Supporting Young Dads

Supporting Young Dads was developed as a Department of Health project to take forward recommendations from the Social Exclusion Unit's report on teenage pregnancy. ContinYou's aim was to take the recommendations a step further and work with young fathers to produce user-friendly information and to influence health services to provide father-friendly services. To achieve this, ContinYou worked closely with local initiatives, such as Sure Start Plus and the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy Team, in two pilot localities: the Dearne Valley in the South Yorkshire coalfields and Wolverhampton (details below).

Project reports

In March 2002, CEDC (now ContinYou) produced an interim report following an external evaluation by Working With Men. The main recommendation was for the outreach workers to focus more on the fatherhood role of young men, rather than concentrating on problem areas in young men's lives.

In May 2005, ContinYou published a report, 'I'm a better Dad now', describing the work of the two projects, offering guidance to others working with young fathers and making recommendations for the future.

Dearne Valley Dads (DVD)

In 2001, two outreach workers were appointed to work with young fathers across Rotherham, Barnsley and Doncaster. Since then they have worked with over thirty young fathers from a wide range of backgrounds and with a whole array of issues and problems. Referrals have been made by Education Welfare Officers, Social Workers, Health Visitors, Youth Workers and Youth Offending Teams, to name but a few.

Over 200 contacts have been logged with the thirty young fathers with whom the project workers have worked. This has varied from regular weekly meetings with individuals, to one-offs, where the young fathers don't continue their involvement.

To raise awareness of the wider role that fathers play, the project highlights their importance in their child's emotional development.

This is just the beginning of the process of re-establishing the value of having a loving and involved father in the lives of children and of finding out how we can design new services and re-model existing ones to suit the needs of these young men and their children.

The value of this work was recognised in May 2002 when the DVD workers and a young dad gave a presentation at the International Fatherhood Conference in Washington.

Wolverhampton

This project, which is run by one dedicated part-time worker and by volunteers, is based in a local drop-in centre and has a steady and growing group of young fathers who are regular visitors.

The development of the work in Wolverhampton has largely grown out of the responses from young and potential fathers. A group now meets regularly and produces leaflets and information sheets for other young fathers.

In the past year, the Wolverhampton project has developed a game called 'Fatherhood game - are you a player?'. This helps fathers to get a picture of their role as young men, fathers, partners, and so on. The game allows them to plot a future where they have opportunities for personal growth, and for moving away from more painful, negative aspects of their lives. More importantly, it provides them with a vision of the person they are striving to be.

Positive development

The Supporting Young Dads project continues to stress that young fathers need ongoing and relevant support, not only to enable them to fulfil their role as a parent, but also to help them to develop from the experience in a positive way. Supporting Young Dads highlights the kind of support that young dads need and the best ways of providing it to them.

Email Jonathan Berry for more information about this project.