Third in a series of guides on encouraging father involvement in Head Start programs for young children, this guide discusses assessing program effectiveness in involving fathers and identifying what changes might need to be made to ensure that the program is as father-friendly as possible. It begins by explaining six stages of becoming a father-friendly program: understanding and appreciating fathers' vital contributions to healthy child development, creating an environment where fathers feel welcomed and valued, deciding what to do, recruiting fathers, operating the program, and sustaining…
Promoting health and recognizing illness in young children are not intuitive skills and many fathers lack the knowledge, skills, and confidence to safely care for the health and well-being of their children. The National Fatherhood Initiative's (NFI) Doctor Dad workshop was created in 2002 specifically to address this concern.This report is a summary of a formative-evaluation study on the Doctor Dad workshop and curriculum conducted by the Center for Social Work Research at the University of Texas at Austin. The formative evaluation was part of a pilot test to assess the effectiveness and…
Since its beginnings nearly 40 years ago, Head Start has understood that loving, intentional parental involvement is an essential factor in healthy child development. Head Start works with parents because it believes that a healthy family is a child's best and most powerful resource. Strong families help to ensure positive outcomes for children and that they enter school ready to learn and succeed in their years there. However, getting children prepared for life-long learning is typically viewed as mother's work. Dads are too often seen as optional in this part of their children's lives.…
This tool kit has been created for the Annie E. Casey Foundation to help promote early childhood development and school readiness. The purpose of this tool kit is to provide guidance, resource materials and references that will assist communities in working with families as primary partners in their child's development and school readiness. By recognizing and building the capacity of parents as their child's first educator and engaging parents as decision makers for their child and leaders in the agencies and organizations that serve them, communities can strengthen families and support young…
Positive interactions with adults during the first three years of life are vital for healthy emotional, social, and intellectual development. Research has found that 85 percent of the neurons in the brain that contribute to academic success are formed by the age of three years old. However, public funding for children's services is lowest for this age group. This guide describes policies that should be implemented by the state of Illinois to promote nurturing relationships that help children to develop. The suggestions address methods for strengthening parent-child attachments, supporting…
Public policy asserts that paternity establishment is important for a child's emotional and financial well-being. Statutory and case law permit three mechanisms to establish paternity: marriage, legal voluntary paternity acknowledgement, and by lawsuit with genetic testing. Although the processes are relatively simple for adults, adolescent parents have several issues which complicate the legal establishment of paternity. These include maturity and the need for minors to have parental permission to marry, file a lawsuit, or sign a voluntary acknowledgement. Despite these concerns, it is…
The Department of Health and Human Services Peer Technical Assistance Network sponsored a roundtable discussion to share ideas about programs to strengthen families who are separated by parental incarceration. Government officials, service providers, and practitioners from Tennessee, Florida, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma reviewed trends in incarceration and discussed solutions to common challenges. Prisoner re-entry, recidivism, and the impact of incarceration on children and parents specifically were discussed. Attendees noted the need to focus on nurturing stability in dysfunctional…
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the number of parents in prison increased significantly during the 1990s. Parental incarceration and the disruption of family relationships have several negative effects on children, including poverty, poor academic performance, aggression, depression, delinquency, and substance abuse. However, parenting programs can help mothers and fathers in prison to strengthen attachments to their children and protect them from risk behaviors. Effective family dynamics also can reduce recidivism for parents after their release from prison. The Welfare Peer…
In response to the congressional mandate to promote two-parent families and marriage specified in the 1996 welfare reform legislation, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services embarked on an initiative to encourage healthy marriage in the broad population and especially within low-income groups. To support further progress in this area, ACF is sponsoring a large-scale, comprehensive demonstration and evaluation of programs designed to strengthen relationships and support the marital aspirations of unmarried couples expecting a…
This report explores the importance of interpersonal relationships in the development of a child. It begins by discussing the benefits of a secure mother and child relationship, peer relationships, relationships with caregivers in day care, teacher student relationships, and relationships with other caring adults. Unfounded scientific assertions about the influence of relationships on children are identified, and the gap between scientific findings and policy is examined. Implications for the development of policy that promote the well-being of children are discussed, and include: the…
