Fathers and paternal family members play a crucial role in children’s growth, development, and well-being. In this section, find resources from fatherhood and related organizations to support and engage fathers.
Supporting Fatherhood at the Community Level
FRPN Research Brief: Attendance in Community-Based Fatherhood Programs
Pearson, Fagan, & Kaufman (2018)
Fatherhood Research and Practice Network
Addresses low attendance in fatherhood programs through a review of attendance measures, influences on attendance, and the effects of attendance on fathers’ outcomes. The brief then provides practice guidelines for improving fathers' attendance and participation.
Caring Dads™
Provides information about an organization that offers interventions to fathers; trains communities in engaging, assessing, and intervening with high-risk men; and conducts research to improve outcomes.
Changing Systems & Practice to Improve Outcomes for Youth Fathers, Their Children & Their Families (PDF - 6,928 KB)
Primus (2017)
Center for the Study of Social Policy
Identifies challenges and opportunities to improve program practice around engaging fathers, including father-inclusive organizational cultural changes; father identification; father-focused services; and tips for working with undocumented, youth, and incarcerated fathers.
Engaging and Supporting Native Fathers: Targeted Resources for Tribal Child Welfare
Capacity Building Center for Tribes (2016)
Lists resources focused on engaging and supporting Native fathers.
Engaging Fathers
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Head Start
Provides information and resources to enhance father engagement efforts, including wall posters to create father-friendly environments and a webinar on supporting fathers with the help of communities.
Father Involvement Interventions
The California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare
Provides information on programs to increase fathers’ active and positive engagement in their children's lives. Father-focused programs promote involvement, provide support and education, teach fathers new parenting skills, and strengthen families.
Fatherhood Research & Practice Network
Presents information on a 5-year national project that (1) promotes rigorous evaluation of fatherhood programs that serve low-income fathers, (2) expands the number of researchers and practitioners collaborating to evaluate fatherhood programs through in-person and virtual trainings, and (3) disseminates information, including new evaluation findings, that lead to effective fatherhood practice and evaluation research.
Father Involvement and Child Welfare: The Voices of Men of Color (PDF - 478 KB)
Brodie, Paddock, Gilliam, & Chavez (2014)
Journal of Social Work Values & Ethics, 11(1)
Analyzes how unintentional bias can affect paternal involvement in child welfare case management through focus groups with fathers from underrepresented racial/ethnic backgrounds in the San Francisco Bay area.
How Can We Better Engage Fathers in Prevention?
Casey Family Programs (2019)
Provides organizational strategies and resources to better support fatherhood initiatives and interventions to improve children’s safety and prevent maltreatment.
Project Fatherhood
Children’s Institute
Describes a project that provides fathers with support, education, and other services at no cost to help them learn to be more engaged and actively involved in their children’s lives.
Resources for Serving Young Fathers (PDF - 1,584 KB)
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, Office of Adolescent Health (2016)
Provides a comprehensive approach for working with young fathers. The toolkit includes a factsheet describing the benefits of positive involvement with children, an assessment and checklist to help make programs more young-father friendly, a workbook with interactive activities to explore fathers' unique challenges and potential, and tips and strategies to recruit and retain young fathers.
A Seat at the Table: Piloting Continuous Learning to Engage Fathers and Paternal Relatives in Child Welfare
Fung, Nickie, Bellamy, Abendroth, Mittone, Bess, & Stagner (2021)
Explore this report, which shares findings from a pilot study exploring the implementation of a Breakthrough Series Collaborative (BSC) for increasing father and paternal relative engagement in child welfare in order to improve placement stability and permanency outcomes for children.
Supporting Father Involvement: An Intervention With Community and Child Welfare-Referred Couples
Pruett, Cowan, Cowan, Gillette, & Pruett (2019)
Family Relations, 68
Presents a study that sought to expand on the evidence base on the Supporting Father Involvement intervention to include child welfare families. The intervention aims to strengthen coparenting, parent-child relationships, and child outcomes.
Supporting Fatherhood at the Individual Level
Dads Rock! Nurturing Father Engagement [Video]
National Child Abuse and Neglect Technical Assistance and Strategic Dissemination Center (2018)
Highlights the work of the Children's Trust of Massachusetts Fatherhood Initiative, including home visiting with fathers, father support groups, and professional men's family service providers' groups.
Father Engagement and Father Involvement Toolkit
California Social Work Education Center
Provides information for communities and local organizations about engaging and involving fathers. The toolkit includes engagement and communication tools, assessments, trainings, policies and procedures, and evaluation tools.
Promoting Responsible Fatherhood
Parents as Teachers®
Provides strategies to encourage absent fathers' renewed involvement in their children's lives. The toolkit includes strategies for service providers to improve their practice with fathers and assess agency performance.
Supporting Fathers and Strengthening Families
Child and Family Research Partnership (2017)
Explains the importance of father involvement for child well-being and development and increasing protective factors in families. The brief also discusses the disproportionately in fathers and father figures being implicated in child maltreatment.