Dad Central/Papa Centrale Ontario

“Fortifying Father Involvement—A toolkit to increase capacity for communities to engage fathers” Grant

2013-2015

Dad Central/Papa Central Ontario (DCO) was awarded a two-year grant in May, 2013 to support the development as well as piloting of various content and activities community agencies could use in an intervention to enhance father involvement in the lives of their children from early childhood to adulthood. DCO was established in 1997 as the Father Involvement Initiative—Ontario Network with a mandate to promote and support responsible father involvement as a significant aspect of healthy child development. The resultant My Dad Matters toolkit allows community service providers to assess their readiness to offer a father engagement initiative and what is required to launch a father involvement program including an overview of sector leading practices, strategic planning procedures and impact assessment options. The toolkit also includes links to the seven module My Dad Workshop Series including “Fathering in a New Land: A Newcomers Guide to Being a Dad in Canada”, “Future Matters: Helping Kids with Career Choices”, and “I’m a PARENT now: Effective Fathering for Young Dads”.

Please contact Dad Central/Papa Centrale Ontario at http://dadcentral.ca/ for further information about this wonderful resource. The toolkit can be found at www.mydad.ca.