INDIVIDUAL LEVEL
Individual Support
Dads need help navigating organizations and systems to receive the support needed to improve their circumstances. Navigators support fathers in the following areas:
- Education
- Employment – job placement and retention
- Health – physical, mental, behavioral (substance abuse support)
- Financial Literacy
- Legal Assistance (custody, child support, criminal, etc.)
- Social Services (accessing benefits and services, child welfare)
- Housing
Group Support
Dads participate in a 12-week workshop utilizing an integrated curriculum that develops our fathers as men, as parents, and as co-parents. The curriculum is comprised of elements from:
ORGANIZATIONAL LEVEL
Outcomes for fathers are only as good as the organizations and systems that engage them. To ensure that fathers reach their full potential, organizations and systems must recognize and value the role that fathers play in their families and communities.
Power of Fathers works to improve the father engagement practices, policies, and programs of the four partner agencies.
Partners complete organizational assessments to measure the quality of their father engagement across their organizations
- Partners develop and implement organizational improvement plans based on their assessments
- The initiative tracks the improvements each organization makes, and evaluates the impact of the fathers and families they serve.
The best practices learned from this effort will be collected and shared with other organizations and agencies to improve their work with fathers. When more organizations implement effective father engagement strategies, more fathers can achieve positive outcomes.
The organizational improvement survey covers areas such as:
|
Outreach and Engagement |
Operations |
|
Program Services |
Policies and Procedures |
|
Co-Parenting Activities |
Staffing/Human Resources |
|
Physical Environment |
Recruitment |
If you are interested in implementing your own father engagement improvement effort, and would like more information or support from Power of Fathers, click here
POLICY/SYSTEMS LEVEL
Power of Fathers recognizes the importance of improving the policies and systems that have historically hindered or prohibited fathers from being engaged in their families and communities. The initiative’s partners work with external stakeholders and policymakers to identify and address these issues.
Our policy work also is informed by the experiences of our participating fathers. Often times the barriers they face are rooted in policies, systems and bureaucratic practices.
Our policy efforts cover issues including:
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Child Support |
Housing |
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Parenting Time (Custody/Visitation) |
Women’s Rights |
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Access to Social Services and Benefits |
Children’s Rights |
|
Criminal & Civil Judicial Issues |
Racial and Gender Equity |
Fathers: Advocates for Change Our fathers are the most powerful and effective component of our policy efforts. To that end, we have partnered with Community Organizing and Family Issues (COFI) to train participating fathers in advocacy and community organizing.
We want our fathers to be the faces and voices in their communities and the offices of local and state elected officials advocating for changes that will benefit their families and communities.
If you are interested in learning more about our policy, systems, or advocacy work or collaborating on our efforts, click here
Learn. Act. Engage. Discussion (LEAD) Series
The LEAD Series was created to share knowledge with the field about what works and what challenges and opportunities exist in improving father engagement and outcomes for fathers, families and communities. Each convening is focused on either a Research, Policy, or Program topic; bringing together leading experts, practitioners and stakeholders from each field for results-oriented discussions. LEAD is designed to educate, engage and motivate participants to action.
