Engaging Men Raising the Next Generation: Training the Trainer Workshop, Feb 16

Brian Russell from DadCentral in Ontario will be in Vancouver on February 16, 2015 to present a Train-the-Trainer workshop on a new community development toolkit, My Dad Matters: Engaging Men Raising the Next Generation.  The full day workshop will introduce participants to the toolkit, the materials being developed, and equip them to lead others through the toolkit.

Download the toolkit for free (hardcopies will be available at the training) on the new My Dad website. Videos, webinars and other materials are also available through the website.

Click here to register for the Train-the-Trainer workshop. 

My Dad Matters: Engaging Men Raising the Next Generation was produced by The Counselling Foundation of Canada and Dad Central/Papa Centrale Ontario. The original My Daddy Matters because…(2004) toolkit has become an influence in Canada and other countries such as Japan and Australia. Over the years, there has been a shift from asking “why” to asking “how” – a shift “that has only happened because of the steady, determined efforts of those who see the crucial importance fathers play in the health and well-being of children and families.”

Service provider organizations have identified “the need to build meaningful, sustainable activities, services and programs for various groups of fathers, and to have an array of choices that service organizations can pick from.”

The toolkit is designed to enable service providers to:

• Apply new knowledge of fathering and father engagement to their practice
• Clearly tell the vision and purpose of their action plan
• Be familiar with the action steps, who will do them, and by when
• Assess their personal attitudes and how these impact practice
• Explain activities and resources that support father engagement
• Tell of the benefits of father involvement programs.

The outline of the toolkit is as follows:

• Introduction
• Principles of Welcoming Fathers
  • Definition of Responsible Father Involvement: “A responsible father is a man who takes intentional interest in the care and well-being of a child.”
  • Being Welcoming to Fathers means striving to support fatherhood by:
    • Encouraging and respecting men in their role as fathers
    • Inspiring their participation in all aspects of their children’s lives
    • Ensuring they are respectfully considered in all aspects of service delivery
  • Guiding Principles of Welcoming Fathers
    • Welcoming fathers keeps children first
    • Welcoming fathers acknowledges the importance of both parents
    • Welcoming fathers affirms and values responsible father involvement
    • Welcoming fathers expects social responsibility and engages society as a whole
    • Welcoming fathers acknowledges diversity
    • Welcoming fathers seeks to empower men
    • Welcoming fathers seeks collaboration
    • Welcoming fathers seeks sustainability
  • Need for Innovation: “Success in engaging fathers is directly related to being intentional in your efforts.”
  • Benefits of Welcoming Fathers: Research has shown that a father’s involvement positively affects a child’s social development and reduces stress for mothers.

• Initial Considerations in Welcoming Fathers
  • Highlights of an Effective Father Involvement Program include:
    • engaging with the whole person and provide support, referral and resources outside of parenting
    • valuing the role of mothers
    • having dedicated staff and offer ongoing staff training
    • recognizing diversity of culture, age, experience, sexual orientation, living conditions, etc.
    • creating a welcoming atmosphere
    • working in partnership with other community agencies
    • building self-reflection into the program model to build from success
  • Understanding Fathers
  • A Strength-based Framework
  • What Fathers are Seeking:
    • Parenting support and information
    • Recreation ideas and activities to do with their children
    • Assistance with navigating the child welfare system
    • Help with social support systems
    • Support groups dealing with separation, divorce, depression, etc.
    • Job preparation and training, and employment search
    • Relationship support
    • Substance abuse counseling
    • Anger management
    • Mediation services
    • Health and nutrition
    • Housing
    • Crisis intervention
  • What’s Coming
• Preparation: The toolkit provides a variety of assessment tools.
  • Important Decision-point: Father-Friendly or Dads-Only?
  • Readiness questionnaire
  • Community mapping
  • Barriers to Welcoming Fathers: there are a range of personal and systemic barriers which can hinder father’s participation in programs and services.
  • Count the Cost: Take a realistic assessment of the challenges your organization faces in creating father-friendly programming. Suggested approaches  to reach fathers:
    • The make-up of your community: rural/urban, size, employment situation, etc.
    • The group of dads you are targeting: young dads, single dads, age of children, Aboriginal dads, etc.
    • The issues that face fathers in your community: employment, mental health, housing, etc.
    • Resources available or dedicated to engaging fathers: funding, agency mandates, location of agency, ability of facilitators, etc.
  • Agency commitment and solid leadership
  • Defining a Purpose Statement
  • Crafting A Purpose Statement
• Organizational Assessment: The toolkit provides ranking questionnaires that help to provide a view of your present work and a starting point for building an action plan.
  • Programming, Environment and Resources
  • Staff Development
  • Policies and Procedures
  • Agency Support and Buy-in
  • Community Engagement
  • Priorities
• Overview of Best Practices: Community survey tool, assessment tools, and suggestions for maximizing outreach to fathers.
  • Planning
  • Environment
  • Programming
  • The Line Up
  • Recruiting
  • Partnerships
• Strategic Planning
  • Step1: SWOT Analysis: analysis of strengths and weaknesses
  • Step2: “Dotmocracy”: “a transparent, equal opportunity, and participatory large group decision-making tool which results in a graph-like visual representation of the group’s collective opinion.”
  • Step3: Action Plan: Outline tool for building a plan based on the Dotmocracy exercise outcomes.
  • Step 4: Communication Plan
  • Step 5: Develop a Logic Model
• Evaluation: Tools for ongoing measuring of program effectiveness, once the programs are up and running.
  • Programming
  • Environment and Resources
  • Staff Development
  • Policies and Procedures
  • Agency Support and Buy-in
  • Community Engagement
  • Assessment: Before and After
• Other Toolkit Elements
  • My Dad Workshop Series
  • Do-it-yourself Focus Groups for Dads
  • Do-it-yourself Media Kit
  • Father Involvement Factsheets
  • For Dads: Know Your Child
  • Webinars and Videos
• Other Resources:
  • Dad Central Ontario
  • 24 Cribside Assistance for New Dads
  • Step By Step: Engaging Fathers in Programs for Families
  • National Fatherhood Initiative (US)
  • Fatherhood institute (UK)
  • Blogs and Other Sites for Dads
• References