Father Involvement Notes from NAEYC, Orlando Florida

The following notes are from the 2011 NAEYC Conference presentation by Marcello Bermeo and Gregory Uba

What father involvement “activity” does not look like to us:

• Not a Support Group
• Not a Parenting Class
• Not tightly organized
• Not too serious

What father involvement “activity” does look like to us:

• Collaborative:
  • Almost every activity we conducted consisted of a collaboration of some sort with community or educational entities.  Over the past three years, we partnered with Head Start (multiple), Early Head Starts (2), State Preschools (2), School Readiness Programs, Partnerships For Families Programs, a DADS Neighborhood Action Council, School Districts (Parent Centers), Parks and Recreation Departments (2) and a Community Action Project.  Our most recent collaboration included a partnership between a First 5 Los Angeles funded Family Development Center, two early Head Start programs, a State-funded Child Development Center and a Neighborhood Action Council.
• Inclusive – When funding specified fathers of children 0-5, we would also accept participation from fathers whose children did not fall into that age range.  This made the groups larger, and increased the energy and participation in the activities.  It meant that we occasionally came out of pocket for materials that we provided to “ineligible” fathers, but it was worth it.
• Meeting the needs of the fathers.  We offered and/or participated in a variety of types of projects:
  • One day projects such as, “Bring a Dad to School Day”
  • Weekend activities such as Saturday Sports Day
  • Conference sessions which evolved to the point where the most recent conference sessions were presented by the men who were participants
  • Weeknight activities
• Interactive and Active (and messy and dangerous) – The fathers that we work with requested outdoor activities and emphasized the activities done with their children as highlights of the program
• Loosely organized – The fathers seem to have appreciated that they had permission to arrive late.  Many of them worked and had other responsibilities to attend to before the evening workshops.  Granting them permission to arrive late encouraged them to participate as they were able to.  When we planned the activities, we planned for activities that could be started on time and still permit late-arriving fathers to integrate into the activities.  We used our ice-breakers and audio-visual activities at the beginning of activities.
• Fun – There was a (perceived) element of fun, risk, or competition provided.  These “provoked” participation that would not have evolved in a more restrictive environment.
  • How we pushed the envelope:
    • Competition with marshmallows and spaghetti.
    • Dry ice and other messy science experiments with toddlers even!
    • Making “gak/snappy/flubber” as a part of a “Literacy” activity.
    • “Playing” with fire.

Father Involvement In Los Angeles County

Head Start:

• USC Head Start facilitates a meeting of Los Angeles County Head Start Programs that are interested in Male Involvement
• A number for Head Start programs fund Male Involvement activities
• Venice Family Clinic Children First Early Head Start has a Male Involvement Project

Community Organizations

• Long Beach Community Action Project provides a 7 week, 14 session series for young fathers!
  • Topics include child development, literacy, parental involvement, stress management, communication and relationship building and financial management.
• South Bay Center for Counseling provides numerous Father Involvement Opportunities as the Hub Agency for Service Planning Area 8’s Partnerships For Families, and School Readiness Programs.
  • A twice annual conference included a Men Only workshop for fathers and male role models.
  • A Neighborhood Action Council is created consisting of fathers and male role models.  This group meets weekly to discuss issues and plan activities.
  • Daddy Days provide activities for fathers that simulate a preschool program’s circle time and teacher-directed activities on a Saturday.
• Beach Cities AEYC invites a series of Male presenters such as Jonathan Mooney (author of the Short Bus and Learning Outside the Lines) and Ronald Mah.

 

Ideas for Early Care and Development programs:

Re-evaluate your daily schedule.  Dads are more easily engaged during outdoor time.  If your receiving and departing times are during outdoor periods, men are more likely to spend time with the children, providing your team with a greater opportunity to connect with them.

Critical mass.  If you have some men on staff, Dads are more likely to connect with those teachers.

Assign them tasks.  Don’t wait for the dads to volunteer.  Assign them a task such as refurbishing the hollow-blocks, designing and building planter boxes, etc.

Set aside Daddy (and others) Days.  Dads must be specifically invited.

Outreach to the Moms on Dad Activities.  Several dads, when asked, reported that they were participating because they were instructed to by their wife/girlfriend.

Workshops for Dads only.  When providing serious discussion groups or Dad-Child Activities, make it men only.  We frequently find that the men participate far less when their wife/girlfriend is present.

Create a boy-friendly learning environment.  Noise, risk, activity, physical play, heavy-lifting, competition.