Supporting Father Involvement:

Who We Help

Most directly, our program helps parents and co-parents who want to raise their child(ren) together with the confidence and satisfaction that they are doing the best they can for their child. The program also assists educators who want to offer the program in order to support their school’s climate, build community, and provide a service to parents – perhaps during their child’s entry into Kindergarten, primary or middle school. Agencies will find that the program is loved by participants but also by staff, who report positive changes in their own family relationships as a result of offering SFI/PasP to clients.

Parents

A broad spectrum of families and child-rearing relationships with children across all developmental stages is helped by SFI/PasP, as documented by the evidence across all phases of the research. The program has been endorsed by and proven effective (*) for:

  • Latinx (primarily Mexican-American), African American, Caucasian, First Nation (*), Middle Eastern (*), Chinese, and Muslim religious and ethnic families
  • urban and rural families
  • low-income, working and middle-class families
  • married and non-married (cohabitating and not) parents
  • biological and non-biological parent-child relationships (stepfamilies, Grandparents, etc.)
  • families previously engaged with child welfare systems
  • same-sex couples (*)
  • single parent and two-generation nurturing pairs (*)

Family Educators

The programs have been used successfully in specific schools or school systems, or in service agencies providing broad-based education to families. Examples include:

  • resource centers
  • elementary schools
  • childhood centers, such as Head Start

But it can also be implemented in:

  • divorce education programs
  • middle schools
  • online parenting education programs

Agencies

Although community-based Family Resource Centers and all of their local, county and state affiliates were the first to use SFI/PasP, agencies that have found it a valuable intervention and included it in their programming include:

  • family and child health and mental health clinics
  • hospital programs
  • pregnancy care programs

Part of the evidence base that many agencies find compelling is the finding that the agencies themselves were changed by offering SFI/PasP to become more father-friendly in their institutional practices and overall programming

Take The Next Step

Keep exploring how Supporting Father Involvement can improve outcomes for your organization.