Cross-Cutting Annual Report

Priority Need: Increase Father Involvement in All MCH Populations

SPM 3: Father Involvement

Fatherhood Initiative

The MCH Fatherhood Initiative’s Strong Fathers Strong Families Georgia (SFSF GA) Coalition supports father involvement that leads to positive outcomes for children and families including improved social-emotional development, academic achievement, and improved physical health for children. The SFSF GA Coalition interdisciplinary team is comprised of father- and family-serving agencies and organizations, including state and academic level partners, as well as community-based and non-traditional partnerships including fathers, local public health departments, Georgia Healthy Start sites, Center for Black Women’s Wellness, TIME-ER Consulting Firm, LLC., fraternities, and sororities. The SFSF GA Coalition continues to actively support the state’s efforts to develop a “father-friendly” linkage and referral network to serve fathers.

In the reporting year, SFSF GA Coalition and Morehouse School of Medicine Prevention Research Center (MSM PRC), an academic partner/member of the SFSF GA Coalition, completed its 18-month Clinical and Translational Science (Tx) Grant. The project used a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach that focused on identifying the strengths and gaps to serving fathers in maternal and child health services. The study also identified existing programs and services that strengthens father involvement to be included in a statewide network. The study was conducted at four MCH project sites, including two Healthy Start sites, Grady Hospital’s Centering Pregnancy Program, and Center for Black Women’s Wellness. There were delays in data collection of the Measure of Father Challenges and the Father Friendly surveys (to be completed by fathers) in three of the four sites due to lack of regular in-person engagement, resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Two Healthy Start sites and Grady Centering Pregnancy Program developed innovative strategies to increase father participation and survey compliance with regular follow-up, phone calls, and other program supports. The CBPR results are being used to guide planning to increase “father friendliness” in programs and services across MCH, therefore impacting perinatal health outcomes of mothers and babies in Georgia.  

In November 2020, through a partnership with MSM PRC, the SFSF GA Coalition was awarded the HHS Office of Minority Health (OMH) Grant to reduce maternal mortality in Georgia through Project D.I.N.E. (Dads Involved in Nutrition Education). Collaboration on the project included internal and external partners, including Healthy Start, WIC, Center for Black Women’s Wellness, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension (UGA CoOp Ext) Expanded Food and Nutrition Program (EFNEP), and TIME-ER Consulting Firm, LLC., to work to improve new and expectant families’ access to nutrition and breastfeeding education and improve maternal health outcomes through father involvement. The project equipped Black fathers and their families with education to make healthier food choices and provide fathers with practical ways to support mothers in breastfeeding initiation and duration.

The Fatherhood Initiative partnered with the National Fatherhood Initiative (NFI) to support the work of the SFSF GA Coalition and utilized the NFI’s Community Mobilization Approach (CMA) framework that had previously been successfully implemented in several states (e.g., Texas, Indiana, Ohio) and cities (e.g., Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Sioux Falls) across the United States. The geographic focus of the CMA was Georgia’s metro Atlanta counties: Clayton, Cobb, Dekalb, Douglas and Fulton counties. MSM PRC was selected to serve as the lead agency for the CMA process. SFSF GA Coalition and MSM PRC launched the Fathers Matter Initiative to lead mobilization efforts and increase “father friendliness” awareness, resources and services.

In January 2021, NFI held a four-hour CMA workshop for 13 SFSF GA coalition members and metro Atlanta leaders to provide an overview of the NFI CMA. During the workshop, the three phases of the CMA were introduced:

(1) A needs and assets assessment, or Rapid Ethnographic Assessment of Programs and Services (REAPS) to help community leaders:

• Identify the need to promote or support father involvement
• Identify the services and programs for fathers that exist in the community, and the service and program gaps
• Identify the assets in the community that can be mobilized to promote father involvement
• Identify potential strategies to weave the promotion of father involvement into the social fabric of the community
• Collect information critical to attract funds for a sustainable community-wide fatherhood initiative

(2) A Fatherhood Leadership Summit to be attended by metro Atlanta leaders; and

(3) Implementing an action plan for a fatherhood initiative generated by a broad cross-section of partners.

Secondary data was compiled on the following topic areas: incarceration, employment, education, poverty, housing, hunger/food insecurity, mental health, and physical health. To complement the secondary data collection, two-hour discussion groups were held with community leaders from diverse sectors of metro Atlanta. Information about programs and resources for fathers were collected through these discussion groups and via scan of existing program websites. An agency resource survey was collected, mapped according to the type of resource (e.g., counseling services, co-parenting services, employment services, etc.), and shared with partners.

Serving as a landmark of CMA, the Fathers Matter Initiative: Mobilizing Fatherhood in Metro-Atlanta Leadership Summit was held on March 3, 2021. Embracing an asset- and strengths-based perspective for the fathers in metro-Atlanta,186 attendees across 11 sectors in Dekalb, Clayton, Fulton, and Cobb and Douglas counties exchanged ideas regarding actions to promote responsible fatherhood, and thus agreed upon seven strategies to mobilize efforts over the course of the next three, six, and eight to 12 months.

The action plans included the following strategies:

• Connecting fathers to resources and to other fathers
• Reaching fathers
• Improving relationships (between men and institutions; between co-parents)
• Supporting inner healing
• Reclaiming the narrative about fathers
• Addressing mass incarceration
• Implementing father-friendly policies

The SFSF GA Coalition’s successful implementation of the CMA as a framework to effectively manage a community-wide collaborative process and create an obtainable vision for mobilizing partners around fatherhood was highlighted in the article, “Community Mobilization Approach to Increase Fatherhood Involvement” and featured in AMCHPs May 2021 Pulse Newsletter.

The Fatherhood Initiative continued to support ongoing efforts to develop a “Father Friendliness” Resource Guide and Service Map to improve access and coordination of fatherhood resources for fathers, families, and practitioners. In the reporting year, the guide and asset map included more than 160 resources for fathers in the metro Atlanta area and expanded as far south as the West Central Health District in Columbus. Categories for programs and services included more than 20 areas that address social determinants, such as housing, legal services, food banks, education, healthcare to more specialized services for anger management, mental and behavioral health, and fatherhood and co-parenting programs. The programs and services compiled from the agency resource survey was added to the Fatherhood Resource Guide and Service Map.

The Father Initiative provided five webinar trainings with more than 468 participants. Twenty-one partners were certified in Family Engagement and eight partners were trained on the 24/7 Dad® evidence-based curriculum. Approximately 40 partners stayed engaged with the Fatherhood Initiative following the Fathers Matter Leadership Summit. The Fatherhood Initiative partnered with WellCare managed health care to provide “Story Time with Dad” to Healthy Start participant fathers to raise awareness on the importance of fathers reading to their children. Fathers and their families across 159 counties participated in a monthly, one-hour guided reading session that featured themed stories read in English and Spanish during the first half hour, with the final 30 minutes used to present resource information. Eighty-three families participated.

The Fatherhood Initiative provided bi-monthly presentations to the MCH Advisory Council to increase awareness of the Fatherhood Initiative’s partners and projects. Internal and external partners including MCH practitioners, clinicians, and community members attended and provided feedback on initiatives.

To highlight the Fatherhood Initiative’s participation in the National MCH Workforce Development Center’s 2019 Health Transformation Challenge, a poster and pre-recorded presentation titled, “Advancing Partnerships,” was accepted for the May 2021 AMCHP Conference. The poster and presentation highlighted the SFSF GA Coalition’s developmental stages, steps to advance partnerships with internal and external agency partners, successes and challenges, and how the National MCH Workforce Development Center most supported the progress of the Fatherhood Initiative.

Current Year: Oct 2021 – Sept 2022

Priority Need: Increase Father Involvement in All MCH Populations

SPM 3: Father Involvement

Fatherhood Initiative

In the current year, the SFSF GA Coalition launched the “Father-Friendliness” Toolkit project designed to provide local and state agencies and organizations with guidance of what qualifies an agency or organization as “father-friendly.” In the early stages of the project, interviews were conducted with the Iowa Department of Public Health and the City of Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services to help guide Georgia’s development and implementation. In March 2022, the “Father-Friendly” designation criteria and scoring guidelines were finalized. GA- AAP invited the Initiative and MSM, to speak to the group regarding current efforts and state level data acquired from the “Father-Friendly” Toolkit pilot project to measure success across MCH.

The Fatherhood Initiative is focusing on increasing visibility and access to available fatherhood resources by including a fatherhood icon on the Georgia Maternal Child Health Coordinator Locator (MCH Locator) website. The MCH Locator is intended to provide information for families to locate public health programs and services that serve the health needs of women, children and fathers to include women's health programs, regional perinatal centers, PCM services, STD information, EHDI services, Children 1st, BCW, CMS, oral health, home visiting, and Autism specialty clinics.

During the current year, the Fathers Matter Initiative provided fundamental trainings to prepare partner sites to intentionally engage and include fathers in services. The trainings expanded knowledge of existing fatherhood staff and provide newly onboarded staff, new agency partners and Community Action Network member organizations and collaborative partners a working knowledge of the importance of engaging fathers in programs and services.  

In March 2021, the Initiative collaborated with TIME-ER Consulting, LLC., and Georgia Strong Family Fatherhood Program Healthy Start sites in Valdosta and Columbus to launch a partnership with DECAL to provide a continuum of education, community engagement, and employment opportunities for fathers who complete the 24/7 Dad Program. The collaboration launched the DECAL Family Peer Ambassadors cohort to educate fathers on Developmental Milestones, Learn the Signs. Act Early. interventions, and prepare fathers to apply to the Family Peer Ambassadors program, which includes fathers, mothers, custodial grandparents, foster parents, stepparents, or guardians of young children in licensed childcare or early intervention programs. Family Peer Ambassadors attend child development trainings and learn about statewide and community resources for families with young children. The Family Peer Ambassadors share information with families at community events and through social media and provide input about DECAL’s websites and tools designed for families. Family Peer Ambassadors receive stipends for their participation in the program. Fathers, Healthy Start staff, and family members who wish to apply to be DECAL Family Ambassador must:

• Have a child who is currently enrolled in childcare or early intervention, or has been in the past two years (childcare, Head Start or Early Head Start, Georgia’s Pre-K Program, Babies Can’t Wait (BCW), or Preschool Special Education)
• Commit to attend four virtual training sessions
• Have internet access to attend virtual trainings and meetings
• Commit to sharing with families in their networks about resources that are available in Georgia and their local communities

The application period ended in February 2022. Several Healthy Start program fathers completed the application process but were not selected for the program.

In November 2021, the Community Change Leadership Network funded Morehouse School of Medicine Prevention Research Center’s Fathers Matter Initiative in partnership with All Pro Dads and other community partners to launch five All Pro Dad chapters in Georgia. All Pro Dad is the fatherhood program of Family First, a national nonprofit 501(c)(3) educational and charitable organization that provides a year-round family engagement program that focuses of father engagement. The program supports social-emotional learning and childhood literacy through both a monthly curriculum and a daily positive fatherhood message. This message is known as the “Play of the Day” and is currently distributed to nearly 110,000 subscribers each day. All Pro Dad Chapters provide a monthly gathering at school where dads and kids engage in meaningful conversations and activities centered around a character-based curriculum that provides an opportunity for dads to spend quality time with their children to strengthen their relationship. The All Pro Dad Chapters are located in the following schools:

• Atlanta– Ivy Preparatory Academy at Kirkwood

• DeKalb– Dunaire Elementary School

• Clayton– Pointe South Middle School

• Cobb– Fair Oaks Elementary School

• Douglas– Eastside Elementary School

In the current year, the Fatherhood Initiative continues to convene fathers and partners to develop strategies to create a culture of inclusion for fathers across the state. As a result of the presentations during the MCH Advisory Council meetings in the annual reporting year, Quality Care for Children, a childcare provider and family supporting agency, invited the Fatherhood Initiative to speak to their staff about the importance of becoming a “father-friendly” organization and potential strategies to develop deeper relationships with fathers of the children they serve.

Fatherhood Workforce Development

The Initiative hosted several workshops for the Healthy Start Georgia Strong Families Programs in Columbus and Valdosta to increase father enrollment. Home visiting sites completed process maps to identify a shared approach for enrolling families.

The Fatherhood Workforce Development Training series “Serving Fathers Throughout the Perinatal Period” was provided to Healthy Start Home Visiting and MIECHV sites, program practitioners, CAN members, MCH Advisory Council members, and others. The following trainings were provided each Tuesday, March 8 through March 29, 2022:

• March 8th- 24/7 Dad® Workshop led by Erik Vecere of the National Fatherhood Initiative (NFI)- 24 initial certificates were issued
• March 15th- Fatherhood Implicit Bias Workshop led by Dr. Latrice Rollins of Morehouse School of Medicine Prevention Research Center (MSM PRC)- 23 attendees trained
• March 22nd- Fathers Involved In Breastfeeding led by Wesley Bugg and Carl Route of Reaching Our Brothers Everywhere (ROBE)- 13 attendees trained
• March 11th- 28th- Father Engagement Certificate Training self-paced training-10 LIA Staff trained
• March 29th- Fathers In MCH: Today, Tomorrow, and Beyond led by Kenn Harris of the National Institute of Children’s Health Quality (NICHQ)- 35 attendees trained