According to the U.S. Census, there are around 14 million single parents in the U.S. today. One out of every six of them are men. That's slightly over two million men trying to raise their children, maintain their home and hold down a job at the same time. True enough, but it shadows compared to the number of single mothers doing the same thing and at even less wages. At the same time, these men can no doubt use their share of help, too.
One thing these single fathers have no doubt seen are the ads all over place saying how President Obama wants to help single mothers advance their education. After all, the Bureau of Labor Statistic has hard studies showing the greater a person's education, the more money they make. What many of the single fathers have to realize is that even though it doesn't say so, the ads are also good for them.
Just like single mothers, single dads can find grants geared towards their needs. This not only can include covering tuition, fees and text books, but even financial assistance for child care or child sitting, food and even, in extreme cases, rent and utilities.
To start, the first thing a dad on his own should do is weigh his job position. If he is unemployed, what kind of job would he like? If he's already employed, what kind of degree would he need to improve his career? Once those decisions are made, the next step it to search for local community or online colleges that offer the right certification or degree programs. Make a short list of schools, at least three.
The next step is to get in contact with that list of schools and talk to a career counseling officer. These officers are also usually well versed in financial assistance. They will also help the single dad when it comes to filling out the always required FASFA form, which is necessary to determine financial need.
Now it's time to start applying for the grants. For starters, such programs as the SEOG and Pell Grant are a good start, but that isn't all that's available. Being a single parent more than likely means the father can look outside the Board of Education to the Social Services Administration for needed childcare, and possible rent, utilities and food assistance.
This is just the beginning, though. With or without the college counselor, the prospective student should definitely get on the Internet for an established search engine such as Google, Bing or Yahoo! Just by typing the search parameters "grants, single father," will yield literally hundreds of thousands of other prospects. Each will have its own criteria and more paper work, but apply to enough of them and a dad could end up with his entire costs covered.
What's really important here is in the long run, the education provided by online college grant and scholarships that enable a dedicated parent to improve his (or her) position. With an online degree, the one that makes the most sense for that busy dad, he ends up assisting himself and his children. Whatever else you want to call it, that's good parenting regardless of gender.
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