Policy & Practice April 2015

trainings, fact sheets on the benefits of father involvement and the conse- quences of father absence, tools on how to effectively engage fathers, and a list of local, state, and national fatherhood resources. NFI provided follow-up technical assistance to ensure proper application and implementation of the strategies and tactics that the sites learned about. The technical assistance included access to the online FFCU evaluation tools; FFCU reports from trainings that had been delivered; development and monitoring of the action plans showing how communities could utilize provided tools to improve outcomes; and a webinar to address critical issues to ensure a sustainable continuation of father-friendly technical assistance. Many of the home visiting programs successfully used the “Father-Readiness Toolkit” to increase the father-friendli- ness of their agencies and community stakeholders. A great example of this is highlighted in the following e-mail that was sent to NFI staff from a Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) organization in

Odessa, Texas, that used the training kit to provide their own Father Friendly Check-Up™ training: The workshop went quite well. Of course, I followed the same agenda as Erik [facilitator fromNFI] with only a fewmodifications. There were four (4) home visitors fromHIPPY and three (3) Home Instructors from PAT [Parents As Teachers]. Also attending was the recently hired Father Engagement Specialist from Head Start. The PAT coordinator and I led the workshop. A total of eight (8) par- ticipants with two (2) coordinators. Home visitors loved the icebreaker and shared some interesting informa- tion about their fathers. Home visitors were shocked at some of the statistical information. This information about children growing up in fatherless homes and what women think about fathers was an eye-opener to home visitors. I believe that it was the beginning of changing their attitudes about fathers and the importance of including them in HIPPY and PAT. Home visitors from PAT and HIPPY were able to share ideas about making

both programs more father-friendly. I think that everyone left with a good understanding of the four (4) assess- ment categories and the future task of our program. NFI collected quantitative data on 20 programs within the seven communi- ties that showed those programs that completed a Father Friendly Check- Up™ assessment at the beginning of the project and then again four months later all increased their capacity to serve fathers by 5–7 percent. These were considerable increases given the short period of time they had to work on the development and execution of their Father Friendly Action Plans. Ultimately, the Father Friendly Check-Up™ trainings and “Father- Readiness Toolkit” helped each of these Texas home visiting programs ensure that their fatherhood services were fully integrated into the very fabric of their organizations and communities. Erik Vecere is the vice president of Program Support for the National Fatherhood Initiative.

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April 2015   Policy&Practice 27