Image created with Adobe Firefly 2. On the afternoon of March 11, 2020, I was enjoying a sunny day in the ATX, celebrating my daughter’s 22nd birthday with family and her friends. That’s the day the lives of United States citizens were changed forever by the COVID-19 pandemic. If your organization was involved at that time in delivering a fatherhood program or any other program for families, the operations of that program likely came to a screeching halt. Staff had to mobilize quickly and pivot to virtual delivery, a mode that most organizations had never considered viable, let alone desirabl ..read more

Imagine if every sector of your city was fully invested in becoming father-friendly. Imagine how a city-wide fatherhood initiative could mobilize those sectors. And what if I told you there was a way to jump-start that initiative? A tool that hones in on identifying assets in your city to mobilize? Meet the Rapid Ethnographic Assessment of Programs (REAPS) for Fathers. It’s a process created by National Fatherhood Initiative® (NFI) that draws on an anthropological research method that’s particularly helpful when you have limited time and resources and need to act quickly. It gathers informati ..read more

Is your program evidence-based? Is your program evidence-informed? Is your program well-supported? Is your program promising? Is your program listed in a clearinghouse? As more human service organizations choose or are required to use evidence-based parenting programs, National Fatherhood Initiative® (NFI) has seen a significant increase in those types of questions about our programs. How does our staff answer them? It depends on the program, of course. More importantly, it depends on the basis for our answers. I’ll share that basis shortly, particularly in answering whether a program is evid ..read more

As more studies are conducted over the years, we gain a better understanding of the positive impact that an involved father can have on children, as well as the negative effects of father absence. Once a significant number of new studies are available, National Fatherhood Initiative® updates its flagship publication, Father Facts™. Lucky for us, it’s that time again! Father Facts™ 9 is here and packed with valuable insights into father involvement and father presence data and research! Let's take a moment to see where we’ve come from.  Looking back at father absence research From its hum ..read more

How can you get more dads to attend your program and ensure they keep coming back? Most dads aren’t sitting around asking what they can do to be better dads, after all. I have one word that can help you increase father engagement… Incentives! Incentives are a powerful tool for recruiting and retaining dads in your fatherhood program. How can you leverage them for the best results? The first step is to identify the types of incentives you can offer. Here are a few categories: Incentives that address wants and needs. These incentives include helping dads obtain employment, advance their educat ..read more

March 26, 2024 How to Involve Dads in Family Resource & Support Centers Workshop Please join National Fatherhood Initiative® for a webinar that promises to transform how Family Resource and Support Centers engage fathers in their programs. "How to Involve Dads in Family Resource & Support Centers Workshop" is designed to equip you with tools and insights to turn your intention of involving dads into action. This workshop webinar is necessary for anyone involved in family support services who wants to be more father-inclusive. Whether you're a seasoned professional or new to the field ..read more

Image created with Adobe Firefly 2. Do you serve dads who are involved with your state’s child welfare agency? If so, you undoubtedly know about the struggle many dads have in navigating that agency effectively. Dads get lost in understanding how to engage with that agency to prevent losing their children or reuniting with them after a forced separation. The Struggle is Real The primary reason for this struggle is the lack of proactive inclusion of dads by child welfare agencies. Indeed, a comprehensive review of state child welfare agencies revealed that: Many of their data systems make it ..read more

Proportion of American Children Living with a Father in the Home Reaches 34-Year High As more U.S. children grow up with involved fathers, trends in father presence are supported by nationwide efforts to build capacity in organizations to engage and serve fathers. GERMANTOWN, Md. – Jan. 25, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ - Data released in the U.S. Census Bureau's 2023 Current Population Survey (CPS) reveal that the proportion of children growing up with a biological, step, or adoptive father in the home is now at the highest since 1989. Approximately 75%, or 54.5 million of the country's 72.3 ..read more

What’s the most fascinating, new area of fatherhood research? For a research nerd like me, it’s the biological connection between dads and their children. I’m not talking about the DNA dads contribute to their offspring. I’m talking about the changes that take place in dads’ biology during the prenatal and postnatal periods that prepare them for the most vital role of their life. That’s why I was so pleased to run across the best, concise summary I’ve seen of this burgeoning and exciting area of research. The article below appeared in the Child and Family Blog, a recent addition to our Free ..read more

Grab a pen or pencil. (Take your time. I’ll wait.) If you serve dads, write down your work’s impact in helping them become more involved in their children’s lives. If you don’t serve dads yet, write down the impact you hope you’ll have in helping them become more involved. Now count the number of impacts that are immediate or short-term (within five years). Then, count the long-term impacts (five years or more) and compare the two figures. I’ll bet you identified more short-term than long-term impacts. I didn’t ask you to go through this exercise to place more or less value on either length o ..read more