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Engaging young fathers on the Isle of Sheppey – A SECC project

Engaging young fathers on the Isle of Sheppey – A SECC project. John Fowler, Director of Seashells, Sheerness Children and Families Centre & Dr Jane Reeves, UoG. What are the ingredients of a good partnership?. Sharing mutual aims and goals ‘Complimenting’ each others knowledge

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Engaging young fathers on the Isle of Sheppey – A SECC project

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  1. Engaging young fathers on the Isle of Sheppey – A SECC project John Fowler, Director of Seashells, Sheerness Children and Families Centre & Dr Jane Reeves, UoG

  2. What are the ingredients of a good partnership? • Sharing mutual aims and goals • ‘Complimenting’ each others knowledge • Being able to work effectively and positively with each other • Being able to see the bigger picture • Some examples of good partnerships??…..

  3. What is special about the Isle of Sheppey?

  4. We met through contacts from the Kent Teenage Pregnancy Unit who thought John and I had mutual goals working with vulnerable young families and young fathers in particular Teenage pregnancy is a significant problem in Swale and on the Isle of Sheppey. How did we meet and why is it important?

  5. What do we want to achieve?

  6. The community facility in Sheerness includes: Swale Primary Care Trust facility (for midwives, health visitors) Family Support Centre and Family Welfare Association (FWA) Sure Start services 50 place full day care nursery What is ‘Seashells’.

  7. Pregnancy manifests itself with the young woman and the focus is usually on her – fathers are often ignored Wanted to build on the existing success and networks of ‘daddy cool’ at Seashells. We wanted to prioritise young fathers

  8. A group on the Isle of Sheppey set up and run by Dads, for Dads and exclusively with Dads in mind. There are a range of indoor and outdoor activities which change from week to week.  There is a breakfast for everyone and it's all free! What is daddy cool?

  9. What is in the SECC bid for Seashells? • Currently less than one in eight parents who use the centre are dads, yet every child has a dad! • We need dad’s ‘on side’ to encourage them to get involved constructively - from breastfeeding to good health and learning • The knowledge transfer from the University offers us the expertise to really get to grips with the issues.

  10. What is in the bid for the University? • The opportunity to work in partnership with a successful community organisation in an area targeted by social policy and high in deprivation • To be able to use my discrete area of expertise directly to a target population of young fathers in the community rather than just the classroom – book “Inter-professional Approaches to Young Fathers.” • To be able to use the evaluation to take forward knowledge on teenage pregnancy

  11. A project worker to engage with, target and work with fathers generally and young fathers specifically over 3 years – now at the stage of advertising the post Post-holder to undertake the Foundation Degree with UoG. The worker to recruit and maintain a group of volunteers who can extend their role The University to provide training & mentoring for the worker, staff and volunteers at Seashells on Teenage pregnancy and fatherhood Target areas and contexts where young fathers can be identified – the new Academy, Healthy Living Centre, Sheppey College, facilitate discussions and skills with young fathers Develop and build on the portfolio of activities at Seashells to stimulate dads and young dads to get involved Evaluate, monitor and develop teaching materials How are we moving forward?

  12. “We need to engage with dads – and this is the way to do it”John Fowler, July 2008

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