Building Blocks For Father Involvement Building Block 5 Bringing A Fatherhood Plan To Life June 2004 PDF Download

This curriculum was developed to help people who want to help fathers and expectant fathers achieve success. . The history of involving male teachers to help primarily young urban men who are about to become fathers had consisted of good-hearted upper middle class Christian men giving a lecture about what it means to be a father. The success of the program had been dismal as participants frequently reported that the instructors told too many personal stories, preached concepts they did not understand, and were too out of touch with their generation and their personal cultures. In response to this problem, we set out to develop a tool to give good-hearted upper middle class Christian men that would help them find success in their efforts to help young fathers learn what it means to be a father. This curriculum is meant to be an easy tool for helping volunteers and paraprofessionals be effective in educating fathers and expectant fathers to: 1)Discuss what manhood in our culture means; 2)Discover their powerful role in positive child outcomes for children; 3) Uncover common road blocks good fathers have in being successful fathers; 4)Learn how their fatherhood role is impacted by their experience of their father and father figures; 5) Understand how to handle challenges in relationship with their child's mom; 6) Identify common internal road blocks within men to fulfilling their important fatherhood role. The curriculum has been developed to work in a 2 hour training class for expectant and new fathers. However, if taken slowly, it could be taught in multiple sessions over time or in an expanded time frame. The curriculum is purposefully written in simple language for full participation across cultures. It is developed with the intention of having one two hour session because that is the model of the program for which it was developed. For that reason, the education materials are not comprehensive on the covered subject matter, but rather built for the purpose of giving a brief overview of the subjects covered. In our experience, repetition of the material has been helpful for participants to grasp in greater detail the concepts presented.Our intention is that this curriculum will be easily administered in a low tech or high tech environment, with or without use of program video and slides. We encourage facilitators to become familiar with the all aspects of the curriculum so that fathers and expectant fathers who attend the class will receive the content of the program even if there are problems with electronic equipment. It is our intention to not be overly religious with the material. Although the principles taught in this class have firm biblical basis, this curriculum is developed intentionally to serve people of all faiths and no faith. It is our intention to impact the next generation by impacting new and young fathers. We trust that the facilitators of this curriculum (within the policies of the organization or ministry within which they are providing services) will follow up with fathers interested in learning more about a relationship with God or more about what it means to be a father.