Steven Baharestani founded Tenafly Mansion with a simple mission in mind -- to support children and enable them to have a normal, healthy relationship with their fathers.
Steven Baharestani, a dad and a highly sought after consultant to other fathers, is acutely aware of how important that can be. As a father, who battled false allegations when his first two children were very young, he was galled to learn that receiving an evaluation from Manhattan’s Child Forensic Services (CFS) requires the child to meet his father in a small midtown office with a social worker sitting behind a desk behind him, typing their “evaluation”. That, in his estimation, is all too typical of a system that robs dads of their dignity while doing incalculable psychological harm to their kids.
As a solution he opened a private club for single dads. And besides Tenafly Mansion he plans to open another facility in Manhattan.
Divorced women -- who as of 2016 headed 83 percent of single-parent households in the U.S., according to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development -- typically face financial pressures, while divorced dads more often face the systemic challenges Steven Baharestani is looking to combat.
Baharestani, who previously worked in the real estate and hospitality industries, sought to give Tenafly Mansion everything a community of like-minded fathers could want -- a beautifully decorated home where they can come for an afternoon visitation, a comfortable indoor and outdoor play area in a homey environment and an on-site concierge to offer services.
A Residence Manager oversees the operations and social workers are available on certain days to provide evaluation reports for those who require it. Fathers, meanwhile, have the support system that will make it easier to connect with their children, strengthen the bond between father and child and restore order in their household.
Steven Baharestani grew up in New York, earned degrees from New York University, and now offers consulting services to assist other fathers gain a stronger voice in their children's lives. Whether he is helping fathers gain their rights within the marriage, or helping fathers determine whether or not to separate, or helping fathers gain better parenting time after divorce, his strategies are always committed to protecting the dignity of father's in the eyes of their children.