Office of Family Assistance
Promoting Responsible Fatherhood

Allowable Activities: Responsible Parenting - skill-based parenting education (#1) and encouraging child support activities (#5). The economic stability components include: helping fathers improve their economic status by providing job search, job training, subsidized employment, and career advancement education (#1); and offering financial planning that encompasses household management, banking, and/or budgeting (#4).

Organizational Description: Child & Family Resources, Inc. is a community based non-profit 501 (c )(3) organization founded in Tucson in 1970 to improve the well being of Arizona’s children. Services to seven counties include: child care, family support, and youth services.

Use(s) of ACF Program Grant Funds: Fathers will be assisted in: learning the meaning of fatherhood; improving their employment status, including increases in earnings; establishing paternity; making child support payments; improving non-custodial parent’s frequency of contact with children; and forming as well as sustaining healthy relationships. The project staff aspires to refine, replicate, and expand model. The following curricula will be used to support goals and objectives: Fatherhood Is Sacred and Active Parenting. Strategies to support economic stability include adult basic education activities.

Office of Family Assistance
Promoting Responsible Fatherhood

Allowable Activity Area: Responsible Parenting - Skill-based parenting (#1); Good parenting practices (#2); Counseling, mentoring and mediation (#3); and Domestic violence and child abuse (#4).

Organization Description: Since 1972, Vista Community Clinic (VCC) has been a healthcare safety net for north San Diego County. The mission of VCC is “to provide quality healthcare and health education to the community focusing on those facing economic, social or cultural barriers.” VCC clinical and health education programs have longstanding relationships within the underserved communities of north San Diego County and have dedicated significant resources to serving children and their families.

Use(s) of ACF Program Grant Funds: The Vista Community Clinic (VCC) Club de Padres (Dad’s Club) is a new direct service project component that will serve the participant families of three existing VCC Maternal and Child Health programs as well as VCC pediatric patients ages 0-5 and their families. VCC intends to implement a project involving fathers and other paternal caregivers in family events and positive parenting education activities in order to increase their attention and commitment to the child development and family relationship needs of their children. VCC intends to serve 60 families annually (45 families in Year One) and intends to provide services through such case management activities as transportation assistance, service planning, facilitated referrals and phone reminders of project activities, as well as facilitated family and child interaction.

Office of Family Assistance
Promoting Responsible Fatherhood

Allowable Activity Area: Responsible Parenting - Skill-based parenting (#1); Good parenting practices (#2); Counseling, mentoring and mediation (#3); and Domestic violence and child abuse awareness (#4).

Organizational Description: The California Hospital Medical Center (CHMC) is a non-profit inner city teaching hospital that has been serving the needs of downtown and central Los Angeles since 1887. In 1992, CHMC formed a partnership with UCLA to expand prevention and early intervention services for low-income young families in the areas of health, education, and social services through the Hope Street Family Center.

Use(s) of ACF Program Grant Funds: This project will target 300 Latino and African American fathers with children ages 0-18 on an annual basis. This initiative is designed to strengthen parenting skills and family relationships while addressing through referrals untreated mental health issues, domestic violence, and substance abuse problems that place father-child relationships at risk. Strategies will include improving parenting, problem solving, and communication skills.

Office of Family Assistance
Responsible Fatherhood Demonstration

Allowable Activity: Responsible Parenting - skill-based parenting education (#1); disseminating parenting practices information (#2); counseling, mentoring, and mediation (#3); disseminating information on the causes of domestic violence and child abuse (#4); and encouraging child support activities (#5).

Organization Description: Comprehensive Youth Services has provided supervised visitation and exchange services for more than 25 years. CYS is a member of the Supervised Visitation Network and satisfies all requirements of the Uniform Standards of Practice for Providers of Supervised Visitation. The agency maintains contracts with Child Protective Services to provide visitation for biological fathers with children in the out-of-home placement and with Family Court Services through the Safe Watch program funded as well as through an Access and Visitation grant.

Use of ACF Program Grant Funds: The primary goal of the DADS Program is to work with 400 fathers to improve the relationship of fathers with their children and assist them in overcoming barriers that keep them from being the most effective and nurturing parent they can be. Specific services include supported visits, fatherhood classes, DADS groups and case management. Staff will support fathers by increasing meaningful, caring, and supportive family relationships, helping fathers to become highly involved, committed, confident, and empowered and finally, helping fathers to become better informed and responsible fathers.

Office of Family Assistance
Promoting Responsible Fatherhood

Allowable Activity Areas: Healthy Marriage - Skill-based marriage education (#1); Enhancing relationship skills (#5); Counseling, mentoring, benefits to children (#6); Controlling aggressive behavior (#7); Responsible Parenting - Skills-based parenting (#1); Good parenting practices (#2); Counseling, mentoring and mediation (#3); Domestic Violence and child abuse (#4).

Organization Description: Centerforce’s mission is to strengthen individuals and families affected by incarceration through a comprehensive system of education and support. Incorporated in 1977, Centerforce has more than 30 years of experience serving inmates and their families at county jails, State prisons and Federal correctional facilities throughout California.

Use(s) of ACF Program Grant Funds: The project’s primary objective is to provide at least 360 eligible fathers and mothers with intensive marriage and parenting skills and 290 couples with 3-6 months of family reunification case management. The secondary objective is to reach at least 10,000 fathers through outreach and educational materials, and to educate at least 730 fathers on responsible fatherhood over five years. Major components of the project include (a) outreach and information dissemination; (b) workshops for fathers and their wives, fiancés or girlfriend/partners and (c) family reunification case management and support for eligible couples as the father is released from SQSP. The project will reach out to father’s using a cadre of prison peer educators who will share information about the program as well as distribute marriage, relationship, fathering and co-parenting information to inmates regularly through monthly publication, and informational brochures, etc. The project’s workshop series will be initiated within SQSP’s Success Dorm Program. The program provides participants with a choice of over 20 classes in education and self-development.

Office of Family Assistance
Promoting Responsible Fatherhood

Allowable Activity Areas: Healthy Marriage - Skill-based marriage education (#1); Enhancing relationship skills (#5); Counseling, mentoring, benefits to children (#6); Controlling aggressive behavior (#7); Responsible Parenting - Skills-based parenting (#1); Good parenting practices (#2); Counseling, mentoring and mediation (#3); Domestic Violence and child abuse (#4); Economic Stability - Work services, job search and training, education (#1); Employment training initiatives (#2); Employment materials (#3); and Financial planning and household management (#4).

Organization Description: The first meeting of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Orange County was held at St. Pius in Fullerton in 1954 as part of the Los Angeles Archdiocese. The Conference was aggregated (formally recognized) by the Society's International Headquarters in Paris in 1960. The Council of Orange was formed shortly after Bishop Johnson became the Bishop of the new Orange Diocese in 1976.

Use(s) of ACF Program Grant Funds: The main focus of this project is to help incarcerated fathers and their partners maintain relationships during periods of incarceration and successfully reintegrate into healthy families upon release. The goals of the project are to: 1) provide PREP (Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program) to inmates in the Orange County jail system; 2) provide PREP-based classes to inmate partners and fragile families in the community; 3) provide job search, retention and enhancement skills to fathers; and 4) support families with financial planning seminars. These objectives will be accomplished by conducting 10-12 week long PREP-based classes twice weekly in the James Musik jail facility and the SVDP Center in Santa Ana. Each class will be 10-12 weeks long and service 6-10 fathers per class. In addition, this project will attempt to reduce the rate of domestic violence and child abuse amongst its target population.

Office of Family Assistance
Promoting Responsible Fatherhood Community Access

Allowable Activities: Health Marriage, Responsible Parenting and Economic
Stability

Organization Description: The Children’s Institute, Inc. (CII) was founding in 1906 providing a comprehensive array of resources and services for at-risk children and their families. CII has 25 direct service programs that serve over 10,000 individuals annually in LA County. CII’s innovative programs focus on Treatment, Prevention, Early Care and Education, and Community Services.

Use(s) of ACF Program Grant Funds: The Children’s Institute, Inc., Fatherhood program is an innovative combination of individual, group, and community activities that work together to advance and solidify relationships amongst fathers, their families and communities. The CII will fund approximately 10-15 agencies to develop and implement a Fatherhood program which will focus on the three areas: Healthy Marriage, Responsible Parenting, and Economic Stability. CII professionals will provide training, technical assistance, and clinical supervision. The Children’s Institute will develop a Fatherhood Resource Center to assist agencies with all technical assistance needs.

Office of Family Assistance
Promoting Responsible Fatherhood

Allowable Activity: Healthy Marriage - skill-based marriage education (#1); marriage preparation programs (#2); marital inventories (#3); premarital counseling (#4); relationship skill education (#5); counseling, mentoring, and information about the benefits of marriage (#6); education regarding how to control aggressive behavior (#7); and divorce education and reduction programs (#8).

Organization Description: RRF is a nonprofit community organization whose mission is to build loving and lasting marriages through research, curriculum development, educational programs and resources. It was formed in 2000 and has developed numerous programs in Irvine and Santa Ana since that time. They have presented the Journey to Love Program in Irvine for the past three years and are in the process of opening three program sites in Santa Ana.

Use(s) of ACF Program Grant Funds: The project will implement marriage education programs in the areas of pre-marriage, marriage preparation and first year marriage. The five objectives are to build a stronger coalition and raise awareness of the importance of fatherhood, train trainers-of-trainers to create marriage longevity programs, train facilitators, leaders and mentor couples to multiply the number of people served, develop numerous project sites for programs, to crease attendance and create a community-wide impact, and to evaluate the programs to track and implement “best practices” in marriage education for Orange County. All programs will be implemented in English and Spanish to reach the Latino population in the County. They expect to serve 1000 individuals/couples in the 1st year.

Office of Family Assistance
Promoting Responsible Fatherhood

Allowable Activity: Responsible Parenting - skill-based parenting education (#1); disseminating parenting practices information (#2); counseling, mentoring, and mediation (#3); disseminating information on the causes of domestic violence and child abuse (#4); and encouraging child support activities (#5).

Organization Description: Founded in 1984, TPC provides services to low-income, at-risk families in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Their mission is to connect families to services and supports they need to birth healthy babies and nurture children’s development, using primarily a home-visiting case management model. TPC serves an average of 1500 families annually, out of four East Bay facilities. They focus on families with special challenges such as pregnant and parenting teenagers and African-American and Latino families in low-income neighborhoods.

Use(s) of ACF Program Grant Funds: Activities will include skill-based educational peer support groups for fathers centered on a 45-hour fathering curriculum, case management, therapeutic co-parenting groups for fathers and mothers, recreational activities for parents and kids and follow up support groups. Primary staff are a Project Coordinator and Mental Health Specialist; experts on domestic violence and a Community Advisory Council will provide on-going input to ensure effectiveness of services. Over 5 years, the project will serve at least 296 fathers and 64 mothers.

Office of Family Assistance
Promoting Responsible Fatherhood

Allowable Activities: Healthy Marriage - skill-based marriage education (#1); and relationship skill education (#5). The responsible parenting components include: skill-based parenting education (#1); disseminating parenting practices information (#2); and disseminating information on the causes of domestic violence and child abuse (#4). The economic stability components include: helping fathers improve their economic status by providing job search, job training, subsidized employment, and career advancement education (#1).

Organizational Description: Children’s Institute, Inc. was founded in 1906 by the first female parole officer of Los Angeles. The mission is to develop resources and services for at-risk children and their families. Three hundred staff persons provide services via 25 programs to 10,000 individuals from treatment, early care, to research.

Use(s) of ACF Program Grant Funds: Fathers will more consistently parent their children in healthy and nurturing manners; and will enhance marital relationships and family economic stability. Children will demonstrate improved functioning. Child welfare organizations will better support fathers in becoming more responsible parents. The project will use the Job Club Curriculum and Powerful Families Curriculum to support goals and objectives.

Office of Family Assistance
Promoting Responsible Fatherhood

Allowable Activities: Responsible Parenting - skill-based parenting education (#1); disseminating parenting practices information (#2); and disseminating information on the causes of domestic violence and child abuse (#4). The economic stability components include: helping fathers improve their economic status by providing job placement and subsidized employment (#1); and coordinating with existing employment services (#2).

Organizational Description: Metro United Methodist Urban Ministry is the social service and community development arm of the 48 United Methodist Churches through San Diego and Imperial counties. It was founded in 1966 to help community members toward self sufficiency.

Use(s) of ACF Program Grant Funds: The project is designed to: serve as a replicable responsible fatherhood program model within ethnically diverse low income communities; promote the values of fatherhood and the importance of fathers; equip fathers with the tools they need to develop nurturing, healthy, non-violent relationships with their children; and equip fathers to financially support their children. The fatherhood and parental involvement curricula will be used to support project activities.

Office of Family Assistance
Promoting Responsible Fatherhood

Allowable Activity Area: Economic Stability - Work services, job search and training, education (#1); Employment training initiatives (#2); Employment materials (#3); and Financial planning (#4).

Organization Description: The Bill Wilson Center began in 1973 with the Family and Individual Counseling Center with a vision of meeting the needs of families and individuals experiencing crisis. Family conflict, specifically between youth and parents, represented a significant portion of the agency’s work. BWC also has extensive experience working in counseling and supportive services for parents and families.

Use(s) of ACF Program Grant Funds: The primary goal of the project is to help 100 high-risk, young fathers improve their economic stability through employment, education and financial planning. The project will offer drop-in services, legal consultation, job coaching/case management, employment skills training, job placement services, career development, linkages to higher education, educational advancement opportunities, financial education and other comprehensive services.

Office of Family Assistance
Promoting Responsible Fatherhood

Allowable Activity Area: Responsible Parenting - Skill-based parenting (#1); Good parenting practices (#2); Counseling, mentoring and mediation (#3); and Domestic violence and child abuse (#4).

Organization Description: Read To Me International Foundation is an organization established to promote children’s literacy. Its mission is to spread the love and joy of reading aloud for at least ten minutes everyday.

Use(s) of ACF Program Grant Funds: As of July, 2006, The Hawaii Department of Public Safety had 1,741 male inmates incarcerated outside of the state, of which approximately 65% are estimated to be fathers of school-age children. The “Fathers Bridging the Miles Program” seeks to work with Hawaiian inmates who are incarcerated out-of-state on maintaining bonds with their children. The goals of the program are: 1) provide positive and purposeful means of connecting with their children through recorded books; and 2) provide fathers with the support and skills to become involved parents using their child’s learning and development as a focal point. Program components will include: parenting instruction; group mentoring sessions; information on the importance of reading aloud to children; instruction on selection of age-appropriate quality children’s literature; opportunities for visits with children through video conferencing; and letter writing to children.