The DadTalk blog features insights from dads and Responsible Fatherhood practitioners from around the country. Its goal is to start conversations about important issues surrounding fatherhood and programs for fathers today.
The White House initiative Champions of Change seeks to honor a number of Americans who have stood out in particular areas of emphasis in order to solicit their ideas in order to…
Project Fatherhood is a program of Children’s Institute, Inc. in Los Angeles, California. We have worked with more than 15,000 fathers and 23,000 children across Los Angeles County since 1996. Some of the fathers we work with are required to attend parenting classes to satisfy child welfare case requirements; some are referred from community partners; many come to us needing help with employment. They often face challenges related to criminal justice involvement, traumatic experiences, gang membership, poverty, transportation, or homelessness…
The season of dads and grads is upon us. It is a time when celebration and thoughts of warm summer nights are in the air. The spring air is activating our joy of transitioning seasons and the promise of what the future holds for graduating youth is challenging our inclination to resist change. For dads, having Father’s Day fall during this season is like having your birthday fall on Christmas. You’re excited, but everybody else is somewhat distracted by something else; in this case, the smell of barbeque.
The celebration of both Mother’s and Father’s Day seem appropriately timed…
My wife and I were supposed to deliver our son on February 22, 2018. For a little over 8 months everything we thought about our pregnancy centered around that date. I requested time off from work starting on February 21. Our parents were planning to make alternate trips to visit us based on the expected due date. When we were deciding on how and when to paint his nursery, we used February 22 as our benchmark for how soon we needed to get things done. For almost a year, everything in our lives centered around February 22, 2018, so imagine my surprise when we were sitting in the doctor's…
I am a clinical pharmacist at the University of Florida Health Jacksonville, a member of Drug Free Duval, and chair of the healthcare education committee for the North Florida Heroin and Opioid Task Force. However, my most significant accomplishment is that I am a father to three wonderful children.
My passion for helping with the opioid crisis started many years ago while working with chronic pain patients. So, when I was asked to give the closing statement on fatherhood and the opioid crisis at the “Dads at a Disadvantage Community Conversation” co-hosted by the National…
I vividly recall my father’s long fingers and open hands as he spoke and welcomed others into his presence. I wisely knew not to interrupt him when I saw his face buried in his hands as he was deep in thought. I appreciated his big hands when he carried me to the emergency room a few times for accidents I had while playing imaginatively. And I tried to follow his teaching on how to appropriately grasp a baseball for a fast ball or a curve ball. Four years since his passing and what I mostly cherish were his embracing hands that would drain out my worries of the world.
There are…
As the founder of the Center for Urban Families, one of my joys has been helping fathers defy the odds (and society’s low expectations of them) to change their lives—and create a better future for their children.
All transformations require courage and humility. But that’s especially true for dads who are struggling with addiction.
I got hooked on heroin as a 13-year-old kid living in Baltimore. Without a father-figure in my life, I began questioning my definition of “manhood” and gave in to the negative influences around me. By my early…
On the surface: It’s the start of 2016, and on the outside, life in my world couldn’t look better. I’m surrounded by family and friends, working my dream job in my hometown, and my beautiful wife and I are expecting our first child come the spring. My wife is also a Pediatric Nurse – a.k.a. Peyton Manning when comes to caring for young children. Becoming a Dad is the natural next step, and I’ll be great at it.
Between my ears: OMG! My wife is pregnant, and I have no idea if I’m more excited or scared for my life. I don’t know the first thing about parenting and really question how…
With Father’s Day coming up next month, you might be looking for new and engaging ways to get your partners and community involved with the issue of Responsible Fatherhood. The recently launched Responsible Fatherhood Campaign Toolkit is a helpful and easy-to-use website with great resources, especially if you are trying to:
Raise awareness for the issue of responsible fatherhood in your local community Communicate directly with your partners and your community about the important work your organization is doing to encourage…Being a dad can be one of the most joyful experiences in a person’s life. The bonds between fathers and their children are deep and last a lifetime. Loving fathers want the best for their children and work to strengthen these bonds of love; however, the challenges of life can strain even the most precious relationships. Stress at work, financial worries, strained relationships with a co-parent, difficulties related to custody arrangements or father-child visits, personal health issues—life’s curve balls can sometimes feel like obstacles to nurturing a strong father-child bond. They can…
Family strengthening is a topic that has always been a part of the Head Start vision, and the past two decades have seen a growing recognition of how important Dads are to this process. For example, take the 2017 Father/Male Engagement Appreciation Breakfast held by Union Baptist Head Start in Baltimore, Maryland. This event truly embodied the best practice of showing fathers they are needed and appreciated. It also served to uncover Dads’ wants and needs for services. As the Master of Ceremony for the event, it was exciting for me to facilitate a spirited conversation to find out what…