A new program aims to help Philadelphia’s Black fathers talk to their teens about mental health and racism.

Joel Austin spends his days talking to Black fathers about how to become the parents they aspire to be at Daddy University Inc., a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that he founded two decades ago.

In recent years, Austin has noticed that Black fathers in his male-parenting education programs increasingly say they’re grappling with how to talk to their teens about mental health. They also want strategies for helping them cope with racism.

“You have these dads who were raised ‘to hold it all in’ who are raising teens who are taught ‘to let it all out,’” Austin said. “How do we get them on the same level?”

Austin, whose youngest child is 17, is now working to bridge that divide with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Center for Parent and Teen Communication (CPTC), which draws from academic research to help parents successfully raise teenagers.

The partnership will draw from the experiences of Philadelphian Black fathers and teens, ages 12 to 17, to create educational and coping tools surrounding mental health problems and racial inequities. To launch the pilot project, Austin and Jillian Baker, CPTC’s executive director, received last month a two-year grant of up to $40,000 from CHOP PolicyLab, a center focused on translating academic research into community programs.

The pandemic exacerbated feelings of anxiety and depression among teens, particularly among Black teens who have the added stress of navigating racial tensions in the wake of the 2020 murder of George Floyd. Recent research shows that teens who experience racial discrimination are more likely to suffer from poor mental health, decreased self-esteem, and an increase in risky behaviors, such as alcohol and drug use.

Rates of suicide among Black teens have risen faster than in any other racial and ethnic group in the past two decades. Black children in early adolescence are twice as likely to die by suicide compared to their white peers, according to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

Research also shows that Black teens with highly engaged and involved fathers enjoy higher levels of academic achievement, improved mental health, and fewer behavior problems.

“I want to prove that [Black] dads are solutions. And that’s a very strong ‘S’ word,” Austin said. “Fathers are an ingredient that we miss.”

Baker and Austin came up with the idea to marry their expertise after he made a guest appearance on a 2023 episode of Baker’s podcast, Maternal Health 911, to talk about the impact of Black fathers.

Austin told Baker that many dads say they feel uncomfortable opening up to their children about their own experiences with mental health problems as teens.

“A lot of us were not raised to tell all of our truths,” Austin said.

Baker knew from her own experience that many Black parents raising teens had grown up when there was a stigma around discussing mental health. At age 10, Baker told her mom that she wanted to see a therapist.

“You are not crazy and so you don’t need therapy,” Baker said her mom told her.

Now Baker hopes the project will change the narrative, so seeking help “is seen as a strength and not a weakness.”

The project will start later this year by bringing together two advisory groups — one made up of eight teens and the other with eight fathers, all from Philadelphia — to talk about communication barriers.

A focus group of 30 Black fathers will convene in the second year to help develop online resources to share more broadly.

In movies and television, Black fathers are often portrayed as absent or not involved. But research shows the opposite.

Compared to white and Hispanic fathers, Black dads more often bathe, diaper, dress, and toilet train their children. That’s true whether Black fathers live with their children or separately, according to a 2013 National Health Statistics report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Black fathers who don’t reside with their children help them with their homework at higher rates than their Hispanic and white counterparts, the report shows.

Black fathers excel at helping their sons navigate stressful encounters, steer clear of violence, and avoid escalating interactions with law enforcement. Black fathers also play a key role in boosting their daughters’ self-esteem and teaching them how to handle bullying, research shows.

As women took on more expansive roles in the workplace, men have also taken on new roles with child-rearing.

“So you ended up with 280-pound, 6-foot-4 men sitting down with their daughters in a very small chair and sipping tea out of a small little cup and actually enjoying it,” Austin said.

Baker, a mother of three, has observed how close her 12-year-old daughter, Jemma, is to her father.

“She talks to him more than she talks to me,” Baker said. “Her relationship with her dad is more important than her relationship with me for her development as a young woman. It will affect her choices with future partners.”

Jemma’s twin brother, 12-year-old Gavin, is often more receptive to advice from his father, too. A seventh-grader in a mostly white school district in South Jersey, Gavin recently told his parents that he felt like he didn’t belong.

“There’s no one who really understands me,” Baker recalled her son saying.

“But you’re such a cool, smart kid,” Baker replied.

Gavin’s father, Gamal Baker, had advice that seemed to resonate better: Right now is going to be one of the hardest times in your life. Be authentic to yourself. Don’t change to fit in. You will find your tribe.

Austin said he started Daddy University in 2004 out of anger. Austin and his then-wife were expecting their first child. He got upset when obstetricians, pediatricians, and teachers to his children repeatedly treated him “like the Uber driver” — present, but not included.

Austin recalled being left to sit in the waiting room with one of his children at the pediatrician’s office because the front-desk staffer thought his wife was on her way.

“I felt disrespected, and I felt belittled,” he said. “The worst part about being a Black father is you feel constant invisibility.”

In 2006, Austin created the National Fatherhood Conference, a full-day of training, workshops, and speakers on male parenting and mentorship. Each year, the conference attracts more than 1,000 attendees from at least eight states.

In 2013, he created the Annual Daddy Daughter Dance, which helps foster an emotional bond between fathers and their daughters.

More recently, in 2019, he created the Doulas 4 Dads program, which trains male doulas to work in their community. Austin also travels the nation speaking to dads about how to be more involved in their children’s lives both inside and outside the home.

Now the father of 11 children, ages 17 to 29, Austin believes his partnership with Baker’s Center for Parent and Teen Communication will confirm what he’s known all along:

“Fathers have this power to influence their children in a positive way,” he said. “I know it in my soul and heart. What we are going to do is prove it.”