Empowering Fathers To Be Caregivers

Since April, when the Empowering Fathers To Be Caregivers campaign began, Fathering Together has made great strides in connecting our network. Here's a quick rundown!

#DadChats

• Our #DadChat listserv has grown to over 500 members.
• We've hosted 6 #DadChats with an average attendance of 12 and we have speakers lined up through October.
• Topics have included Positive Parenting, Building a Local Fatherhood Community, and Homeschooling Strategies.

Fathering Together Coaches

• We've identified and trained 7 Fathering Together Coaches. They come to us from across the United States with a diverse set of backgrounds, skills, and talents to bring to fathers everywhere. They are currently developing online content in two formats. The first is in a pilot phase that we are calling "5-day challenges." These are quick 5-minute reflections to be done between Monday and Friday and centered around a topic. Our first challenge focused on a Christian prayer form called "The Examen." The second challenge focused on self-care strategies. The second format will be in hour-long online workshops. These will start in August and will be delivered via Zoom.

Dad Resource Groups

• Fathering Together has started working with corporations to bring our community model to HR Departments. Many companies have working parents groups, or parenting resource groups. In most, mothers make up the largest portion of participants, but we know that fathers are just as invested. So we're designing workshops for dads to help them translate their work skills into home skills. For example, a project manager is very adept at taking a concept from a brainstorm meeting and leading the team to turn the concept into a product on a "shelf." Those same skills can be used to organize the home in the morning to ensure kids get up, dressed, fed, and out the door to school. 
• To date, we've hosted 2 trainings with an average of 12 parent participants at 2 different companies. We've got another 2 lined up for Q3.

Virtual Platform (In Development)

• We are working hard to build our virtual platform to capture stories, host resources and facilitation guides for our community. 

Chapter Program (In Development)

• We're recruiting members to start local community groups, we are calling chapters. These can be a group of dads who regularly meet for coffee, playdates, or to exercise, and they may be looking for additional resources to reflect on fatherhood, connect with their families, or engage deeper in their community. 
• Currently, we have 2 chapters in development. I'm leading one in Evanston while Matt Kelley is leading one in Louisville. We are working with dads in Kenya, Malawi, Nepal, and Ireland too. 

We've got a lot going on and we appreciate all of you for your support back in April. If you aren't on our newsletter, please sign up at https://www.fatheringtogether.org/

Links:

• Father's Day article written by co-founder Brian Anderson
• Learn more about future DadChats