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The author of this blog post points out that the focus of child protection social workers is generally much more on mothers than on fathers and explains that even when fathers are included they are often viewed through a “risk lens”. He considers some of the underlying reasons for this disparity, discusses the need to better understand the difficulties that fathers may face, and offers tips to help social workers adjust the way they support fathers.
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On behalf of the Administration for Children and Families’ Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Building Bridges and Bonds (B3) study partnered with Responsible Fatherhood programs and experts in the field to identify high-priority questions and emerging service approaches. Programs use a number of promising models to work with fathers, but rigorous studies have not yet shown which are effective and worth expanding or replicating.
The B3 team is rigorously evaluating three new and emerging service approaches…
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In August 2015, the HHS Office of Adolescent Health (OAH) awarded the New Hampshire Department of Education a multi-year Pregnancy Assistance Fund (PAF) Program grant to support teen fathers and their families. The E3 Teen Fatherhood Program aims to increase the likelihood that teen fathers will develop skills and knowledge to lead successful lives and to fully engage in the parenting of their child(ren). To this end, the E3 program approach is to improve education, employment, and family engagement for teen fathers and to build a sustainable network of stakeholders and partners to serve the…
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This publication introduces an assessment and planning tool to help nonprofits evaluate their parent engagement efforts and chart a path toward deeper partnerships with parents and caregivers. The tool spans just eight pages, with accompanying text outlining how to use it, how to assess its results and what real-world strategies and programs are already in play — and working — to boost parent engagement. (Author Abstract)
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Training Materials Real Life Heroes® (RLH) is a treatment program that supports the development of safety and attachment needed for reintegration of traumatic memories experienced by children and their caregivers. RLH has been successfully implemented in a wide range of child and family service, educational, and mental health treatment programs for 15 years and was specifically designed for treatment of children and families with Complex Trauma. RLH provides practitioners with easy-to-use tools, including a life storybook and practitioner’s manual (RLH Toolkit) with multi-sensory creative arts activities and…
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This brief describes efforts in Kansas, Texas, and Kentucky to implement innovative practices to engage fathers and paternal relatives in the lives of children involved with the child welfare system. Kansas has changed the word "parent" to the phrase "mother and father" throughout the Children and Family Services policy manual, provides training on father engagement, strengthened requirements for contacting relatives of children entering foster care, and sponsors an annual Fatherhood Summit. Texas has created the State-level position of Fatherhood Program Specialist to spearhead a…
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This article highlights an initiative by the Nashua New Hampshire Division of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) District Office to facilitate visitation between children in out-of-home placements and birth fathers and mothers within 24 hours of removal and to involve the children in deciding those they want to visit them. The benefits of timely initial visitations are discussed, a case study is shared, and implications for permanency planning are explored.
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In recent years there has been considerable research from the US on positive outcomes for children whose fathers become ‘involved’ in their care. The purpose of a UK study carried out by Drs. Eirini Flouri and Ann Buchanan at the Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Oxford, was to discover whether there was similar evidence in the UK using longitudinal data from the National Child Development Study (NCDS). NCDS is an ongoing longitudinal study of some 17,000 children who were born in England, Wales and Scotland in one week in 1958. These children have been followed up at…
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Many children experience adversity in the form of poverty, abuse or neglect, homelessness, or other conditions that make them vulnerable to the damaging effects of chronic stress. New research reveals that chronic stress alters their rapidly developing biological systems in ways that undermine their ability to succeed in school and in life. The good news is that we have strong evidence for programs and approaches that policy makers could use to help these children overcome the effects of stress. Home visitation and early childhood health care can give parents much-needed support and…
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Training Materials This manual contains tested group education modules intended for fathers and their partners, most often spouses, in the plantation region (or tea estates) of Sri Lanka. It offers a series of tested activities and group discussions that provide a strong foundation for addressing and transforming norms within families, communities, and, of course, masculinity, and aims to promote gender equality within the home and children's healthy development and overall well-being. (Author abstract)
