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Resources
From the Administration for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, this guide is for child welfare workers to help fathers have a positive impact on their children's lives. It is the first guide for professionals that focuses specifically on how they can more effectively engage fathers whose children come to the attention of the child welfare system.
What About the Dads? Child Welfare Agencies' Efforts to Identify, Locate, and Involve Nonresident Fathers
This study describes the extent to which child welfare agencies identify, locate, and involve nonresident fathers in case decision making and permanency. It looks at policies and practices for involving nonresident fathers of foster children in casework and permanency planning; various methods used by local agencies to identify fathers of children in foster
care, establish paternity, and locate nonresident fathers; challenges to involvement, including characteristics and circumstances that may be constraints and worker opinions of nonresident fathers; practices and initiatives that may increase father involvement; and how child support agencies' information resources may assist child welfare agencies to identify and locate nonresident fathers.
More About the Dads
This study from the Urban Institute follows up the one listed above. It finds that having an involved father is associated with shorter case length and a greater likelihood of reunification, though it is only modestly related to subsequent allegations of maltreatment.
Study of Fathers’ Involvement in Permanency Planning and Child Welfare Casework
This review summarizes existing literature and knowledge about non-custodial fathers and their relations with children involved in the child welfare system.
Fathers and Their Families: The Untapped Resource for Children Involved in the Child Welfare System
Historically, non-custodial fathers have been disengaged from the child welfare system. The advent of ASFA and recent Federal initiatives focused on fatherhood, however, have resulted in new efforts on the part of the child welfare system to encourage the involvement of fathers and other paternal relatives. American Humane focused on fathers and their families in the September 2003 issue of Child Protection Leader.
Getting Noncustodial Dads Involved in the Lives of Foster Children
Many foster children are living apart from their fathers at the time they are removed from their homes. Once removed, these children experience even less contact with their noncustodial fathers. The dearth of fathers in the lives of foster children is of mounting concern as efforts to expedite permanent homes for these children intensify and there is greater recognition of fathers' contributions to family stability and children's healthy development. This policy brief from the Urban Institute looks at the extent to which fathers are involved in the lives of their children in foster care and ways to increase their involvement.
Marriage and Fatherhood, and Their Impact on Poverty
From "Focus," a newsletter from the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Institute for Research on Poverty. The purpose of "Focus" is to provide coverage of poverty-related research, events, and issues, and to acquaint a large audience with the work of the Institute for Research on Poverty by means of short essays on selected pieces of research. The Summer 2002 issue contains six articles on marriage and fatherhood.
Nurturing Fatherhood - Improving Data and Research on Male Fertility, Family Formation, and Fatherhood
Published by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, the purpose of this volume is to share with federal statistical agencies, federal and state policy-makers and the broad family and child well-being research community the results of a multi-year process to review and analyze the state of data collection and research on male fertility, family formation, and fathering (June, 1998).
Father Involvement – Building Strong Programs for Strong Families
Volume #77 of the Head Start Bulletin focuses on father involvement in Head Start programs, but it contains articles of interest to anyone who cares about family-centered practice in any work with children and families, like “Father-Friendly Environmental Assessment,” as well as information both birth families and resource families can use in articles such as “Why is a Family Story Book Important?”
Ten Key Findings from Responsible Fatherhood Initiatives
This brief from the Urban Institute provides ten key lessons from several important early responsible fatherhood initiatives that were developed and implemented during the 1990s and early 2000s. Formal evaluations of these earlier fatherhood efforts have been completed making this an opportune time to step back and assess what has been learned and how to build on the early programs' successes and challenges.
Resources from the States
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Iowa
Involving Fathers
Practice tips for caseworkers.
- North Carolina
Father Involvement in Child Welfare
The December 2005 issue of "Children's Services Practice Notes" examines ways that practitioners and their agencies can improve the way they work with fathers. Practice Notes is sponsored by the N.C. Division of Social Services and produced by the Family and Children's Resource Program, part of the Jordan Institute for Families at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Social Work.
Curriculum
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Fatherhood Training Curriculum
The National Family Preservation Network has published the Fatherhood Training Package consisting of a curriculum, training guide, accompanying overheads and handouts, and video, which may be purchased at their online store.
Bibliography
NRCFCPPP Information Packet
Websites
- National Quality Improvement Center on Non-Resident Fathers and the Child Welfare System
The purpose of this project is to determine, through a research design, the impact of non-resident father involvement on child welfare outcomes. Child welfare outcomes include child safety, permanence and well-being. Included in this design is the examination of the relationship between child and non-resident fathers or paternal relatives. Throughout the five years of this project, information gained from the QIC-NRF will be disseminated to the Children’s Bureau, sub-grantees, child welfare agencies, private service providers, the courts and legal systems, and other stakeholders.
- National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse
The NRFC supports the Administration for Children and Families' Office of Family Assistance's efforts to assist States and communities to promote and support Responsible Fatherhood and Healthy Marriage. Primarily a tool for professionals operating Responsible Fatherhood programs, the NRFC provides access to print and electronic publications, timely information on fatherhood issues, and targeted resources that support OFA-funded Responsible Fatherhood and Healthy Marriage grantees. The NRFC Web site also provides essential information for other audiences interested in fatherhood issues.
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Center for Family Policy and Practice
CFFPP is a nationally-focused public policy organization conducting policy research, technical assistance, training, litigation and public education in order to focus attention on the barriers faced by never-married, low-income fathers and their families.
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National Fatherhood Initiative
Founded in 1994, NFI seeks to lead a society-wide movement to confront the problem of father absence. Their mission is to improve the well-being of children by increasing the proportion of children growing up with involved, responsible, and committed fathers.
Last updated 05/02/08
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