Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeff Steiner.
Jeff, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I was born an only child to a single mother, never knew who my father was and attended the Milton Hershey School though graduation. Received a bachelors degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and masters degree in counseling education from Penn State. My first career I worked in direct service as a counselor with adjudicated youth and then in-home doing family preservation work. My second career has been managing small nonprofits that benefit children and families.
The Dads’ Resource Center was established in 2015 by AccuWeather Founder and Executive Chairman Dr. Joel N. Myers. He hired me as the Executive Director of the DRC in 2017. The DRC provides education, resources and advocacy for fathers whose access to their children is limited by the family court, county and human service system.
We have had over 300 fathers from Pennsylvania who have reached out to us for help, while also engaging in advocacy efforts at the state level. We were instrumental in the 2022 passage of a bill to create the Pennsylvania Advisory Committee on Great Father Involvement and hosted a 2025 Rural LIstening Session for the Federal Administration for Children and Families that brought fathers in from 18 counties.
This June we are launching a first of its kind program to help fathers affected by domestic violence in Centre County.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There is a broad awareness for the challenges that single fathers face in family courts, and we have had very good general support for what we are doing. Despite this, the challenges fathers face are only getting worse.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am the Executive Director of the Dads’ Resource Center based in State College, PA. Established in 2015 by AccuWeather Founder and Executive Chairman Dr. Joel N. Myers and funded almost exclusively by private donations, the DRC provides education, resources and advocacy for single fathers struggling to be in the lives of their children because of biases by family courts, county and human service systems. We believe that father absence, and specifically the ways that our family courts, county and human services systems obstruct father involvement with their children, is the single biggest under-discussed crisis that exists in our society today and that our courts, and social agencies have an obligation to ensure that fathers are not obstructed from providing the time, input, emotional, and financial support children deserve and require. We have launched a first of its kind program for fathers affected by domestic violence in our area.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
https://www.facebook.com/dadsrc.org/ has 30,000+ followers, https://www.tiktok.com/@dadsresourcecenter?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc has 7,500+ folllowers.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dadsrc_pa/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dadsrc.org/
- Youtube: @dadsresourcecenter
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@dadsresourcecenter
