The Social Development Department sponsored “Mini Me,” a Father’s Day luncheon June 13 in the Jag Café.

As part of the program, members of the Joliet Unity Movement attended the event and shared their stories of what it was like to become a father at a young age.

The guests explained why they chose to accept the challenges of real fatherhood despite their fears. During the discussion, the students talked a lot about their own concerns. Some of them were afraid that they would weren’t mature enough for the job of raising a child.

Other students worried that they wouldn’t be able to give their children good advice and that they didn’t have the financial resources to be a parent.

Center Life Manager Sinatra Griffin attended the meeting and encouraged the young men to maintain the relationships with their children and the mothers of their children, noting that it would help the little ones mature.

All of the students who are fathers received gifts bags that included a pen for writing in a journal about the experience of fatherhood. There was also a plaque or a mug featuring a motto that praised their parenting skills.

The young fathers of the Joliet Job Corps Center show off their Father's Day gifts from the Joliet Unity Movement.