the lives of all the children in the neighborhood. Topics covered include employment, education, corporal punishment, child abuse, child molesters, drugs, gang banging, relationships with "significant others", the "Big Mamas" of the old days, violence against women, prison, the LAPD, the courts, redevelopment, mentoring boys with no fathers. Some nights a recent tragic event or a happy event is shared by a member. One night two members of the Grape Street Crips showed up, as did Black Muslims on other nights. Those two groups didn't seem too pleased with the meetings. LAPD officers showed up at a couple of later meetings, which tended not to please the fatherhood group's members.While Jorja Leap did an outstanding job describing Project Fatherhood and the residents of Watts, the book is not without problems. First, she claims to be shocked by some of the men's thoughts and comments, when it's hard to believe she could be so naive and shocked. Is it possible she's claiming such things because she is straddling fences, and does not want to be figuratively shot off the fence by either side? Second, she has included her own father memories and issues in the book, and quite frankly they all seem to stick out like a sore thumb, except for her comments about her uncle during the Watts riots. Her life is and was absolutely nothing like the lives of the men involved in Project Fatherhood.This even gets a bit amusing when she decides to talk to the men about her "Papa" one night. Her "Papa" is a Jewish therapist she started seeing over 40 years ago, when she was in her first year of college. She explains to the readers how he said she could call him any time of the day and night, and she did, but says she tries not to call him at night now since he's in his 90s. She doesn't say if she still sees him for therapy and pays him; or discuss if it's totally wise to be so emotionally dependent on a therapist for so long. Instead, she states how she can't bear to think of him dying, leaving her with no father figure. Thus, one night she starts to tell the fathers in the group about her life and her "Papa", and how she so fears his death, since her own father is dead and her uncle just died.She doesn't get to finish her story, however, because she is interrupted by one man in the group who "spits out" that most of them in the room never had even one father; while another man laughs that she should have shared her fathers with them. Dr. Leap says she then laughed, too, and believed she obviously received "the hood version of tough love". Tough love? It was probably more like the men were just trying to put a quick end to a crazy white woman story! Seriously, why would she think those men in Watts would or could in a million years relate to that story? Maybe Dr. Leap should write a memoir and put all her personal stuff in that type of book, instead of sociology books. Not that she didn't write a great sociology book here. She did. Project Fatherhood: A Story of Courage and Healing in One of America's Toughest Communities is highly readable, highly informative, fascinating and touching at times. It may very well be one of the most interesting nonfiction books published this year. Also, according to the author's acknowledgements, all proceeds from this book go to the Project Fatherhood group.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful. Inspiring and truthful portrait of men striving to be better fathers, although the author comes off as quite credulous at points By Suzanne Amara This book, about a group of fathers who meet weekly in South LA to discuss fatherhood and how they can be better fathers, is very moving. It's wonderful hearing about how this group of men, most of whom had served time and most of whom had never had a consistent father figure in their own lives, are committed to being both better fathers to their own children and also father figures to other children in their community.The author is a social worker and professor who has worked with the families of Watts for many years. She obviously cares very deeply about the people here. The men are told about as individuals, not cases, and she is honest about them, their flaws as well as their good qualities.The only part of this book I found a little off-putting was how often Jorja Leap, the author, seemed shocked by things the men told her about their lives and beliefs. She is an internationally recognized gang expert, and as she often says in the book, she grew up very close to Watts, but she seems extremely surprised by things that don't even surprise me, like the depths of police distrust among the men, or how many of them defend corporal punishment. She also often uses the term "homies" when describing people, and this is a little jarring when mixed with her otherwise anthropology-style writing.However, those issues aside, I was truly touched by this book, and felt hopeful about the children being raised by these men---men who are striving very much to be good fathers.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Project fatherhood By Debra This book was incredibly thought provoking and also very moving. I appreciated her insight into a culture that the average middle class American doesn't have exposure or access to.The main thing I really didn't love was the way she uses language. She is mostly academic in her writing style but switching between personal stories, anthropological writing, social work style writing and Ebonics. She says things like, "I went to hang out with the homies" right after analyzing the group dynamics and systemic oppression. It's very disorienting. She's probably writing for an audience that won't use terms like baby mama, and I think she should have stuck with that audience.I did find the anthropology/social work switch to be confusing. She clearly had opinions about what the men should and shouldn't think, which she was happy to share, even though anthropology is generally more neutral in its analysis. She talks about how the men are making progress and how the group is forming cohesion because of whatever issue. I wish she'd picked whether she was writing as an anthropologist or a social worker. Her role was actually relatively unclear.Having said that though, she's clearly a very passionate person and cares a lot about the people she's serving. She said in the back that all of the proceeds in the book go back to Project Fatherhood, which brought me to tears.As with most mainstream social work literature there is absolutely no distinction between spanking for correction and beating a child - which regardless of your opinion is an extremely important distinction. There is a huge difference between spanking a two year old for running into the street and beating a child because you're drunk. You might think they're both wrong, but they're different. It's similar to how yelling at your child to clean their room is different than yelling at them that they're stupid and will never amount to anything. I wish she'd made the distinction because she goes off about physical abuse several times, but I don't think it's always clear what actually happened between the fathers and their children.Overall though I feel like a better person for having read it. It helped me understand a world I don't have access to and gives me a lot more compassion for the complexities of gang related violence and economic oppression. Her discussion on the racism rampant in the criminal justice system is also dead on and an important issue that deserves more attention.
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