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Tribal Child Care Technical Assistance Center (TriTAC)
Effective Program Strategies

Father Involvement Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewas

Approximately 5,000 people are enrolled members of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewas and nearly 1,100 people make their home on the reservation. Geographic isolation and the seasonal nature of many jobs often leads to high wintertime unemployment, with unemployment rates on the reservation sometimes reaching 70% or higher.

Type of Program:
The Red Cliff Early Childhood Center provides child care, Head Start, Early Head Start, and other services to children living on the reservation and in northern Bayfield County. The Red Cliff Child Care Agency also offers a certificate program to allow families access to the full range of child care options in the community.

Effective Program Strategy:
In 2000, the Red Cliff Early Childhood Center received a three-year Early Head Start Demonstration Grant to develop a project for working with fathers of children in the Center's Head Start, Early Head Start, and child care programs (families receiving home-based services are also included). The Red Cliff project was 1 of 21 demonstration projects funded and was the only Indian project to receive a grant.

The project was implemented in three phases:

• First, a team of 5 individuals, led by Fatherhood Program Director Rob Goslin, attended a comprehensive training on the Touchpoints model, an approach developed by the Brazelton Touchpoints Center to build healthy families through enhanced relationships between parents and providers. Once the team was trained in the Touchpoints approach, they began implementation of the model in the community by providing 16 hours of training to three target groups: Early Childhood Center staff, Community Health Center Staff, and other tribal service providers. Approximately 75 individuals were trained in the first year of the grant.
  
• In Phase II, Mr. Goslin created opportunities to engage fathers in their children's early education programs and used these opportunities to introduce the Touchpoints model to families. In order to get fathers to participate, Mr. Goslin offered father-friendly activities in the Early Childhood Center and recruited fathers to participate in cultural activities and volunteer projects.
  
• Phase III involves working toward full father involvement by designing a wider array of options for fathers to interact with their children and participate in their early care programs.

Mr. Goslin and his team have developed a number of innovative approaches to engaging Red Cliff fathers in early childhood programs and in all aspects of their children's lives. These include:

• Creating an outdoor cultural village for children and families that includes wigwams, powwow grounds, and traditional fireplaces. The facilities are child sized, but are big enough to allow adults to participate in activities with the children.
  
• Recruiting fathers and extended family members to demonstrate and teach drumming to children. Drumming sessions occur once or twice each week and may be held indoors or outdoors, depending on the season. Children as young as 1 year old have participated in the drumming sessions.
  
• Bringing cultural activities, customs, and traditions into classrooms and homes. One recent lesson involved using furs and hides to teach children about local wildlife and traditional approaches to interacting with animals.
  
• Recruiting fathers and other family members to build a large storage shed to provide additional space for the Early Childhood Center. The volunteers worked on the building project every weekend for 3 months.
  
• Starting a weekly workout night at a local recreation facility, where fathers can come to exercise and to learn about early childhood development and the Touchpoints model.
  
• Holding a "Sharing Our Children" event during which fathers held their young children and shared with the group some special aspects of their relationship. Some fathers talked about their child's birth, while others talked about sharing native traditions with their child. After the group discussion, a brief Touchpoints presentation was given.
  
• Assisting fathers with the development of a Family Night social event for all Early Childhood Center families.
  
• Working with fathers on an individual basis around a broad range of fatherhood issues, such as custody, child support, unemployment, substance abuse, and mental health. An intake assessment is conducted with all new fathers to determine what supports they might need.

In the early stages of the project, activities were held twice per month. Currently, 1-2 activities are offered per week, in addition to the individual meetings between the fathers and Mr. Goslin. Father-friendly announcements and personal communications are used to encourage fathers to participate in the activities.

The success of the project is assessed in a number of ways. For example, individuals attending events that include Touchpoints training are given an opportunity to provide written feedback; Head Start has contracted with an outside firm to conduct a focus group for participating fathers; and Early Head Start staff complete surveys on each father to assess their level of participation in the Early Childhood Center and other programs. Mr. Goslin also tracks attendance at each fatherhood function and surveys fathers to determine which activities are of interest to them.

Resources:
Early Head Start Demonstration Grant funds were used to develop this project. The project is also supported through information sharing with the Early Childhood Center's collaborative partners, including Bayfield County Child Support Agency, Red Cliff Indian Child Welfare Department, Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College, School District of Bayfield, Bayfield County Birth to Three Program, Red Cliff Community Health Center, Wisconsin Dept. of Public Instruction, Red Cliff Domestic Violence Program, Memorial Medical Center, Red Cliff Department of Social Services, and Red Cliff Even Start Literacy Program.

Results:
Approximately 100 families have been directly served by the father-oriented services established through this grant. Since the Fatherhood Program is well integrated into other components of the Red Cliff Early Childhood Center, families also receive fatherhood services indirectly via their regular early care programs.

Additionally, those service providers who participated in the Touchpoints training now have a better understanding of the predictable stages of growth and development in children from birth to three years, and have the tools to form alliances with parents to work through the challenging stages of a young child's life and to promote optimal child and family development. Because service providers of all types were trained, all Red Cliff parents can receive consistent guidance and support throughout the tribal health care and social service systems.

The Red Cliff Early Childhood Center has seen an increase of approximately 50 - 75% in the participation of fathers in the early childhood programs since Phase 2 of the Fatherhood Program began. By the end of the third year, the program hopes to achieve 100% participation of fathers in some aspect of their child's early education experience.

The Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewas is the first Tribe to successfully implement the Touchpoints model in their community. As such, members of the Red Cliff team were invited to conduct intensive training and provide technical assistance to five other Tribes interested in implementing the Touchpoints model

1) Find a male staff person or volunteer to help implement any fatherhood initiative.

2) Get training on fatherhood topics such as building healthy marriages, child custody, working with incarcerated parents, domestic violence, unemployment, substance abuse, and mental health, so that you understand the issues that fathers in your community are facing.

3) Learn how to make your early childhood program "father friendly." For example, you might include photos of fathers on posters and announcements, and increase efforts to recruit male staff members.

4) Build collaborations with other local agencies so that you can refer fathers to services that can support their efforts to be actively involved parents.

5) Emphasize the link between responsible fatherhood and payment of child support, particularly from a cultural perspective.

View photos

Contact Information:
Rob Goslin
Director, Fatherhood Program

Address:
Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewas
88385 Pike Road, Hwy 13
Bayfield, WI 54814

Phone: (715) 779-3938 (office) or (715) 779-5030 (Early Childhood Center)
Fax: (715) 779-5046
Email: redcliff_fatherhood@yahoo.com

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This page was last updated December 17, 2003.