Janice Broome Brooks, director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services, left, talks with Larry Nicks, pastor of the Triumph Missionary Baptist Church and Linda Sweezer, co-director of the Vicksburg Family Development Service Tuesday at the Vicksburg Family Development Service. (The Vicksburg Post/C. TODD SHERMAN)

[06/20/01] A program to help men learn about being fathers is a valuable part of the Department of Human Services’ role, said the director of the state agency during a visit to Vicksburg.

Janice Broome Brooks, named to head DHS by Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, was at Vicksburg Family Development Service which received a $50,900 Responsible Fatherhood Initiative Grant from DHS.

While in Vicksburg, Brooks also spent time at the Warren County office talking to employees. She characterized that time as a time of full, frank and candid discussions with dedicated people.

For the last two weeks of her tenure, Brooks has been under fire from legislators holding hearings to try to get answers on why the director fired about 20 mid- to upper-level DHS staffers. In Vicksburg, however, she was away from that discussion.

“I am truly touched. I am truly honored. I am truly impressed by what I have seen, by what I have heard,” Brooks said after touring the Vicksburg Family Development office on Monroe Street, meeting with its leaders, staff and some of the people who participate in the programs including the Second Chance to Triumph fatherhood mentoring program. Triumph Missionary Baptist Church with the Rev. Larry Nicks as pastor and the Rev. Troy Truly as associate pastor work with the service to provide the program.

Brooks said she was pleased to see that the family development service focused on the whole family because that is the way the Department of Human Services also tries to work.

She also said the bottom line DHS also tries to focus on is customer service.

“And I am happy to see the broad range of people we have here, Brooks said, noting that those she met with like those at the DHS have been called to serve others.

“That’s why we go through what we go through every day,” she said.

Speaking directly to one of the men in the fatherhood program, Brooks said he would see as his son grows up “the wonderful impact that you being present in his life will have.”

She said the concerns of families are not limited to children because the mothers and fathers have needs.

“Those individual needs are part of a collective unit we call families,” she said.

Brooks, after the meeting with the family development staff and participants said she saw what DHS does as strengthening families and helping them toward self sufficiency.

“The presence of a father and a mother who are loving and supportive of their children … as a very positive force,” she said, adding that one of the agency’s goals is to encourage fathers to be a positive presence in the lives of their children and of the children’s mothers.

Brooks is the second DHS director since Musgrove took office. Bettye Ward Fletcher was replaced, Musgrove said, due to ideological differences.

DHS is among the largest state agencies, employing 3,600 people and operating in all 82 counties.