From Here to Paternity
Robert Jones has a sales pitch for D.C.’s marginalized fathers. First, he has to find them. Then, he has to get them to buy it.
Cover Story
Robert Jones is trolling for reluctant fathers at the Hunt Place Health Center in Northeast. A sharp dresser in a black turtleneck sweater and gray herringbone pants, he stands in the waiting room among a few sullen prospects who are eyeing him up. He’s got a stack of fliers in one hand and a big, friendly smile: Jones is the car salesman of social workers. What’ll it take, he wants to know, for him to put you in one of his programs today?
“Hey, brother, you need some help?” Jones asks a guy after his pregnant girlfriend disappears into the back of the clinic. The man, probably in his early 20s, looks at him, doesn’t match Jones’ smile, and says nothing. Jones keeps going anyway. “You got some questions? ’Cause I got some answers.” The guy cracks a half-grin and takes a flier.
“Fliers are fliers,” Jones says. “And sometimes, they don’t work. You have to get in there and meet people where they are. Sometimes it takes three or four times of giving them the same information before they show up.”... Continued
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