Partners for Kids: Engaging Fathers in Home Visiting - DHHR

Partners for Kids:
Engaging Fathers in Home Visiting
Circle of Parents: New Vision for Home Visiting
In this issue we will look into the efforts of Circle of Parents to advance home visiting practice
through the involvement and engagement of fathers.. Home visiting programs have traditionally
been designed to be carried out by providers who have typically been women to serve recipients
who have also been mothers. As a result of the catalytic vision, training and technical support
delivered by Circle of Parents, there has been a burgeoning interest and desire among Circle of
Parents’ community, local and state partners to embrace and leverage father participation in the
home visiting context. Circle of Parents’ partners have increasingly come to realize that father
involvement and engagement is critical to advancing authentic family supportive practice.
This newsletter highlights 7 programmatic examples of how home visiting programs have sought
to embrace fathers. Four home visiting program models (Healthy Families America, Early Head-
Start, Healthy Start, and Parents As Teachers) are represented among the 7 program affiliates
highlighted. There are some key common threads that unite the efforts of these programs to be
inclusive of fathers and some unique differences and learnings that distinguish the experiences
of the programs. That said, what is clear is that work to more intentionally involve fathers in home
visiting is something that is getting more attention today.
www.circleofparents.org
August 2011
Inside
Home Visiting: A Statewide
Perspective
Page 2
Engaging Fathers Where
They Are
Page 3
Understanding Culture:
More Than Just Talk
Page 4
Parent Connection
Page 5
Creative Connections
Page 6
Modeling Father
Involvement in
Early HeadStart
Page 7
Healthy Families: Engaging
Fathers Through Community
Involvement
Page 8

Engaging Fathers
in the Home
Visiting Model
We use the Parents
as Teachers
Program conducting
monthly home
visits with families
who have children
from birth to age 3.
We had some success
engaging fathers with the support groups
and the Conscious Fathering Program but the
Parents as Teachers home visits had the biggest
impact. We made sure that the home visitors
were able to be flexible in their scheduling
so they could schedule the home visits when
the fathers were available. Before the Fatherhood
grant, we would schedule the visits within
the Parent Educator’s (home visitors) schedule.
When we would go on a visit and there were
handouts that were important for dad to see,
we would say “make sure you share these with
dad” so that meant the information always went
through mom. With the intention of getting dads
more involved, we had to be much more flexible
in offering evening visits and offering Saturday
visits so we could be sure the father was going
to be there. We also make sure dad was available
and if mom was there, then that was the
best scenario- but we wanted to make sure the
dad was engaged.
From the Home Visitors’ perspectives, it was
exciting to see how engaged the dads were
in these visits and how likely they were to participate
in the follow-up activities that were suggested
by the home visitor. If we left activities to
do or to expand on, dads were really eager to
do them. They really enjoyed seeing their children
engaged in the activities and seeing what
they were capable of doing. A lot of the dads
would remark “ I didn’t know he could do that.”
They were so impressed with their children’s
skills that it was fun for them to see how their
child was developing as we pointed out things
that sometimes parents take for granted because
they see their child every day. When you
bring it to their attention and say “see that, see
the thing they just did, that’s a whole new skill.”
Home Visiting: A Statewide Perspective
Deb Meiklejohn, Rhode Island Parents as Teachers State Leader,
RI Parent Information Network, meiklejohn@ripin.org
It’s really an exciting thing.
It did not take any time at all for the dads to
participate and think right off the bat they were
engaged. As soon as we made home visiting
more available to them, they got right into it. We
brought them into the home visit as a partner in
what we were doing and not an observer. Also,
we encouraged dads to be engaged with their
child in whatever we were doing on the particular
day.
There were a few challenges with this new intention
of engaging dads. For instance, we had
to first get the staff members of the different programs
to realize that they had to branch out a
little bit and be more flexible with their schedule.
Asking people to be that flexible when you’re
talking about evenings and Saturdays was difficult
at first. With our participants, there was the
initial challenge of scheduling the visit through
mom. Moms would usually say things like “oh
no 3 o’clock is good because that’s when they
get up from their nap and that’s a good time” but
we would have to say “no, we would really like
you both there so we will work with you to pick
a better time.” We needed to convince some
moms that we needed dad there as well. We
also found that because our Parents as Teachers
program was already in existence, this was
a little bit of a change for some families who
were used to the visits only involving mom and
the children. If it was a family we were already
working with, we needed to say “it is very important
that we bring dad in.” It was much easier to
initiate this with new families because dad was
asked to be involved from the beginning.
Lastly, we noticed that because it was usually
a mom who enrolled the family in the program,
mom was the initial contact. We addressed
all mail to the mother, and when we called the
house, we asked for mom. We stopped to take
a look at that and said “it’s not just mom; we’re
enrolling the family. Why are we sending the
mail to mom?” So the program actually looked
at their mailing list and if we didn’t have dad’s
name on that envelope, we included it. We
changed all of our electronic distribution lists
and dad was included as a contact.
Father Friendly Assessment
The Father Friendly Assessment was helpful
because it was a way for us to identify areas
where we had some strengths and areas where
we had some weaknesses. It also brought
things to our attention that in the course of
our day we wouldn’t notice. For example, we
looked around the room at our décor. We had to
ask ourselves, “Is it friendly to fathers or is it just
attractive to mothers?” We took that for granted
and often with a staff of all women, we might
not have stopped and said “oh, you know this
room might not appeal to dads.” So we really
made sure posters and decorations we had on
the wall reflected moms and dads and all types
of families. Even though we are making sure
that we are father friendly, we really want to be
family friendly at the same time.
Evidence
The best evidence of our success is related to
sustainability. We used the funds to provide
technical assistance statewide to all home visitors,
and not just those directly impacted by the
project. These home visitors have now imbedded
the importance of fathers into their day to
day work which has changed the way we operate.
It also increased our capacity to positively
impact more families.
2

Home Visiting Model
I do an intake or visit at the location of their
choice for fathers that are referred to the program.
This location may be in the home or during
their lunch break at work, or, in some cases
at the county jail. It’s a little unorthodox of a
model compared to just going into the home
because I’m working with a different population.
We have to go wherever the fathers are and
where they feel comfortable doing the interview.
Engaging Fathers
My best experience in engaging fathers is during
the workshop sessions. Before I even get
started, we do a relationship building exercise
where we take a moment to just vent or have
the “get it off your chest moment,” so whatever
issues they came in the door with- not finding a
job or legal issues- that’s where they have their
moment. I can then say after the group meeting,
“I can help you find the resources to deal
with that situation.”
Engaging Fathers Where They Are
Alphonso Pettis, Fatherhood Coordinator, Next Door Foundation
(Early HeadStart) apettis@nextdoormil.org
When I go to do a home visit and I see them using
some of the techniques they have learned
in the Conscious Fathering group with respect
to caring for their baby or using some of those
parenting techniques, that is what I consider
a success. However, one of our biggest challenges
lies in the recruitment process. Getting
fathers to understand that they need information
on being a responsible father can be very
difficult. I try to get them to understand that the
same skills necesary to be a good father are
the same skills necessary to get a job and be
self-knowing. They must possess the skills to
move forward. Because Milwaukee has high
unemployment, I always teach my fathers that
their biggest motivation should be their child. I
tell them that focusing on their child will help
their self-esteem and will lead them to have
sucessful job interviews.
Policies
I think the policy that worked well in our agency
is the dress code. The agency is open minded
about the dress code for home visitation. Many
of the fathers in our program have been incarcerated.
So, if I wasn’t able to be flexible with
the dress code policy and was required to wear
a shirt and tie to my home visits, it would water
down my relationship with the fathers. People
wouldn’t feel comfortable talking with me or engaging
me. One policy that wasn’t working was
a policy concerning where I could and couldn’t
go to do a home visit. This included not being
able to do home visits within certain prisons. A
lot of guys have 60 days left on their sentence
and that’s the best place to have a captive audience
to get them ready for when they do return
to that child’s life.
Recruiting
Our recruiting process starts with the flyers.
Putting images that look like them on the flyer
really helps them see that this is for them. I also
stayed away from using the word “program”
and adjusted my language to say “do you want
to come and be a part of a fraternity?” -- keeping
the focus of marketing on father education.
This makes it possible for fathers to list their
experience with us on their resume. I designed
t-shirts that every graduate from the Conscious
Fathering program received and our logo was
“Fathers Under Construction” and the fathers
also received a certificate. We also did radio
advertising, went out into the neighborhood, the
highways and byways, and set up booths at different
events. Wherever the dads were hanging
out, that’s where we went to recruit. We did an
aggressive campaign but there is still a lot more
we can do.
3

Home Visiting
Model
Healthy Start Healthy
Families Oakland
(HS/HFO) is a community
benefit program
of St. Joseph
Mercy Hospital. The
program was established
17 years ago
using a community
collaborative model
with home visitors trained in childhood development
and parenting. These home visitors
are located in five agencies around Oakland
County. HS/HFO is a Healthy Families America
(HFA) program and maintains active credentialing
standards for home visiting. We serve close
to 300 low-income, mostly Medicaid recipient,
families. These families are referred to the program
by the Health Department, OBYGN clinics,
local Hospitals, and other community partners
when there is a concern that parent stress
could create challenges to parenting or bonding
with the baby. These stress or risk factors include
being low income, not having health insurance,
being a teen parent, not having completed
high school, being homeless, not having
a phone, transportation, or having substance
abuse or mental health problems among other
issues. These risk factors have been found to
be linked to child abuse and neglect and poor
attachment. Upon receiving a referral, a home
visit is scheduled to conduct a semi-structured
interview, where the whole family is present,
ideally both mom and dad, as well as baby if
already born. This is a friendly, personable, and
trust building process to assess the level of life
stress and current stress the family is confronting.
These families are then assigned a home
visitor who meets with them weekly in their
homes following an evidenced based curriculum
to teach parenting strategies, activities to
promote development, and case management
strategies to help the family become self-sufficient.
Fathers are assisted with male to male
support in their home. The Conscious Fathering
workshop focuses on teaching fathers the basic
needs of the baby. Fathers are also invited to
Understanding Culture: More Than Talk
Dr. Yobany Pardo, Clinical Supervisor, Healthy Start/HealthyFamilies,
St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, pardoy@trinity-health.org
participate in group-based relationship education
workshops where they also learn about
the importance of their role in the baby’s development
and their role as a co-parent with the
mother.
Experience
The biggest success we have had in engaging
fathers has been with those families with
dad present who engage in our program and
attended father specific activities. They are retained
the longest, usually at a rate of 75%. We
also learned that families with a home visitor
present are more likely to be engaged and take
advantage of other services more readily. Also,
fathers that had developed trust with a home
visitor are very likely to welcome individual
male-to-male support when their individual difficulties
are affecting the baby’s development.
In a recent focus group report, dads stated that
Healthy Start helped them feel a higher sense
of responsibility or obligation as a dad. Some of
the comments made by dads said:
• “I now take my role as a father more seriously;”
• “I know now I have more to do for our kid
than just provide for him;”
• “I now ask for the caseworker to visit on my
day off when I can be there too;”
• “I wish I would have known about this program
with my older son, I would probably
be closer to him if I did;” and
• “being a man now is being a dad, it’s all I
think about, is being a dad.”
There was a sense in these focus groups that
the program has helped these young men become
confident in their role as a father and parent.
We were one of over 25 recipients of the
National Fatherhood Initiative’s program capacity
building grant funding cycle in a competitive
process with over 400 other applicants. We
have learned that we can propel larger –hospital
wide -organizational change towards father
readiness and that as a home visiting program
we have expertise to help with very pragmatic
changes that create father readiness. Finally,
a huge success was being able to deliver services
not just bilingually or in Spanish, but also
feeling more confident about delivering these
services in a culturally competent manner.
One of the biggest challenges in engaging dads
is being able to offer them pragmatic solutions
to being able to provide for their family: having
a job, getting an education, developing a work
identity. This has forced our program to build
a more solid relationship with our Work Force
Development and Michigan Works programs.
Also, many of them work long hours, six days
a week, and it becomes very difficult for them
to participate. However, home visitors readiness
to leave materials or activities with dad
is key and not to conduct a visit as if he didn’t
exist. Another challenge is in gaining trust. Not
just as we understand it in the English sense
of the word of feeling comfortable or feeling respected,
but in the sense of “confianza,” feeling
you are one of us and you are part of those we
trust in our community. This is the key to working
with low-income fathers. Finally, designing
a program that is culturally competent- not just
father friendly but family ready has been a challenge.
For example, being able to respond to
learning styles and needs of Latino families by
embedding a narrative approach, using storytelling,
dichos, icons, and using code switching.
Our message was changed from “what is
in it for you” to “how we support families like
yours,” “helping your children develop healthy
and strong,” “helping you make sure your family
stays united (cohesive),” “learn how to help your
children grow up being educados (well mannered)
and respectful.” Being “unidos” (loyal,
caring, looking after one another), respectful,
and being educados are central to Latinos. We
are always challenged to convey this in a way
that makes sense to Latino fathers and families.
4

Parent Connection
Andrea Alpert-Buss, Program Manager, Family Services of NE Wisconsin abuss@familyservicesnew.org
Home Visiting Model
Our Home Visiting Model is the Parents as
Teachers Home Visitation Program. It is an “evidence
based” model. The program has been
around in the Fox Cities since 1993 and is one
of the first programs in the state of Wisconsin to
offer Parents as Teachers. We are a “universal
access” program in that we serve all first time
parents. We are seeing more and more, medium
and high-risk families who are interested in
participating. We follow the Parents as Teachers
model with fidelity which means that we utilize
all 4 components: Home Visitation, Group
Meetings, and Screenings and Resource referral.
We offer 6 different screenings that include
Health questionnaire, Ages and Stages, Edinburgh
Screening for Post Partum Depression,
Home Observation of Measurement of the
Environment (HOME), Home Safety Assessment
and a language screening. The health
questionnaire checks to see if immunizations
are up-to-date, if they have a pediatrician, do
they breast or bottle feed the baby, etc. We use
the Ages and Stages Developmental screening
tool to find out where the child is in their development
– physical and social/emotional. It is
a national tool that is used by other programs
and many pediatricians to see if children are on
track developmentally. If we identify a delay according
to the score then we make a referral to
a Birth to 3 programs and/or their pediatrician.
HOME deals with the child’s environment. For
example, one of the areas it looks at it is if the
environment is stimulating enough for the child
to grow and develop. For instance, one of the
areas it looks at is the environment. If a family
needs a smoke alarm, or baby proof latches,
safety gate, Parent Connection is able to provide
the family with the items.
The group meetings are held monthly and there
is a variety of formats: parent/child or just for
parents. Some of the groups are small in nature
where others are large. We also provide a
monthly parenting class group just for teen parents
that is available for all the parents to participate
in even though it is not mandatory. The
Parents As Teachers staff are trained exten-
sively in understanding what family resources
are available locally, statewide, and nationally.
Engaging Fathers
We started the Conscious Fathering (sometimes
called Baby Basic classes) with a grant from
Circle of Parents. One of our major health care
systems in our area has posted the Baby Basic
classes on their website so that when pregnant
couples/ individuals are looking for classes on
the web site, they are able to register for Parent
Connection’s Conscious Fathering. We are
also recognized in the community for providing
many services to teen parents, and so we have
referrals from schools and self referrals for teen
dads to attend Conscious Fathering. During the
class, our Conscious Fathering facilitator talks
about Parents as Teachers Home Visiting. He
explains all the services that we can provide
and what a great program it is for new parents.
He also explains to them how they can enroll in
pre- or post-natal classes.
Home visitors make a conscious effort to schedule
the visit for a time when dad will be available
to be involved. In the past, when there wasn’t
a great focus on fathers, we would schedule a
time when mom was home so most visits would
take place during the day. Now we try to pick a
time when dad can be involved. If dad works
from 9-5 then we are available for evening visits.
We changed our policy so that all home visitors
who work with us must be available to work
1 or 2 evenings a week.
As a result of the grant, we now have a specific
fatherhood curriculum and have gone through
the process of becoming more Father Friendly
and Father Ready. Staff are trained to identify
gender differences between males and females,
the way men look at their parenting role and the
way women look at their parenting role. We encourage
home visitors to learn and be aware of
gender differences and also to be conscious of
including dads in home visits. Sometimes dad
will look on from afar while mom and baby are
working with the home visitor. The home visitor
will gently encourage dad to participate and
interact with the baby during the visit.
We have been very successful in engaging
dads in our Conscious Fathering. It’s a brand
new class that has never been offered in the
Fox Cities. When the men come they are a bit
hesitant at first and shy but when you read the
evaluations, their most enjoyable aspect was
being part of a class that is for dads by dads.
Once in a while we do have women in the class,
and it really seems to change the nature and
atmosphere of the class.
Once the dads graduate from the class, they
really want to be involved in the home visiting
program. We have had comments during
home visits after the baby is born (if the dad
has been involved in the Conscious Fathering
class), where the women will say-“He knows
more than I do.” In most cases, mom would
have more information about becoming a parent
and new baby care, but now we are seeing
that dads who have participated in Conscious
Fathering are as knowledgeable about infant
care, as well as how to be a great support for
mom when she’s breastfeeding. It has helped
to change the nature of the couple’s roles when
they start out on their journey of parenting.
Getting dad to participate can be a challenge.
It’s not that there’s not interest, it’s that they
are reluctant and a bit apprehensive. If we had
more opportunity financially, perhaps we could
have a class where the mom would come and
Continued on page 9
5

The home visiting
model
The Healthy Families
program is an evidence-basednational
model and Kansas
has been accredited
for over 10 years.
The model is intensive
home visiting,
meaning we start
during prenatal or
under three months
of age and parents can stay in the program
until their child is 3-5 years of age. We assess
the parents’ strengths and needs utilizing the
KEMPE Family Stress Checklist, and base our
work with them. We use Parents as Teachers
curriculum and many other evidenced based
curriculums and handouts (MAPS for Dads,
Zero to Three) where half the time we are case
workers and the other half we are support and
teachers. This is a grant funded program that
braids funding sources with our local partners at
the Health Department. Our staff is made up of
three Nurse Casemanagers, one Social Work
Casemanager and two Family Support Specialists,
three of which are bi-lingual (English/
Spanish). We incorporate reflective supervision
by having weekly meetings with staff members
where we provide support for their home visiting
practice, which includes brainstorming and support
for families. We also provide transportation
to medical and/or WIC appointments. Our program
utilizes standardized assessments (Ages
and Stages, AAPI, Protective Factors Survey)
to facilitate child development and increase
confidence and competence in parents.
What’s working to engage fathers
To engage fathers we have worked to recognize
fathers and talk to them, not just the mothers.
Also, recognizing the parenting differences
such as fathers will physically pick-up the baby
differently. We have a specific curriculum for
dads to reinforce these differences which are
important to the overall growth and development
of their child. For the first assessment
and all subsequent meetings we try to schedule
visits so both parents can be there. We will be
Creative Connections
Jenn Preston, Healthy Families Supervisor/Assessment Coordinator,
KCSL Healthy Families Douglas, jpreston@kcsl.org
flexible and accommodating in order to find a
time that works for both parents to be present
for home visits.
Strategies: Marketing, Community Outreach,
and recruitment/retainment
Definitely the most effective way to get fathers
involved is talking with them face-to-face both
at home visits and when we see dads out and
about in the community. We had business cards
made with our male fatherhood facilitators contact
information on them and pass them out
anywhere in the community. We even engage
men at the grocery store, not to stop them and
talk, but just to give them information. We also
use Facebook, making sure to keep up with it
regularly and connect with other local sites. The
local newspaper has a free online community,
and we were able to make a fatherhood section
that can be viewed by anyone that can access
the online newspaper. We also had news releases
and two articles about our group printed
in the local newspaper. Finally, for our annual
Dad Days events, it was successful to connect
with local leaders and get them to speak about
the success and challenge of being a working
father.
Learning experiences
Dads may not engage immediately in home visits
and/or dad groups/classes. It doesn’t mean
they are not interested, but they may be hesitant
at first to participate in a home visit or come
to a dad class or group. Currently, it is socially
acceptable and expected that moms participate
in activities that involve the children. There are
“Mom Groups”, “Mommy and me playgroups”
but groups focused on dads is relatively new.
Dads may not engage immediately, but don’t
give up because even just bringing curriculum
specifically for him or engaging him in conversation
while he’s passing through a home visit
can make a huge difference. Many resources
available to us are mom-focused and at times
it has been a challenge to find the more familyoriented
materials that include dads. Choosing
resources should be done purposefully to make
sure dad is included.
Training staff and making changes
Once a year supervisors try to complete shadowing
with the home visitors to look at their
approach and give feedback. We talk about
whether dad is there and what to do if he’s not.
We discuss the information the visitor brought
and how he/she talked to the family. We take
advantage of the Father Readiness trainings
offered every year and make sure to include
father involvement and engagement from the
start at orientation. We talk about our philosophy
of fatherhood and its importance to the
child. It’s integrated into our day-to-day activities
to make sure fathers are engaged, from the
materials we bring in the home to the pictures
that we hang on our office walls. We strive to
ensure our organization is viewed through a
lens of parental balance. We advocate in our
community by asking community partners, “how
do you plan to include fathers?” We encourage
and model father friendliness with the families
we serve and to the community at large in order
to create a culture of father readiness through
intentional means.
6

Modeling Father Involvement in Early HeadStart
Jackie Siler, Family Services Manager, Kitsap Community Resources,
Early Learning and Family Services, jsiler@kcr.org
The home visiting model
We use Parents as Teachers cirriculum. The Early Head Start model
is to meet with families weekly and twice per month we hold a parent/
child activity groups. The Early Head Start/ Parents as Teachers model
really covers all components including help with resources, such
as child immunization. We have four Early Head Start home visitors
with eight to ten cases each and one supervisor. In September, we will
have a Preschool home visitor with a caseload of ten.
What’s working to engage fathers
Definitely being patient and consistent, and to keep offering the services.
We value dad’s input, and it is our job to tell dad how valuable
he is. With Circle of Parents groups, we call the dads to remind
them about groups because their attendance and participation is what
makes the topics more interesting. Dads may stay back and observe
the group to understand what they want out of it, and eventually they
will participate more. We also provide transportation when it is needed.
Conscious Fathering has been great and we are excited to be able to
continue offering it to the community. The dads are there through suggestion
by their home visitor or a hospital referral. As it is designed to
be a one-time class, it is more difficult to follow-up with the new dads
Learning experiences
It is definitely a process. In talking with home visitors, the dad may
take part in the beginning, but usually stays back. The home visitor
helps them overcome their feelings of inadequacy and dad feels more
important. Dad may automatically think its up to mom, but the home
visitor needs to help dad understand it is a process for both and that
he is just as important as mom.
The biggest challenge has been making home visits at a time so dad
can be there and participate. We talk with mom about how dad has
different skills and talk about things dad is interested in. For example,
dads play differently with their kids than moms, and it develops different
skills for the child. The home visitor can let both mom and dad
know that it is okay and should be encouraged.
Sustaining the program
Our facilitator is a volunteer and plans to continue for as long as he
can dedicate his time, and he loves it. Home visiting is paid for by
Early Head Start and the hospital gives us space in addition to signing
people up for Conscious Fathering. In this way, it will be easy to keep
the program going. Additionally, we are working with the state Early
Childhood Education program and Head Start to make dads a priority
within the programs. Case managers love to work with the dads and a
lot of this can be done through existing programs. We will pursue new
funding from Circle of Parents and part of our division holds parenting
classes that we hope to incorporate the fathering program.
7

Healthy Families: Engaging Fathers Through Community Involvement
Terri Porter, Family Services Supervisor, KCSL HF Wyandotte, tporter@kcsl.org
The home visiting
model
Kansas Children’s
Service League provides
the Healthy
Families America
accredited program
that began offering
voluntary, in-home
parent education and
support programming in Kansas more than 15
years ago. We have warm, caring, and highly
trained home visitors that provide intensive services
focusing on the health, safety, and wellbeing
of the families served. Home visits occur
at least weekly until the child is at least 6 months
old and decrease as the family achieves goals
and remains crisis free. In addition to home visits,
we provide families with referrals to community
resources, transportation and group
educational and socialization activities.
Challenges and barriers
It has always been a component of our program
to serve the entire family. However, a challenge
we have found is involving fathers in home visitation
is that a majority of the service providers
are female. Our workers as well as fathers each
carry with them preconceived ideas about each
other. We have focused staff trainings around
the different paternal and maternal communication
and parenting styles. We have also incorporated
father-friendly material and curricula.
For both workers and family members, we have
found it is always best to just ask, “What do you
need to be more comfortable?” It has definitely
been a paradigm shift.
Adjusting policies and procedures
We recently reviewed and updated our policy
manual to reflect our lessons learned and
emphasize the importance of engaging male
family members. We addressed policies with
language to include mom and dad, with specific
emphasis on serving dads. We also encourage
home visitors to include all available
family members, such as grandparents, where
possible. We have equipped our offices with
artwork that is father friendly and in one office,
we have displayed a staff directory that includes
the names and pictures of our employees so
those served know in advance if they are meeting
with a male or female worker. We also have
a three year strategic plan for additional service
to fathers, with recognition that we have to be
patient because the change is a process.
Resources beyond the Circle of Parents
grant
We have received donations from community
groups, businesses, and churches. This
includes meeting space, posts on websites,
partnering with groups that might be servicing
our target population, food and drink. Our local
radio station has a community calendar where
we post our groups. An example has been part-
nering with a local restaurant where we set up
tents on tables about toddlers and our program
information. For the future, we will solicit donations
from the community; apply for local grants;
look for future grants both local and national;
partner with local hospitals and churches; and
continue other community partnerships.
Is the program effective? Some stories from
experience
Our home visiting is working effectively because
we have more fathers actively involved.
To be enrolled in the program, dads have to
sign an agreement and we have seen a significant
increase of dads agreeing to service.
We’ve gone from about 10-20% up to around
40% involvement.
One example is a bilingual father receiving
services through our Healthy Families America
program that came to Conscious Fathering and
after class said he had to tell his whole neighborhood.
He said he has been learning so much
and that men in the neighborhood needed the
program. He has started to bring men from his
neighborhood to classes.
A second example comes from our inner city
community. We have been able to hold meetings
through a partnering organization. For the
first meeting there were six men who were no
longer raising children at home or had no kids.
These were grandfathers, uncles, and cousins.
However, at the next meeting, all the dads were
there. The men who originally attended thought
the groups were something that every parent/dad
should have and were able to get the
young men in their families and communities to
participate.
8

Continued from page 5
there would be a female facilitator and they
would break apart and each could have their
own class. This doubles the expense but I think
dads would be more apt to come if they could
come with their spouse or their girlfriend. I think
it takes a guy with a little bit of courage to come
out to the Conscious Fathering classes. Another
challenge is with dads who are sometimes too
busy to participate in our dads and kids group.
It’s hard to find the time once the baby is born to
participate. One event that we offer is an annual
Dads and Kids Luau. Dads and their kids from
baby to age 8 participate. This event attracts
many fathers and their children. The dads are
more comfortable participating in activities
and programs with their children when they
are a bit older. It could be that they are a
bit more apprehensive about taking their
infants out on their own.
Success
To gauge how well we are doing, we track
how many fathers we see in our home visiting
program. We also have evaluation tools
we use when dads participate in our Dads
and Kids program and Conscious Fathering.
We use a retrospective survey to identify
what they have learned in class. I think
the fact that we still have our programs going
even with limited funding shows how
well the program is doing. We get very good
evaluations from the dads who participate
in groups. We have presented at statewide
conferences, and we’ve had our fathers
present at our Teen Parenting Conference.
We’ve also have been invited to talk to dads
in jails about fatherhood.
A story that illustrates how the program is
affecting its participants involves our Spanish
speaking home visitor. She had found
that the men were weary of her presence
in the home and wouldn’t participate in the
home visiting. This one particular dad would
stand from a far and monitor what was going
in the home visit with his wife and baby.
The home visitor gradually got the dad to
become involved in the visit, taught him
a nursery rhyme in Spanish that he could
sing to his child. Eventually he was marking
her visits on the calendar so that he can be
present at every visit.
9

Circle of Parents
Circle of Parents® is a national network of
statewide non-profit organizations and parent
leaders that are dedicated to using the mutual
self-help support group model as a means
of preventing child abuse and neglect and
strengthening families. Circle of Parents offers
anyone in a parenting role the opportunity to
participate in weekly group meetings with other
parents to exchange ideas, share information,
develop and practice new parenting skills, learn
about community resources, and give and receive
support. Groups are parent-led with the
support of a trained group facilitator, are conducted
in a confidential and nonjudgmental
manner, are free of charge and provide developmentally
appropriate children’s programs
or child care concurrent with the parent group
meetings. Developing leadership on the individual,
family, community and societal levels,
as desired by parent participants, is a central
theme of the Circle of Parents model.
In 2006 Circle of Parents received a grant
from the Office of Family Assistance to implement
a comprehensive training, technical assistance
and community access project to aid
local home visiting programs in the provision of
support and education to new and expectant fathers.
Parents as Teachers, Nurse-Family Partnership,
Healthy Families America, Early Head
Start and/or Healthy Start programs in 13 states
received $50,000 each to begin services to ex-
pecting and new fathers. The project is being
implemented in partnership with the National
Fatherhood Initiative, the Conscious Fathering
Program of Parent Trust for Washington Children,
PACT Law Center, Prevent Child Abuse
America and Leslie Starsoneck, a domestic violence
expert.
Through March 2011, 2,280 expecting or fathers
of infants, 1,546 fathers of children between
1 and 5 years, 1,057 mothers and 153
other caregivers were served through 710 Conscious
Fathering classes and 1,103 Circle of
Parents’ groups for fathers.
Partners for Kids: United Hands Make the Best Families Responsible Fatherhood Community Access Program, funded by the
United States Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance
- Grant No. 90FR0098, CFDA#93.086. These services are available to all eligible persons regardless of race, gender, age, disability
or religion. This grant was awarded to Circle of Parents, 2100 So. Marshall Blvd., Unit 305, Chicago, IL 60623. Any opinions, findings
and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view
of the United States Department of Health & Human Services, Administration of Children & Families and/or Office of Family Assistance.
2100 South Marshall Boulevard
Suite 305
Chicago, IL 60623
www.circleofparents.org