National Fatherhood Initiative a Good Resource for Head Start Agencies

The National Fatherhood Initiative was founded in 1994 as a national, non-profit organization with the primary purpose of “reversing our nation’s destructive trend towards father absence.” Since then, the NFI has grown to become the “#1 provider of fatherhood resources and the #1 trainer of fatherhood practitioners in the nation.” (Source: http://www.fatherhood.org)

In America today, 1 in 3 families with children do not have the biological father present. Most of us in Head Start are aware of the overwhelming evidence that children in two parent households are much more likely to experience positive outcomes than those in single-parent households.  However, despite all of its successes for the past 50 years, Head Start programs can still struggle with engaging fathers.

It has been the mission of NFI to make sure community-based action agencies of all sorts have access to the information and resources they need to engage fathers in a meaningful way.  For Head Start agencies taking a critical look at how they engage fathers, the NFI can be used as a jumping off point with their free resources. The Gravely Group also highly recommends subscribing to their blog, The Father Factor, which is always up-to-date with the latest news, research, and other valuable information relating to fatherhood.

We’d really like to hear from you. What have you done to engage fathers in your Head Start program?

10 Tips to Help Your Child in School
(The National Fatherhood Initiative)

1. Tell your child how important school is.
2. Make learning fun.
3. Don’t leave everything up to Mom..
4. Help with homework.
5. Get to know the teacher.
6. Spend a day or two in your child’s class.
7. Get to know other children in the class and their parents.
8. Go to school & class events.
9. Get time off to attend events.
10. Join the school’s parent-teacher group.

Tags: fatherhood