United Way of the Coastal Bend’s 24:7 Dad program<\/a>.<\/p>\n“I was unsure, uncertain of the path forward, raising two children under two, and this program has been an enablement for me,” Medrano said. “It’s shown me the value to be active, present, engaged, but also to continue my journey as a father.”<\/p>\n
The free program was launched in 2024 and is part of United Way’s Success By 6 initiative and is designed to help fathers and father figures develop the skills needed to stay involved in their children’s lives. Based on a curriculum developed by the National Fatherhood Initiative, the program addresses topics including communication, co-parenting, childhood development, family history and managing emotions such as anger.<\/p>\n
Leading the workshops is Danny “D.J.” Jackson, a retired educator, father of six and Corpus Christi native whose teaching career spanned nearly four decades.<\/p>\n
“I was a teacher for 39 years, and at about the 10th year from retiring, I asked my father in heaven if he would allow me to work with dads after working with children for practically four decades,” Jackson said. “After serving as a children’s ministry pastor for a year, that call came and I kind of looked up from that pit and went, so you’re calling my bluff.”<\/p>\n
Jackson said the program is built around open-ended conversation rather than lectures.<\/p>\n
“All these are suggestions, there is no mandate that fathers have to do what this says,” Jackson said. “It is not a lecture style, it’s a question-answer input style, a conversation where fathers get to share, where sometimes they begin to cry, because in some cases they didn’t do it as well as they should.”<\/p>\n
Over the years, Jackson said he has watched fathers grow through the program.<\/p>\n
“Some of them were, maybe they would call themselves self-proclaimed deadbeat dads in their first go around. Now some of them are the 24\/7 dad,” Jackson said with a wide smile.<\/p>\n
For Medrano, one of the biggest benefits has been finding a support system of fellow fathers.<\/p>\n
“As they’re learning, you’re learning with them, as they’re adapting, you’re adapting with them, so with that, you can be vulnerable,” Medrano said. “A dad can be vulnerable, and it’s okay, right? And you can share that into this group with a 24\/7 dad, and nobody’s gonna hold or judge you in any form or fashion. We’re here to support each other, we’re here to help each other.”<\/p>\n
That lesson carries special meaning for him.<\/p>\n
“There was a lot of machismo in the household,” Medrano said. “I wanted to make sure that I can be vulnerable around my children and my children can be vulnerable around me and that’s okay.”<\/p>\n
He hopes that openness helps create a different environment for Michael and Catalina than the one he experienced growing up.<\/p>\n
Medrano said fatherhood has taught him that being a dad is about much more than biology.<\/p>\n
“A lot of people can be fathers, but a dad is somebody that’s active, present and engaged, and that’s the most important thing,” he said.<\/p>\n
Jackson believes that message extends well beyond traditional fathers.<\/p>\n
“To any dad or father figure, uncle, stepfather, adoptive father, foster father, father who’s on his second or third marriage, doesn’t matter,” Jackson said. “If you are mentoring a child in any way, you belong here.”<\/p>\n
The program is open to fathers and father figures of kids 8 years old or younger in Nueces and San Patricio counties.<\/p>\n
For Medrano, the biggest lesson he’s learned is simple.<\/p>\n
Being a great dad isn’t about being perfect. It’s about being present.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Larry Medrano, fatherhood comes with plenty of rewards \u2014 and plenty of diapers. Medrano and his fiancee,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156,123578,88164,123577,123579],"class_list":["post-346332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi-headlines","tag-corpus-christi-news","tag-father-figures","tag-jackson","tag-larry-medrano","tag-national-fatherhood-initiative"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}