Social Justice Event: Ted Talk- Angela Patton: A Father-daughter dance... in prison

I watched a Ted Talk spoken by Angela Patton who talked about her non-profit organization that works with young girls find their way in life. Her purpose behind this talk was because she heard some of the girls in her group talk about not being able to see their dad or how long it has been since they last talked to their dad because they are not an active part of their lives. Together, Angela and her girls in her organization worked together to come up with ways how they can invite their fathers to something apart of their lives. That's when they thought of holding a father daughter dance. One of the girls came forward saying that their dad can not go to the dance because he is in jail. Angela wanted everyone to be included so this lead her to suggesting the idea of holding a dance in the jail where this girls dad is. After setting a date with the jail, they held the dance their. They brought cameras to record this special moment for both the fathers and daughters. This was a way so they can all look back on this moment. She ended her talk with saying "Because a father is locked in doesn't mean he should be locked out of his daughters life. From this Ted Talk I learned how important it is for a parent to be present in young children's lives. If they can't physically be there because of their mistake, they shouldn't give up on that bond and effort at raising their child and help molding them into adulthood.

Relating this Ted Talk to three of our texts we have read from this semester is (1) Nicholas Kristof's article and the part where it talks about how important it is for children to get love and affection growing up. This relates to the Ted Talk because Patton talks about how one of the girls is sad because she referred to her dad as "locked in shackles". A girl so young, feeling this way is just looking for affection from her father but feels as though she can't and this could affect her down the line in adulthood. (2) Kahne & Westheimer article can relate this Ted Talk to because it talks about the importance of working with children to help share meaningful impacts in the community, having a parent not present in their lives could make this difficult for those children to connect with or learn about if they don't have a positive role model to show them these types of good acts. (3) August article can also be related to Angela Patton's story because she talked about how uncomfortable this child felt saying her dad was in jail and that someone had laughed when the idea came up about doing the dance in the prison. The way Patton handled this situation is what August talks about. Allowing child to feel safe and excepted in their personal lives by their peers, is very important to the healthy mind of a young child.

Three links related to this Ted Talk that are helpful: 
Children of Incarcerated Parents - What to expect from children with parents in prison 
Parenting Inside Prison - Helping parents parent while being incarcerated
Camp Diva - Angela Patton's non-profit organization