INDIANAPOLIS — It’s a lament I hear every time I attend a youth violence reduction conference, meet with teen advocates or talk to at-risk kids — “Where are the fathers?”
On this Father’s Day, when dads were celebrated across central Indiana and surrounded by their families, too many households are headed up by women, mothers, grandmothers, sisters and aunties doing the best they can to raise children without a strong positive male presence around.
”There are great mothers who are doing the best they can do, but there also needs to be a male influence to teach these young men how to move through life as a young man,” said Aaron Green, founder of “Struggle Made Us,” which is an organization that helps juveniles who lack strong mentors in their lives. ”I can see them wanting to have a male they can depend on, they can talk to, somebody who’s not gonna judge ‘em, somebody who’s not gonna tell them, ‘You too young to be going through that.’ Somebody who’s gonna kind of help guide them through the journey. The most important piece is somebody who will listen to them.”
Green lost his own father to gun violence as a teenager.
”My dad went to prison when I was five, he got out when I was 16, he got murdered by a 17-year-old when I was 17,” Green said. ”The 17-year-old who killed my dad, now I’m mentoring 17-year-olds who potentially be in those situations. Maybe I’m the voice of reason. Maybe I save two people in that, you know what I mean.”
Green took time away from his own five children, and answering calls from some of the dozens more who consider him a dad, to talk about the importance of fathers in the lives of vulnerable Indianapolis children.
”I deal with a lot of kids who have a lot of trauma that hasn’t been addressed, or they don’t know how to communicate what they’re going through,” Green said. “And I also teach them what trauma looks like and what it can do to you.
“When I meet a kid, I see a barrier. They always present a barrier, and that comes from maybe a man being in their lives walking out, and so they expect when they meet you that you’re gonna do the same thing, so if you can show some type of consistency, it’s an immediate engagement.”
Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears told FOX59 and CBS4 that his office filed more than 400 cases of dangerous possession of a firearm against juveniles from early 2023 until early 2024. The prosecutor added that such gun possession counts have been the most numerous charges filed by his office in the last two years, a trend that shows no sign of abating.
Green said that many children doubt their potential to mature into early adulthood either still alive or free from prison.
”It’s extremely important to see somebody that looks like you that has made it because how else are you supposed to dream? If everybody around me has died, that’s how I’m gonna feel like it’s gonna happen to me,” Green said. ”Oftentimes, you become what you don’t want to be. When you see a parent who is someone that has that negative impact and that’s all you’re seeing, that’s what you’re gonna try to run away from, but honestly that trauma runs you right into being that person.”
After a year when IMPD reported that two dozen children died of gunshot wounds while more than sixty others survived their firearms injuries, the City’s Office of Public Health and Safety announced the appointment of a Chief Violence Prevention Officer to focus on youth violence and supporting the families of young people.
Marion County Public Health Director Dr. Virginia Caine also announced she was allocating $2 million in her 2025 departmental budget to address violence impacting children.
Green had one final Father’s Day message for absentee parents in Indianapolis:
”If you are a father who hasn’t really engaged with his kids, they need you, and I hope that you hear this message and feel it.”
