Fatherhood Summit Session
Research links father involvement to better outcomes for children, even children in the child welfare system. When fathers are involved, their children have shorter lengths of stay in foster care and are more likely to be reunited with birth parents or placed with relatives. However, reviews of child welfare data indicate that child welfare agencies struggle to engage fathers and paternal relatives.
This session will begin with background on fathers with children in the child welfare system, using data from a major federal evaluation of fatherhood programs. Then, presenters will provide…
Fatherhood Summit Session
Head Start Programs have supported and strengthened parent-child relationships for more than50 years, including a specific focus on father involvement. Whether parents are cohabiting or living separately, custodial or noncustodial, Head Start appreciates the essential role that positively-engaged fathers can play in support of children, families, and their communities. Head Start grantees and practitioners are encouraged to recognize how engaged fathers contribute to children’s behavior, and to think strategically about how to solicit fathers’ input and address barriers impeding active …
Fatherhood Summit Session
Social capital refers to the social networks and structural and environmental factors that affect the ability of individuals to succeed. Higher social capital helps to build bridges, reduce barriers, and provide leverage to upward mobility. Many fathers affected by intergenerational poverty, incarceration, and other socioeconomic challenges lack the social capital to escape cycles of crises. Often, these fathers are isolated in adverse environments and trapped in unhealthy interpersonal relationships. Program activities to improve the socioeconomic situations of these fathers must focus on…
Fatherhood Summit Session
Legislators and nonprofit funders say they are looking for evidence of return on investment. The Saint Wall Street “Program Return on Investment (PROI)” model has helped fatherhood and other family service programs across America demonstrate this important value and use it to substantially increase support for their programs.
This session sought to help fatherhood programs assess their case-making value based on three questions: What is the problem? How is my program different and better at solving the problem? Where is the proof?
Participants also learned how to use a PROI case to:
… Fatherhood Summit Session
This session will begin by asking each participant to visualize what might have been her or his dad’s joie de vivre, the glint in his eye. Participants will then consider the gap between their dad’s glint and his reality. Did he forfeit his dreams to do something that fulfilled him less but paid him more? Did “success” mean less time with his family?
While some dads address that dilemma with pride and a new glint, others may respond with fear, drug and alcohol abuse, affairs, or abandonment. This session explores a “Father’s Catch-22”: the expectation that a dad will love his family by…
Fatherhood Summit Session
High-quality marketing materials can help local practitioners promote fatherhood programsand generate excitement about the responsible fatherhood message. The Responsible Fatherhood Media Campaign Toolkit is a free and easy-to-use resource to reach fathers, community members, social media followers, and local media.
This session will describe toolkit resources, including the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse’s Dad Jokes public service announcements (PSAs) and the new Dance Like a Dad campaign. The presentation will explore how practitioners can use professionally-produced…
Fatherhood Summit Session
“Think big, act practically, and let your light shine” are key tenets of the Citizen Father Project, a program promoting leadership among fathers in the Minneapolis area. Developed through a partnership between a university and a fatherhood program, the Citizen Father Project forges relationships between fathers and professionals to build healthy families and communities. The project’s goal is to create community social change by addressing the problem of fathers not being positively involved in the lives of their children. Leaders draw upon parental resilience and collaborative social…
Fatherhood Summit Session
Research has shown that fathers returning to their families and communities after incarceration often face multiple challenges, including lack of housing or employment, large child support debt, and complicated family relationships. This discussion will explore a variety of ways in which fatherhood programming can help returning fathers and their families overcome these challenges.
The panel includes a researcher, two practitioners, and a program participant who will highlight strategies for providing reentry services and support for returning fathers. Based on Urban Institute research,…
Fatherhood Summit Session
From policy to practice, funding, and organizational founding, women play a pivotal role in the promotion of responsible fatherhood. John C. Maxwell defines a leader as “one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” This session features three women—dynamic fatherhood program leaders—who know, go, and show the way to effective father engagement, strong program implementation, and continuous quality improvement.
Good leaders possess qualities that are unrelated to gender: honesty and integrity, compassion and commitment, inspiration and empathy, competence and confidence…
Fatherhood Summit Session
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nationally, about 80 percent of noncustodial parents (NCPs) are fathers. Programs often need guidance on how to meet the needs of NCPs. In 2018, the Administration for Children and Families released impact findings from Parents and Children Together (PACT), a rigorous study of four Responsible Fatherhood (RF) grantees funded from 2011-2015. This landmark research highlights fatherhood program approaches to engage fathers, encourage responsible parenting, and ultimately, improve outcomes for children.
Drawing upon the PACT study, the panel described…
