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| Promoting Responsible Fatherhood | Federal Resource Site |
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Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington
Karen
Matsuda
Regional Health Administrator, OPHS
2201 6th Avenue, Suite 20
Seattle, WA 98121
Phone: 206-615-2469
Fax: 206-615-2481
Vince
Herberholt
Associate Regional Administrator
Administration for Children and Families
2201 6th Avenue, Suite 600
Seattle, WA 98121
Phone: 206-615-3662
Fax: 206-615-2574
Levi
Fisher
Administration for Children and Families
2201 6th Avenue, Suite 600
Seattle, WA 98121
Phone: 206-615-2565
Email: lsfisher @ acf.dhhs.gov
Rural Alaska Community Action Program — Rural CAP is a Community Action Program serving rural communities in the state of Alaska. Rural Cap has had a fathers group in place for the last three years called Work of Loving Father Figures (WOLF2). As part of the Fatherhood Grant, 25-30 fathers from WOLF2 attended a Parent Conference in October. This was the first time the program was able to include father representatives from all of their Head Start sites at the Parent Conference. During the two day conference there was a special training for fathers that focused on: Head Start roles and responsibilities, parents as the first teachers, literacy workshops, reading development, and father/child activities. They also discussed the new opportunities made available through the Fatherhood Grant. All of the fathers who attended the conference have children in Early Head Start or Head Start program. Contact: Jason Pretzel. Director jpretzel@ruralcap.org
Chugachmiut's Fatherhood and Family Program. The goal of the Chugachmiut's fatherhood and family program is to help fathers, mothers and families become the best they can be, through education, coaching and supportive resources. We hope that families and individuals will make informed choices through the information presented, also by reflecting on traditional Native values. We aspire to cultivate local, community based leadership from interested individuals, tribes and family service provider organizations, including Head Start. Our educational and technical assistance topic capabilities include parenting, character development, healthy relationships, communication, financial skills and critical thinking/ decision making. The program also values collaborating with other community organizations to maximize resources for the benefit of families. In addition to empowering strong fathers and mothers, the program serves in helping couples develop the skills to strengthen their relationships, achieving a healthy marriage if that is the path they choose. Contact: Matthew R Sena, Fatherhood Program Manager, Alaska Native Fathers Matter, 907-562-4155, matthew @ chugachmiut.org
Enhanced Work Services for NCP Project. EWS is funded under the Work Incentives Act and provides a comprehensive set of services that assist adults in finding employment, maintaining employment, and improving their employment situation. Services provided include job search skills, family counseling, budgeting, time management training, short-term skills training, vocational rehabilitation, GED/English as a second language, remedial education, work skills, parenting training, mediation services, post-employment services and assistance in obtaining and retaining child care and transportation. The program involves a collaborative effort between individuals, families, and communities. The goal of the EWS for NCP Project is to increase the number of non-custodial parents who access Enhanced Work Services and, as a direct result, gain employment and start to pay child support for their children. This project is a joint effort between Child Support Management, the SR EWS Contractors and the External Resources Management Team (CERM). Contact Kandee Yearsley (208) 334-0620, yearsley @ idhw.state.id.us
Friends of Children and Families, Inc. Friends of Children and Families is a single purpose Head Start agency in suburban Boise, Idaho. The primary goal of the grant was to encourage fathers to read to their children. In an effort to do this, they added a design element that was not mentioned in the grant. This has lead to the implementation of father/child events that take place every other Saturday. When children arrive at the events, they receive book bags filled with books that relate to the event to take home. The books distributed at the events will also be placed in the classrooms so teachers can familiarize the children with the topics. This helps to create better home-school collaboration.
The first event was called "Community Helpers and Firemen." The Boise City Fire Department brought a fire truck, the Police came, and paramedics brought an ambulance. For outreach, they developed a flyer that reads; "An event for men, and the Head Start children in their lives; Dads, grandfathers, uncles, brothers and more; Everyone is welcome". Sixty percent of the children in the Head Start program are from two parent families, but they wanted the flyer to be inclusive of all family constellations.
To sustain the Saturday events after the grant is over and to keep the costs low, they are developing a "parent share back model". They will offer a workshop for interested parents that would teach them how to implement the Saturday events in four simple steps on their own. They plan to offer an honorarium to compensate the dads for their planning efforts and implementation of the event. Although it is intended to be a father/child activity, they are offering child care in case the children want to do something else and give fathers a chance to come together and talk. Contact: Marc Swinney, Executive Director mswinney@focaf.org
Lewis-Clark Early Childhood. Lewis-Clark Early Childhood is a single-purpose organization serving the rural communities of Clearwater, Idaho, Latah, Lewis, and Nez Perce counties in Idaho. They are planning on hosting daylong parent conference, developing literacy kits for fathers, and updating the agency's promotional and programmatic materials to encourage father involvement. Also addressed is an outreach program for alternative and high school parents.
The objectives in the proposal build upon existing collaboration with local school district literacy and responsible parenting programs. The program's current Parent Involvement Coordinator and Children and Family Services Coordinator would coordinate activities and partnerships. Contact: Beth Zenner, Fatherhood Involvement Coordinator. bzenner@Icecp.org
Friends of Children and Families, Inc. Friends of Children and Families is a single purpose Head Start and Early Head Start agency in suburban Boise, Idaho. The original goal of the initial fatherhood grant in 2002 was to encourage fathers to read to their children. This has developed over the four years the program has been in existence into encouraging Fathers and or the significant male role models in children’s lives to be very involved with the development of their children and families.
Friends of Children and Families have monthly fatherhood events in which families are encouraged to participate. There is a fatherhood committee with a parent chair that plans out all the activities. Some events that fatherhood program has done are attended an all-day Steelheads Minor League Hockey practice and game. The Steelheads management even donated a luxury box seating for four Head Start families. The group has also been fishing, visited the Discovery Science Museum, played and made games, visited the library, went bowling, and even has a “tool” day where they took apart and tried to repair household items with their children. The events really build up a sense of community and give fathers a forum where they are honored and get to know other fathers and families within the program.
This past year, the fatherhood program got off to a wonderful start with “t-shirt” day. Fathers and their children made T-shirts for a day at the start of the Head Start school year. These T-shirts have been worn throughout the year on monthly “Father” days within the center. “Father” days are days in which dads or the significant male role models in children’s lives are encouraged to volunteer in the centers and classrooms to read to the children, play on the playground, eat breakfast or lunch. They have been wonderfully positive days in a program that has a thriving presence of fathers!
Contact: Diane Cox, Family Services Manager
Klamath Family Head Start. Klamath Family Head Start is a single purpose agency located in rural Klamath Falls, Oregon. Planning efforts for the grant began in September 2002. One goal was to have a fun activity that would immediately engage the men and get them involved. At the beginning of the program, a male involvement survey was sent to all dads to gather their ideas of how they want to be involved in their child's life, their interests, and the activities they like to do with their child. A copy of the survey results was given to the teachers so they would know what the fathers were willing to do in terms of volunteering in the classroom and also to help the teachers plan the parent meetings. A flyer was sent out asking if they wanted to be involved in the Fatherhood Program. For those who said yes, another flyer was sent informing them of an upcoming event followed by a personal phone call.
A father/child bowling night took place where fathers, grandfathers or the primary male in the child's life were invited. Seventy-seven men attended with their children and many of them were grandfathers. A room was reserved at the event to hold a meeting to discuss what the fathers would like to do as part of the grant. The event was so successful that so many men showed up they couldn't fit in the meeting room.
Contact: Melinda Gomez, Parent Involvement Content Area Expert; Rhonda Keown, Director rkeown@kths4kids.org
Mt. Hood Community College. Mt. Hood Community College Child Development and Family Support Programs is a school district agency located in suburban Portland, Oregon. A part-time Fatherhood Specialist was hired with the grant. He is a past parent who really knows how to speak and relate to the dads. The Fatherhood Specialist plans and facilitates the meetings. Monthly meetings have been implemented on Wednesday evenings for fathers and their children. During the first half of the meeting childcare is provided so the men have an opportunity to discuss parenting issues. The second half of the meeting is spent doing a parent-child activity such as color bingo and literacy activities. There is a lending library for the meeting with children's books, and activities parents can check out to use at home.
To help recruit fathers, the Fatherhood Specialist made a beautiful display board for each Head Start site which is used during the pre-service, and at the monthly parent meetings. It includes a narrative explaining why fathers should be involved, lists the many activities and ways they could be involved, and displays photo's from a father's support group that was implemented last year. The Fatherhood Specialist tries to attend all of the parent meetings to interact with the fathers.
In Spring of last year the Fatherhood Specialist started a father's group primarily to talk about their involvement in Policy Council, and recruit them to help fix and maintain the Head Start sites. As a result, the group were able to build upon the Fatherhood Grant. In addition, the Early Head Start (EHS) program Family Specialist is recruiting dads from EHS to go to the monthly father meetings. This was not part of the original grant proposal because the EHS program was not implemented until last summer. Contact: Site Coordinator
Southern Oregon Child and Family Council, Inc. Southern Oregon Child & Family Council, Inc. is a single purpose Head Start agency located in suburban Central Point, Oregon.
In August 2003, three staff attended the 21st Century Parenting Curriculum Fatherhood conference. In the fall the staff developed a training plan, wrote job descriptions, hired a part-time Fatherhood Advocate, and contacted trainers. They also began to develop a system that tracked male participation. The goal was to increase and maintain a high level of male participation on the Policy Council and committees. In 2003, 17 men participated in the Policy Council and in 2004, there were 19 male representatives out of 73 members.
Another goal was to increase male classroom volunteer presence by 10% program-wide between October and May and to develop an incentive program. In 2003, there were a total of 252 male volunteers. In 2004 there were 236 male volunteers from September to December. These numbers represent men who volunteer in any way and not just in the classroom. The numbers have not been broken down to determine how many of these men volunteer in the classroom. As an incentive, the program is buying T-shirts, bumper stickers and pins to reward top volunteers.
The program implemented an activity called Male Involvement days. Each center planned and provided activities once during the program year. Eleven activities were planned. There was a "Read Me a Story" project, which was a literacy based male involvement project. The "Read Me a Story" tub contained a disposable camera, paper, markers, log-in sheet, and crayons so fathers could get comfortable and enjoy reading to the child. With the materials, the child drew a story about reading. The father and child had their picture taken together and the program developed the photos.
Other Male Involvement Day activities included: a bowling night for the family, a fishing day for dads, a box car derby, and a family day for dads. There was also a father-friendly family fun fair that was organized in collaboration with several community agencies. There were pony rides, face painting, barbecue lunch, dunk tank, jumping castle, fishing booth, snacks and more. All of the agencies sent representatives to offer information on different services.
Another goal was to promote the role of fathers in the area of literacy. The objective was to increase male knowledge of normal child development through distribution of child development handouts to fathers, and a six-week support group that included teaching units on child development.
Contact: Felicity Elworthy, Family and Community Partnerships Manager felicity.elworthy@socfc.org
Umatilla Morrow Head Start Umatilla Morrow County Head Start
Father Family Fair
The father family fair took place in April of 2005. The fair served several purposes, first it allowed Head Start men and staff members the opportunity to volunteer their time and expertise in a trade, hobby or job skill. The Fair also allowed UMCHS to promote other Male Involvement activities such parenting classes, soccer, Male Involvement Team. Overall it provided men and children a chance to interact together in a positive environment. In Hermiston we had close to 200 families show for the event and 22 volunteers that participated. In Pendleton we had 53 families that came to the event and 13 volunteers. At both fairs more than 70% of our volunteers were men!!!
Men’s Parenting Class
In Dec 2004 we developed a parenting class for men in the Hermiston area. We collaborated with the local Methodist church and School District to host the classes. Our goal was to combine discussion with open basketball gym night. We averaged 8 men during the weeks we ran it. We also provided free child care for fathers that needed it.
We used two parenting curriculums called “Incredible Years” and “Fathering for Life.” The “Incredible Years” curriculum is a parenting class specifically designed for parents with children from 3 to 8 years of age. It focuses on parenting techniques such as praise, rewards and play. The “Father for Life” curriculum explored various of topics, including male and female parenting, bonding through play and creating a vision for ones’ child.
We had great success with this group in Hermiston that we plan to expand the class to other local communities in 2006. Also in the fall of 2006 we plan to focus on a teen fathering class to go along with our already existing teen mother class.
Social Support Group
In Sept 2005 we implemented our first social support groups. Social support groups are an opportunity for families to develop new skills and develop relationships with others that may share the same healthy interest. This year some of the groups topics included auto repair, home repair and photography. Thus far, parents of enjoyed attending these groups and they have suggested other topics for next year included gardening and fishing.
(We are no longer doing the English as a Second Language class due to funding )
Contact: Jesus Rome, Family Advocate/Youth & Male Involvement Coordinator jrome@umchs.org
Divine Alternatives for Dads Services (www.aboutdads.org) supports fathers in connecting or reconnecting with their children after periods of father absence. Typically one of the driving issues is child support arrearages. D.A.D.S. collaborates with the Washington State Division of Child Support to determine what earnings have been attributed to the absent dad and how he can develop a realistic payment plan to meet his responsibilities. D.A.D.S. was founded in 1999 by Marvin and Jeanett Charles, and incorporated as a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit the following year. In each of the last two years, D.A.D.S. has served more than 300 fathers through face-to-face services and approximately four times as many through telephone calls. These are fathers who are often considered “difficult to serve,” by virtue of their histories of imprisonment, unemployment, drug and alcohol dependence, and unmarried status. D.A.D.S. gives fathers hope as it walks with them to new levels of accountability and healthier relationships. As fathers become active in their children’s lives, families heal, and communities grow stronger.
Each
year at the annual D.A.D.S. Banquet, we honor men who have demonstrated
the
power to change and grow through strengthening their bonds with their
children. Most men of color fail to recognize their
importance to their
children, because they get caught up in the false belief that without a
regular
paycheck, they have nothing to offer. Men who have grown up
without
fathers in their lives have to invent themselves in order to change the
multi-generational cycle of loss and despair.
Please join us on June 17, 2006 at South Seattle Community College for
a
celebration of fathers and their children. Lives are being
changed each
day through the combined efforts of D.A.D.S. and its community
partners.
Come and hear their personal stories and you will leave renewed.
Contact Marvin Charles (206) 722-3137 or marvinpastor@msn.com.
The Conscious Fathering Program (http://www.consciousfathering.org) is designed to provide infant care skills while stressing the benefits of responsible fatherhood. A hospital based program that empowers new fathers to build a partnership in caring for and nurturing their children from the very first day. With currently over 3500 attendees, the Program has now grown to be the largest of its kind in the State of Washington, available in 9 major hospitals throughout the Puget Sound area. Over 35,000 of Bernie Dorsey's "Conscious Fathering Guide for Expectant Fathers" have been distributed throughout Washington, in partnership with Children's Hospital, in English and Spanish.
Bernie Dorsey, the Program founder, has also worked with agencies and organizations within Region X to develop parental balance in their own efforts toward greater levels of male involvement and continues to be the volunteer coordinator for the Washington State Fathering Coalition. Contact Bernie Dorsey, 206-824-8388, bernie@consciousfathering.org
Washington State Fathers Network and National Fathers Network. The Washington State/National Fathers Network advocates for men as crucially important participants in the lives of their families and children. The Network provides support and resources to fathers and families of children with developmental disabilities and chronic illness, and to the professionals who serve them. For example, the Network has training materials for health providers about how to work with men of color who are caring for their special needs children. Contact: Chris Morris, Program Director, Phone: 425-747-4004, www.fathersnetwork.org.
Enterprise for Progress in the Community. Enterprise for Progress in the Community (EPIC) is both a rural and suburban, single purpose Head Start agency located in Yakima County, Washington. The program first conducted a needs assessment on the entire agency to see where they were in terms of being father friendly. All of the top management, supervisory staff, direct service staff, and some Policy Council members were brought together to learn about fatherhood involvement. They shared information and helped develop a fatherhood program that was applicable to the program's population of fathers who are primarily Latino. They decided to implement a pilot fatherhood program at two Head Start centers using the "Face to Heart" curriculum. There are two facilitators per group and the groups are conducted in Spanish. One center began the program in November and the other center began in January. This is a twelve-session curriculum and the fathers meet two times a month.
The twelve curriculum topics are:
Acknowledgement: The men introduce themselves, get to know each other, and begin to form relationships with other group members and the facilitators.
My Family, My Heart: The fathers re-introduce their families and discuss their place in their family. Besides the breadwinner, the fathers often don't know what their place is in the family or their place in their child's education. They speak about their roles and the role of their spouse, and discuss how communication works depending on these roles.
Character Development: The values of respect, trust, dignity and love are discussed as the foundation of a strong family.
Gifts and Baggage: Fathers discuss the positive and negative traits they bring as parents to their families and are discussed in the context of societal, individual, cultural and family traits.
Values with Value: Fathers share their roles and how they revolve around the four values of respect, trust, dignity and love. The also discuss unspoken roles that children can perceive.
Growth and Learning: Fathers learn how children develop and grow to have a clear understanding and reasonable expectations of their children.
Parent and Teacher: Fathers learn how to guide their children and learn that parents are the primary teachers.
Tradition and Ceremony: Fathers learn how to emphasize tradition and ceremony to keep a balance in the family.
Getting to Know My Family Again: The men re-connect in a richer way and reflect on what they have learned.
Roots of Understanding: The group discusses alcohol, drug abuse and violence and how this impacts the children.
Dancing to Different Rhythms: Fathers learn how to improve their communication.
Celebrating the Families: Fathers reflect back over the entire process.
Contact: Manuel Villafan, Fatherhood Coordinator manuelv@epicnet.org
First A.M.E. Child and Family Center. First A.M.E. Child and Family Center (FAME). FAME is a faith-based Head Start program serving the urban community of Seattle, Washington. FAME Fatherhood Services is a component of our Head Start program. We provide high quality services designed to empower Fathers and their families. FAME Fatherhood Services accomplishes this through the teamwork of our dedicated staff, our program families, and our community partners.
FAME Fatherhood Services offers a support group and special training to men who want to strengthen their connections with their children. FAME Fatherhood Services provides resources and avenues for men seeking improved lifestyles, child support modification, and establishing paternity. FAME Fatherhood Services also provides on-going training to staff, parents, and community members on the importance of Male Involvement. FAME Fatherhood Services is very instrumental in providing opportunities for Fathers to be involved in their child’s experience, education, and development at First A.M.E. Child and Family Center.
FAME Fatherhood Services in partnership with Casey Family Programs presents three (3) free nine (9) week workshops throughout the year to Fathers and their families. Workshop curriculums are Financial Literacy, Family Advocacy, and Community & Family Leadership under the banner of Powerful Families. For more information please visit powerfulfamilies.org.
FAME Fatherhood Services through The Greater Seattle Fatherhood Coalition (GSFC) presented The First Annual Community Fatherhood Forum and Resource Fair. This event was held in May of 2005. The next Fatherhood Forum is scheduled for April 8, 2006.
Contact: Sean Benning, Fatherhood Advocate
First A.M.E. Child and Family Center Fatherhood Services
The Greater Seattle Fatherhood Coalition (GSFC). The GSFC is a collaboration of greater Seattle area Head Start Grantees and community partners committed to supporting, promoting, and educating about the importance of Responsible Fatherhood. The GSFC provides leadership, strategic planning, and combines talents and resources of neighboring Head Start Grantees and community organizations. The GSFC uses a comprehensive approach to increase awareness about the importance of male involvement and stimulate fundamental changes in Community Based Organizations service delivery to be inclusive, quality, and father-friendly.
The GSFC’s collaborating partners provide services to over 10,000 low income families in the greater Seattle area. Partners include:
The GSFC is presenting its Second Annual Community Fatherhood Forum and Resource Fair on Saturday, April 8, 2006. The Forum is to include guest speakers, entertainment, panel discussion, and father friendly community resources. The theme of this event is “Celebrating the Cultural Diversity of Fatherhood.”
The GSFC provides Fatherhood Initiative support and Technical Assistance Services. Slogan: “Bridging the Gap Between Fathers and Community Family Services”
Contact: Sean Benning, GSFC Chairman
Kitsap Community Resources. Kitsap Community Resources is a single purpose, community action agency located in the suburban area of Bremerton, Washington.
The program began by recruiting male Kiwanis Club members since there were many single moms in the Head Start program, but not many fathers. The Parent Involvement Coordinator spoke to the Directors of the Kiwanis Club at their meetings and explained the need for volunteers in the Head Start program. Kiwanis Club members were asked to be a male presence in the classroom, serve as role models, and read to the children. In October, Kiwanis Club members began to volunteer in the Head Start classrooms. They read to children once a month during circle time in fourteen Head Start classrooms. The full-day program has volunteers read ten times a year and the part-day program has a volunteers read eight times a year. Every child gets to keep a copy of the book that the volunteer reads to them. The books that are purchased for the program have themes that relate to fathers and their children. Contact: Michelle Dougherty, Parent Involvement Coordinator. Mdougherty@kcr.org
Neighborhood House. Neighborhood House is a single-purpose organization that serves the urban community of Seattle, Washington. Almost 90% of the families served by Neighborhood House are recent refugees and immigrants. Many of this program's families come from cultures where fathers have not historically been engaged in teaching and rearing their children. This program proposes a series of father-child and father-only activities held in collaboration with local organizations to introduce fathers to their role in their child's development and provide a supportive environment for learning.
The program plans to identify several partnerships with existing community resources to facilitate meetings and activities in a culturally sensitive and relevant manner, including music and storytelling. The program also identifies partnerships for translation and mentoring services. The activities will be held at the Grantee's sites in the community, and the program's existing systems and space will support the proposed activities. Contact: Jonathan Green, Family Services Coordinator jonathang@nhwa.org
Skagit Valley College. Skagit Valley College is a community college-based program serving rural and suburban communities in Skagit, San Juan, and Island counties in Northwest Washington state. The Program plans to use the Motheread/Fatheread parenting and literacy program to increase male participation and literacy outcomes. Creation of a part-time Fatherhood Involvement Coordinator position is proposed to develop systems, train staff, and monitor and measure outcomes. There objectives are to: Increase staff awareness and skills in increasing father involvement in the program, and increase father involvement in family partnership, parenting and literacy activities. The program would utilize existing collaborations with community literacy programs and early childhood education to implement the program, and collaborate with service clubs and local businesses to purchase books. This proposal fills gaps in services of the specific community it serves, but its focus on staff development and the scalable and customizable Motheread/Fatheread program suggests replication in other communities. Contact: Terri Dickson, Program Manager. Dickerson@skagit.ctc.edu
Washington State Community College of Spokane Head Start. Washington State Community College of Spokane is a school district agency located in urban Spokane, Washington. One goal of the grant is to train staff to provide father friendly services. Two program-wide training sessions on the provision of father friendly services was completed in September and October. All staff who had contact with fathers were strongly encouraged to attend the training. Preliminary assessments of the staff showed a bias in viewing the family as the mom and the child. The Grantee felt it was important to change the culture of the entire organization, so that staff saw men with an integral role in the family, and in the child's education. Staff gave very positive feedback about the training and two more sessions are scheduled in March and April.
Another goal was to build a collaborative, multi-disciplinary team and train them how to conduct ongoing activities for fathers. In October, NPCL came to Spokane and provided a site-based, customized training in the Fatherhood Development Curriculum. Rather taking ten staff to NPCL as mentioned in the grant, they had the speaker travel to their site resulting in 25 staff that participated in the train the trainers program instead of just ten staff. The curriculum is designed to train staff to implement programs specifically targeted for young, unmarried fathers. After the training, 25 staff from Head Start and various community organizations were equipped to implement a 26-week fatherhood curriculum. By successfully involving many community organizations in the training (YWCA, ECAP, Casey Family Partners, Support Enforcement, etc), they met their goals to have a community-wide team address fatherhood issues. An agreement was made that Head Start would provide the training to community organizations with the understanding that each year they would take turns facilitating the support group. Head Start is responsible for implementing the program this year.
The third goal of the grant was to conduct a Nurturing Fathers Training. Rather than offering two 13-week sessions, they are just offering one. The Grantee contracted with a staff person from SCAN (Spokane Child Abuse and Neglect Program) to implement the training. He is a certified trainer in the Nurturing Fathers curriculum who works with Head Start one-day week and coordinates community efforts. This is a positive discipline curriculum for fathers in intact relationships or a single parent. In March, a training is being offered to staff and some Head Start parents. The Nurturing Fathers curriculum will be co-facilitated by two Head Start dads during the day and will begin in the Spring.
A new partnership was established with the local Support Enforcement Agency. Staff from Local Support Enforcement Agencies was invited to attend one day of the training to discuss local laws and regulations regarding paternity establishment and the collection of child support. The supervisors from the division of child support as well as an officer from the court attended the customized portion of the training. After attending the training, they were so excited to learn what the Head Start program was doing and proposed a collaboration with Head Start to assist fathers in getting them back on track if they were delinquent with child support.
An Inter-local agreement with the Department of Child Support (DCS) is in process right now. Ten Head Start family service coordinators underwent training to learn about the paper work involved and better understand the processes of the child support system in Spokane. An agreement with DCS was established that: if a father who is in arrears in his child support is interested in getting back on track, and is working with a Head Start family service coordinator and willing to make a good faith effort, then the FSC is connecting the father with the Supervisor of Support Enforcement in Spokane. He is doing an immediate case review of the fathers case to determine if the amount of child support ordered was reasonable, if not, what kind of amendments can be made to the order to establish a graduated payment plan. If at the end of six months, dad has made all of his payments and is making contact with the agency, the agency is granting waivers of arrears of the child support so the father can start at square one. The father needs to be involved in the Head Start program in some way. Contact: Sandy Turner, Social Services Specialist for EHS/HS.
Developing Advocacy for Dads (DADS) The DADS group in Spokane is a collaboration of 30 or so private and public agencies whose main goal is to educate the agencies about the need to be more father friendly. A secondary goal is to educated fathers about their need to be a positive influence in the lives of their children. The goal is for every father to support their children both financially and emotionally and to raise a generation of children with the benefit of both parents in their lives.
We provide several opportunities for parenting skills training thru the Engaging Fathers Program and provide a Law School intern to provide a limited amount of legal advice. Several of the members of DADS have parenting and fathers programs available and all work with DCS on support issues.
We are also working on re-writing the guide used by the Court when deciding Family Law issues around visitation and custody, to more reflect the value of Fathers in the lives of all children. We believe this effort will strengthen the lives of children, adults and ultimately the community. Contact: Dan Petruso dpetruso@dshs.wa.gov (509) 363-4986
Separated Parenting Access & Resource Center (SPARC). SPARC's goal is to ensure that children of divorce continue to have meaningful relationships with both parents, regardless of marital status. The Center advocates on behalf all non-custodial parents (especially fathers) to ensure they get equitable treatment in court and continued access to their children. In addition, the Center works to promote gender equality in Divorce and Custody issues.
SPARC recognizes the value of fatherhood and supports the concept of true joint custody, where parents work together for the best interests of their children. The Center support parents who have the best interests of their children in mind, and who understand the importance of participation by both parents in their children's lives.
SPARC has a number of tools and resources for parents, including:
http://www.deltabravo.net/custody/ Contact Walter Boelter: walter @ deltabravo.net
Washington State Fathering Coalition. The mission of the WSFC is to improve the lives of children by promoting healthy father-child relationships and increasing positive male involvement. On July 15, 2002 a group of twenty-four statewide representatives from both the public and private sector met. Representatives of the Washington Council for Prevention of Child abuse and Neglect (WCPCAN), Governor's Head Start — State Collaboration Project, Divine Alternatives for Dads, and Conscious Fathering worked together to coordinate this event in recognition of the increasing number of individuals and organizations currently advocating and promoting the crucial role of father's and male involvement in the healthy development of our children.
Ideals
Legitimize Fathering
Strategies
Vision: The Washington State Fathering Coalition is undertaken with the needs of children as paramount to our efforts and will be based upon principles and guidelines that reflect our values of equal respect for the role of mothers and women in the lives of children. http://www.fatheringthefuture.org Contact: Bernie Dorsey, (206) 824-8388 or bernie @ consciousfathering.org
Last Revised: June 9, 2006
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