FATHERS AND FAMILIES INC

Public Relations and Education Fathers and Families garnereed nearly 200 separate mentions in the mainstream media during 2009 and the first quarter of 2010. many of these were in major media outlets, including: a national Associated Press article which ran in over 300 newspapers, the CBS Early Show, Fox News, MSNBC, Newsweek, Slate.com, Forbes, NPR, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald, the Philadelphia Inquirer, KABC AM 790 and KLOS FM 95.5 in Los Angeles, KGO AM in San Francisco, WRKO AM 680 in Boston and many others. Fathers and Families published 15 op-ed columns in 2009 and early 2010, most of them in major publications. These include: MSN.com, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Washington Times, Baltimore Sun, Huffington Post, World Net Daily; and others. Fathers and Families has also developed the largest e-newsletter in the world devoted to family law reform, with 50,000 subscribers. We conducted a successful protest campaign against Lifetime TV's anti-father reality show Deadbeat Dads, garnering generally positive media attention from Fox News, U.S. News & World Report, PJTV, and numerous major newspapers. Lifetime cancelled its plan to produce the show. In 2008, Fathers and Families conducted a similarly successful campaign against Fox's show Bad Dads. Fathers and Families has also conducted a popular campaign to support a group of 70 mental health experts who are trying to get Parental Alienation Distorder added to the fifth editino of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V), the American Psychiatric Association's "bible" of diagnoses. Thousands of Fathers and Families supporters have written the DSM-5 Task Force to urge them to consider including Parental Alienation Disorder. This led to progress--the Task Force has now listed Parental Alienation Disorder among the "Conditions Proposed by Outside Sources...that are still under consideration by the work groups." Building Strong Affiliates We will continue establishing more affiliates in 2010. We will establish more affiliates by first identifying leadership and funding at the Board level. Much of the necessary Board level leadership and funding is emerging from the existing 50,000 readers/supporters of Fathers and Families and Glenn Sacks, as Fathers and Families has a readymade grassroots membershifundraising assistance, visibility, research, model legislation and guidance to the affiliates. Affiliates will adopt the Fathers and Families name, logo, graphics, mission and vision statements, core principles, and oversight of public positions and statements. National will maintain a unified member database. Advocacy and Lobbying We will identify audiences for advocacy efforts in 2010. These could include child welfare organizations, think tanks, government agencies, religious institutions, or cause-specific organizations. We will promote shared parenting and family court reform as the cost-free solutions the the eight leading problems of children. We will assist the affiliates in doing the same. By engaging in the political proccess on a professional level, Fathers and Families has had tremendous success in lobbying over the past several years, helping to lead successful campaigns in 2004 and 2006 to defeat California "move-away" bills which would have made it easy for custodial parents to move children to other states without regard for children's best interests, reducing excessive child support by over $1 billion from 2001 through 2008 in Massachusetts and helping to pass California SB 1082 to protect military parents' rights in family court while successfully assisting legislators in numerous other states in passing similar legislation. Research We are currently in the process of producing eight research-based position papers showing that family court reform will help decrease the eight leading problems of children. We will engage respected academics and other experts to assist us. Legal Defense Fund Fathers and Families will file one lawsuit and/or write two amicus briefs in 2010 for cases in affiliated states. In future years, the Legal Defense Fund will appeal compelling test cases to higher courts in favorable jurisdictions.