Are you a dad who needs a job? Family fun and job info offered at fatherhood celebration

It’s still two months before Father’s Day, but a state agency is hosting “Fatherhood: A Celebration” in Macon on Saturday to give families a fun day out and offer dads information about job opportunities.

A bounce house and other child-friendly activities will be offered from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Tubman Museum, 310 Cherry St., along with free food, giveaways and live entertainment, said Tanguler Gray, director of The Georgia Department of Human Service’s Division of Child Support Services.

The free event also will include a job fair and information about the state’s fatherhood program, an initiative that offers noncustodial parents — moms and dads — help in finding work.

In fiscal year 2016, that program helped 6,122 parents statewide who supported 18,173 children.

The goal is to help parents who have been court-ordered to pay child support “become more self-sufficient, be able to fulfill their child-support obligation and increase their involvement in their child’s life both financially and emotionally,” Gray said of the program.

A number of nonprofit and for-profit agencies have partnered with the state to put on the event, including the Macon Judicial Circuit’s Parent Accountability Court program.

The court offers child-support-owing parents help in finding jobs as an alternative to incarceration.

Superior Court Judge Phillip Raymond, who presides over the court, is set to speak. Program coordinator Steve Giglio said he’s helping with information sessions.

The Macon Transit Authority is offering bus rides to the event from Roses locations on Shurling Drive and Pio Nono Avenue.

Galleries in the Tubman Museum are set to be open for tours during the event, said Clarence Burge, senior outreach manager for the Division of Child Support Services.

“We have clowns and popcorn and we have a snow cone machine,” Burge told a group of fathers gathered at a Parent Accountability Court graduation earlier this month. “There is a game truck. We have a firetruck and an ambulance. Kids can touch and feel and just have fun.

While the fatherhood celebration is aimed at dads, the entire family is invited, Gray said.

For more information about the state’s fatherhood program, call l 1-844-MYGADHS or visit www.dcss.dhs.georgia.gov.

This story was originally published April 20, 2017 at 11:40 AM with the headline "Are you a dad who needs a job? Family fun and job info offered at fatherhood celebration."