BROOMFIELD — The dogged tendency for men to refuse to ask for directions is a funny punch line in the long-standing battle of the sexes.
But when that same stubbornness gets in the way of providing for his family, the joke becomes deadly serious, said Terry Kiernan, executive director of Broomfield’s FISH.
“My sense is that females are more pragmatic than men; if they or their families need help, they get it,” Kiernan said. “But men seem to be stuck in that role of providers.”
For generations, men have received and heeded the message that they are responsible for providing for their families. “When we can’t provide for our families, for whatever reason, the subtle message is that we’ve failed,” Kiernan said. “And I think that becomes a barrier for men to ask for help.”
Kiernan hopes to change that tonight, as Fellowship in Serving Humanity takes reluctant men through an after-hours intake process to show them how they can get assistance for their families.
FISH is a nonprofit human-services agency that has been operating in Broomfield for nearly 50 years.
FISH provides emergency food, housing and utility assistance as well as transportation for those with no options to get to a job.
Kiernan — who took over as director about a year ago — decided to start Men’s Night at FISH when he noticed a pattern among couples that came into FISH seeking help. The man would almost always wait in the car, while the woman conducted business inside FISH’s headquarters.
He later found that of the 1,085 Broomfield residents who were continuing clients or were new to FISH in 2010, 764 (or 70 percent) were women. Those 1,085 represent roughly 3,180 family members in the city.
“Two-thirds of our clients are women, but we are not trying to balance that out,” Kiernan said. “Our real object is to get help to kids who maybe aren’t getting that help right now.”
FISH offers services only to Broomfield residents.
The effort is a pilot project but shows FISH is trying to get to as many needy families as possible, said Liz Law-Evans, president of FISH’s board of directors.
“We were just trying to come up with new ideas and innovative ways to disperse emergency help to get people back on their feet,” Law- Evans said. “It takes a lot for someone to walk into the door for the first time, and maybe this will make the path a little easier.”
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com
Need help?
Male volunteers will be on hand today from 5 to 8 p.m. at FISH’s headquarters, 26 Garden Center, Suite 1, in Broomfield, to help the men who come in for assistance in providing for families.
