Strengthening Families and The 5 Protective Factors Series:

Concrete Support

Posted by Christopher A. Brown

Concrete Support in Times of Need

About concrete support CSSP emphasizes, “Meeting basic economic needs like food, shelter, clothing and health care is essential for families to thrive.”

Father-specific programs and resources are necessary to adequately address this factor because fathers, and men in general, are reluctant to seek help for their basic needs, much less to admit they have them. As noted in an earlier post in this series, Doctor Dad® helps fathers meet the basic health care needs necessary for their children to thrive and through teaching techniques that are particularly effective with men (e.g. hands-on learning and demonstration supported by visual aids).

CSSP points out that family poverty is the factor most strongly correlated with child abuse and neglect. Families need concrete support to prevent them from or lift them out of poverty. Research shows that father absence places children and families at greater risk of poverty. Therefore, any effort addresses this factor when that effort connects fathers with their children to prevent and intervene on father absence.

NFI recognizes, however, that meeting the basic needs of families (especially those at risk for or living in poverty) is beyond the scope of father-specific programs and resources. Therefore, NFI provides technical assistance and training to help organizations understand the basic needs faced by specific populations of fathers and the importance of integrating father-involvement efforts into the services organizations provide that help families meet their basic economic needs.

Incarcerated fathers are one of the specific populations of fathers NFI helps organizations to serve, primarily through the InsideOut Dad® program. These fathers often struggle with meeting their own and their families’ basic economic needs before and after incarceration.

In 2010, NFI completed The Connections Project, an 18-month federally-funded initiative that involved training on InsideOut Dad® and produced several resources that build the capacity of state and local corrections systems and direct-service providers to better understand the basic needs of formerly-incarcerated fathers for successful reentry into society.....

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Family Tips

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - BY LAURA H. LIPPMAN & W. BRADFORD WILCOX

The family is the core institution for child-rearing worldwide, and decades of research have shown that strong families promote positive child outcomes. For this reason the World Family Map Project monitors family well-being and investigates how family characteristics affect children’s healthy development around the globe. Families do not operate in a vacuum: their ability to provide for their children and supervise their development depends not only on parenting behaviors and attitudes but also on the social, economic, and policy environments that surround them. Yet efforts to strengthen families are often considered off-limits or of low priority for policy and programmatic interventions, especially in times of financial strain. With the indicators and analyses presented here, this project points individuals, families, communities, NGOs, and governments to some key factors affecting child and family well-being that policies and programs can shape in order to foster strong families and positive outcomes for children.​

Learn More: https://worldfamilymap.org

The importance of fathers featuring Correctional Officer Calvin Williams

TEDx Ironwood State Prison

Published on Jun 2, 2014

Single father of 3 children, Correctional Officer Calvin Williams of Ironwood State Prison speaks about the importance of being a father.

A powerful five-minute video of correctional officer Calvin Williams speaking at a TEDx event held inside a prison about the importance of fathers. What the National Fatherhood Initiative found compelling about the video is not only Calvin's message about how important his role is as a father but the imagery of him delivering the message in his uniform and in a prison.
The imagery creates a stark contrast between the important, positive message Calvin delivers and the view many people have of correctional officers as tough, demanding, and harsh.

Strengthening Families and The 5 Protective Factors Series:

Parental Resilience

Posted by Christopher A. Brown