Engaging Fathers in the Child Welfare System

1. Engaging Fathers in the Child Welfare System a caseworkertoolkit

2. Alex Trebeck

3. Fatherhood in Colorado • Colorado Fatherhood Council • Public Awareness Ad Campaign focusing on importance of fathers • Training Academies on Fatherhood • Ongoing technical assistance • Program Audit/Evaluation www.coloradodads.com • Internet-based Management Information System • Additional resources: National Fatherhood Initiative www.fatherhood.org & the Fatherhood Clearinghouse www.fatherhood.gov

4. Colorado Dads www.coloradodads.com

5. Partnering with Child Support Child Support has been working with dads for years They have the tools to locate absent fathers Our Child Support Office houses POP Program Fathers Experiences/Child Support Video : http://vimeo.com/20719328

6. Addressing Domestic Violence And Father Engagement

7. What are the Concerns if DV is present or suspected? • If dad is the perpetrator: • Children/mothers continue to be exposed to abuse • May seek access to mother who does not want contact • Abuse may be hidden dynamic • Inadequate resources to deal with DV & Parenting issues

8. Why engage a DV Batterer? • Enhance the safety and well being of children • Transform Dad’s contact with their children from negative to positive experience • How your children see you = CHANGE

9. Something My Father Would Do • What does the story tell you about the effects of violence on children? • How do you think the cultures of the men affect their choices? • What does the story tell you about fatherhood and violence?

10. Parenting and the DV Batterer • Emphasis on empathy • Child centered • Appropriate boundaries • Healthy discipline

11. “Research has shown that some mothers who have suffered abuse want their children to have safer and healthier contact with their fathers and positive involvement by a father figure can be very beneficial to children’s development” (Family Violence Prevention Fund, 2006)

12. “Except in cases where children are terrified of the battering parent or have been abused by him directly, children tend to desire some degree of ongoing contact with their fathers” (Bancroft and Silverman, 2002)

13. The following slides are for Appendix Materials

14. What’s in it for DADS? • Activity Level Increases • Reduces Stress Related Ailments • Nurturing Side is Enhanced • Lower Risk for Clinical Depression • Job Satisfaction Improves • Cope Better With Daily Life • Life Expectancy Enhanced

15. What’s in it for the Children? • Higher cognitive achievement • Reduced risk of child abuse or neglect • Enhanced coping skills • Lower risk for substance abuse • Lessened chance of teen pregnancy • Better relationships with others • Less chance of criminal behaviors

16. What’s in it for Child Welfare? • Length of placements are reduced • Reduces potential for future abuse/neglect • Reaching out to paternal family increases natural supports and protection of children • Fathers can help problem solve • Break cycle of child welfare involvement • Creates environment of trust and partnership

17. Ring out the old… Ring in the New OLD EXPECTATION: Multi-problem unemployed men are impossible to reach and not interested in taking responsibility for their children. NEW EXPECTATION: Multi-problem unemployed men can be reached and want to learn to take responsibility for their children.

18. OLD EXPECTATION: Low-income men who say they want to establish paternity just want to “get back” at the mother. NEW EXPECTATION: Low-income men who say they want to establish paternity want a chance to be fathers – sometimes the fathers they never were or never had.

19. OLD EXPECTATION: Men and women can’t raise children together if they are not living in the same household. The job should go to the mother. NEW EXPECTATION: Men and women can learn to co-parent, even if they are not living in the same household. This helps mother, father, and child.

20. Male Help-Seeking Behaviors Understanding Male Socialization • Socially constructed ideas cultivate: • Emotional Conflict • Behavioral Problems • Emotional Pain which presents as stoic, firm, or detached

21. Societal Factors • Expressing sadness, fear and frustration is considered to be un-masculine • Anger is an acceptable male emotion • Being physically strong • Ambition and competition • Economic success • Sexual conquests

22. Barriers to Men Seeking Help • Admitting to problem • Difficulty in asking for help • Being perceived as “weak” • Fear of intimacy and vulnerability • Scarcity of treatment approaches for men • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxtUH_bHBxs

23. Biological & Communication Differences between Men and Women Women communicate in a more straightforward manner than men, particularly when the subject of conversation has to do with relationships and feelings. Men are more direct in their communication, such as when they are offering advice to others. Women are more indirect when making requests. Often women will make the request sound more like a suggestion so they are not seen as being too bold. When women listen to someone speak, they tend to make a lot of eye contact, whereas men might not look at the person who is speaking to them. Women also use cues designed to indicate that they are listening, such as saying things like "yeah" and "uh-huh." Men generally do not use a lot of these cues when they are listening to someone. At birth, a boy's brain is bigger than a girl's brain. Even though a man seems to have more brain cells, it is reported that women have more dendritic connections between brain cells. Women are better in certain language abilities Men are better in certain spatial abilities Many men are sharply left-brain dominant, while women tend to be more evenly balanced between left and right-brain processing. Women are therefore  thought to be slightly more intuitive, and sometimes better communicators. Men are often less socially adept, and are more task-oriented thinkers than females.

24. “The father who would taste the essence of his fatherhood must turn back from the plane of his experience, take with him the fruits of his journey and begin again beside his child, marching step by step over the same old road.” -Angelo Patri

25. Wrap Up Questions?? Thoughts?? Ideas?? “Pure Love’s like Magic” Tyler Osterhaus - Fathers and Daughters http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GJQ0PLuFyo

26. Louise J. Kaplan “Fathers represent another way of looking at life - the possibility of an alternative dialogue.” 

27. Many Thanks to…