Project Fatherhood
Our group meets once a week from 6:00 to 8:00 PM at our main office. Project Fatherhood
was developed by Dr. Hershel Swinger of Children’s Institute, Inc. to chiefly give
poor, urban, culturally diverse fathers an opportunity to connect with their children
and play a meaningful role in their lives. The program continues to be recognized
nationally for effectively addressing the problem of absentee fathers, a major social
issue affecting the healthy development of a significant number of children. The
program provides comprehensive parenting skills to culturally diverse biological
fathers using an innovative support group model. Over the years, Project Fatherhood
has also proved to be effective for other men in care giving roles such as stepfathers
and foster parents, and relative caregivers such as grandfathers. Since its inception
more than a decade ago, more than 7,000 fathers have participated in the program
and the numbers continue to grow.
A key component of the project is its intensive training approach that prepares
professionals to lead "Men in Relationships" support groups. During the program,
a broad range of issues is addressed including father’s understanding of appropriate
discipline, domestic abuse, communicating needs, and traumatic experiences in fathers’
backgrounds that affect their relationships with their children and partners.
At FUF we meet weekly to convene a family dinner, some time to dialogue as a group,
and then we break out into our separate small groups. The fathers and the significant
others meet and in an open-group style format, process important issues. In these
groups, each member is crucial in providing attention and support. The children
play under the care of our Project Fatherhood staff.
For more information, visit us on Facebook to see photos of one of our quarterly
"Family Game Night" events.
|