Bruce D. Edwards
![Bruce D. Edwards](https://www.exeter.edu/sites/default/files/styles/standard_inline_image_730_x_auto/public/news/bruce.jpg?itok=_0jY34rp)
“You are perpetuating a cycle if you don’t get involved.”
As a child-welfare advocate and court appointed attorney, Bruce Edwards ’97 often sees Maryland’s foster care system become a trapdoor for its neediest youth.
Wanting to improve the odds for the children he serves, Edwards embarked on exhaustive research into parenting. His findings confirmed what he had suspected about the important role fathers play in child development: “Absent fathers have been linked to higher rates of poverty, substance abuse, failure in school, teen pregnancy, violent crime, depression and suicide,” Edwards says.
“An involved father, on the other hand, shapes a child’s identity and moral values and improves their life chances.” Using this knowledge to mend fractured families, Edwards has worked tirelessly for the past decade helping fathers learn how to be fathers. “It’s been an arduous and rewarding journey,” he says.
Early influences
Born to teenage parents, Edwards experienced firsthand the pain of not having a sustained relationship with his dad while growing up in Florida. During his father’s periodic absences, he found hope in the presence of positive male role models who lent critical guidance. “Without their support and belief in me,” he says, “I would not be where I am today.”
Edwards’ earliest mentors were members of Kappa Alpha Psi, an international, predominately African-American fraternity that sponsors community service, social welfare and academic scholarship programs. “They were college-educated, married and the fathers to many of my friends,” Edwards says. The men volunteered their time on Saturdays to form a mentoring group called The Psi-Kats. Edwards joined the program in middle school and participated for six years.