When Mark Ludwig lost shared custody of his son more than a decade ago, his life fell apart.

“The devastation of losing my son who was my sole purpose in life, I couldn’t function,” Ludwig, who lives in the St. Louis area, told the Missouri House Children and Families Committee in late January. “I lost everything from the point where I went from being a pretty decent middle class dad to where I was eating food out of dumpsters at the Aldi… I didn’t know where to turn.”

Now Ludwig advocates for fathers to be treated equally in the court system. He also drives for Uber in St. Louis where he chats up other dads, many of whom he said share stories of being raised without a present.

“You’ve got some dads who’ve become disengaged because they feel undervalued,” Ludwig said. “They feel like they’re unappreciated, they feel pushed out. Like their role isn’t important, so why even try.”

Ludwig hopes legislation filed by state Rep. Jamie Gragg, an Ozark Republican, can help both uplift and prepare more dads who find themselves unsure how to navigate fatherhood.

As he stood before his House colleagues Monday, Gragg listed off example after example of statistics faced by children raised without a father: higher levels of depression, homelessness, substance use, teen pregnancy, incarceration, suicide.

“It is heartbreaking, it is devastating,” Gragg said. “It’s an epidemic.”

Gragg’s bill would create the “Missouri Fathership Project” within Missouri’s Department of Social Services. It would help fund positions at statewide nonprofits and community organizations to support dads who want to “reestablish and strengthen relationships with their children.” These professionals would help fathers navigate the court system, job applications or the foster system, for example, so they can be more present fathers.

“This will enable community organizations, nonprofits around the state to bind together and reach out and help those fathers who want to be fathers, but just have too many road blocks in the way,” Gragg said.

The House passed the bill on a 141 to 4 vote Monday night. It now heads to the state Senate.

Tim McConville, the director of strategic engagement with Man Up and Go, a Christian-based nonprofit that aims to end “fatherlessness” around the world, is already acting in a pseudo-role.

McConville, who is based out of Missouri and testified in support of the bill in January, said he often gets requests from children’s division asking if he can help out fathers navigating relationships with their children in the foster care system. This might mean helping them keep track of court dates, find secure housing or work through common parenting dilemmas.

He also helps fathers connect with resources after they’re reunited with their kids, as is the case with one of his current clients.

“He’s a single dad taking care of his two kids,” McConville said. “That’s when it gets hard, let’s be honest.”

While the nonprofit’s fatherhood initiative in Florida — where similar legislation was first passed in 2022 — has 26 people on staff, McConville said in Missouri, he’s the only one doing the work locally. This legislation would allow the organization to expand how many fathers it can help by hiring more staff.

A specialist hired through this program might be assigned to help a father who is struggling to comply with a court-ordered case plan, for example.

The legislation makes economic sense, and it can prevent children who have access to a safe home from being traumatized by family separation, said state Rep. Raychel Proudie, a Democrat from Ferguson. And it helps the whole family.

“To be pro-father isn’t to be anti-mother,” Proudie said Monday on the House floor. “It’s very rare that we give some kind of dedicated attention to males or men who are out here trying to be a part, a healthy part, not just present … ”

An amendment introduced by state Rep. David Dolan, a Republican of Sikeston, was added to the bill before it passed out of the House. This amendment would allow any fathers participating in the project who are also complying with court orders and who make regular child support payments to apply for license they may have previously lost, particularly if they were recently incarcerated. This includes limited drivers licenses, hunting and fishing licenses and professional and occupational licenses.

Dolan, a former circuit judge, said fathers often came before his court for nonpayment of child support.

“They would look at me and say, ‘I’m doing the best I can, but how do you expect me to pay this support if I can’t get a job or if I can’t get to a job,’” Dolan said.

State Rep. Bryant Wolfin of Ste. Genevieve was among the four Republicans to vote against the bill Monday afternoon.

“I’m not entirely sure that I’m comfortable with government trying to mold society into being better people,” Wolfin told Gragg during House debate. “Ultimately at the end of the day that’s what this bill is trying to do.”