Privileged Resolution 010432

..Title Honoring and commending the Father's Day Rally Committee on its efforts and initiatives that have positively impacted on the quality of life of African American communities, and African American males in particular, within both Philadelphia and the entire Delaware Valley region at-large. ..Body WHEREAS, Nationally and locally African-American males lead in every category of negative statistics and are more likely, than any other singular group, to be unemployed, involved in the criminal justice system or to commit suicide. Startling data documents that the homicide rate is six times higher, AIDS contraction three times more likely and death from the heart attacks, fifty percent higher among African American males in comparison to their white male counterparts; and WHEREAS, A group of concerned African American men established the Father's Day Rally Committee, Inc. in 1989. Seeing and understanding the myriad of social ills that plague minority communities, FDRC sought to formulate clear initiatives geared at reducing violence and educating communities that many of them, at one time or another, called home; and WHEREAS, The Father's Day Rally Committee believes and positively exemplifies through their word and by deed, that men working together at the grassroots level can launch a meaningful attack on the negative attitude(s) which contribute to the destruction of families and neighborhoods; and WHEREAS, The Father's Day Rally Committee initiated a City-wide Peace campaign designed to heighten awareness of, and open dialogue on, decreasing the number of senseless killings and other acts of violence against, and attributed to, African American males, in response to a dramatic increase in the City's already historically high homicide rate. FDRC has sponsored dozens of peace marches and rallies, reaching upwards of 25,000 people in connection with this, and other similar campaigns; and WHEREAS, The Father's Day Rally Committee has spearheaded many noteworthy and innovative programs that are reaching African American males, particularly between the ages of 15-25, with positive and lasting results. Those programs include: the David P. Richardson, Jr. Rites of Passage program, an outgrowth African American awakening of the 1960's and 1970's, designed to teach young men of responsibilities of manhood as they relate to the family, community, and the nation at-large; Operation Footprint, a mentoring program wherein older African -American males speak, and make themselves available to their younger counterparts attending area High Schools; Fatherhood Always, a Non-Custodial Parents Project; and an annual Father's Day Picnic, the 12th being held on Sunday, June 17, 2001 - celebrating and honoring African-American Fathers and Fatherhood, has become a well attended and highly regarded event in the Philadelphia area; now therefore RESOLVED, THAT THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, hereby honor and commend the Father's Day Rally Committee's efforts and initiatives that have impacted on the quality of life of African American communities, and African American males in particular, within both Philadelphia and the entire Delaware Valley Region at-large. We further salute them on their 12th Anniversary and admire their fortitude and resolve to attack those issues that have robbed our neighborhoods of an essential component -young African-American males- for far too long. RESOLVED FURTHER, That an Engrossed copy of this Resolution be presented to Bilal Quayyum, President of the Father's Day Rally Committee as an expression of the sincere sentiment and high regard of this legislative body. ..End