DadTalk Blog

Rural Areas often face a lack of access to resources needed to support fathers: employment, transportation, housing, healthcare

Being a father is tough. However, being a father while living in a rural, small community comes with a unique set of challenges of its own. Unlike urban areas, where resources are often more available and more accessible, rural areas often lack access to resources needed to support fathers, such as employment...

“When we talk about a child losing a parent to incarceration and we are interpreting the ACES [adverse childhood experiences] literature only through a child maltreatment lens, the meaning that gets made (intentionally or not) is that children of incarcerated parents are maltreated children, harmed by their parents and thus better off without them. If, however, the parents who are in prison or jail are seen as potential supports for these...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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: