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The Importance of Fathers in the Healthy Development of Children
Author(s):
Office on Child Abuse and Neglect, U.S. Children's Bureau
Rosenberg, Jeffrey., Wilcox, W. Bradford. |
Year Published: 2006 |
Fathers and Children Together (FACT)
Working With Incarcerated Fathers
Prevent Child Abuse Kentucky (PCAK) is a State Chapter of Prevent Child Abuse America. Its mission is to prevent the abuse and neglect of Kentucky's children. To achieve this goal, PCAK has established programs that are designed to promote public awareness and to educate parents, children, public officials, and other professionals who work directly with families about issues pertaining to child abuse and neglect. One such program, Fathers and Children Together (FACT), works with incarcerated fathers. The goal of the FACT program is to reduce the potential for child abuse and neglect and to promote father involvement in the lives of their children by creating positive father-child experiences and opportunities for these fathers to learn parenting skills during incarceration. Below is a description of activities at one of the prisons.
Blackburn Correctional Complex (BCC) is a 557-bed, minimum-security State prison for adult male felony offenders. The FACT program began at BCC in 1992, and has experienced a continual growth in the number of participants served by the program and the development of related services that may be accessed by fathers choosing to participate. PCAK has co-sponsored FACT by providing parent education consultants, classroom instructors, social workers for children's visits, and collaboration with the BCC program coordinator to develop further and to expand the FACT program. BCC's continued commitment to operating the first parenting program for incarcerated fathers in Kentucky prisons is also a key factor leading to the success the program has experienced.
Inmate fathers, stepfathers, and grandfathers, on a voluntary basis, are offered a series of 13 parent education classes that meet for 2 hours once a week. Three class cycles of the program are offered during the year. After completing the series, fathers are considered graduates and may continue to participate in the FACT program as long as they remain at BCC. Graduates have the opportunity to attend any additional classes, participate in special visits, serve on the FACT Program Inmate Advisory Council, and participate in special projects.
Classes are conducted in an interactive, nonjudgmental manner, using a variety of teaching methods including experiential learning activities. The lesson plans derive from an original and flexible curriculum based upon validated parent education material supplemented with information specific to incarcerated fathers. Staff members from PCAK and BCC, along with periodic guest speakers, conduct the presentation of the classes.
A new curriculum piece, entitled "Daddy's Thoughts," was developed and piloted during 2002. This new addition to the curriculum was developed to replace the "ice breakers" that had previously been utilized to start the beginning of the weekly sessions. The "Daddy's Thoughts" component consists of 12 questions that are relevant to the topic of the day and are used as a platform for focusing the group on the current topic being discussed, in addition to encouraging open discussion of the issue at hand. Participants receive a copy of the "Daddy's Thoughts" for the next week's topic at the conclusion of each session and are expected to come to the next class prepared to discuss the content of the question being posed to them.
Special 2-hour, child-oriented visits are scheduled approximately every 6 weeks for fathers attending classes and graduates of the program. The visits provide an opportunity for fathers to practice parenting skills learned in FACT classes. They are conducted in the BCC gymnasium on Saturdays after regular visiting hours in order to allow fathers additional visit time to play and talk with their children and to be supervised by social workers rather than correctional officers. Fathers also may choose to participate in the Storybook Project at any time. This project allows fathers the opportunity to make a tape recording while reading a storybook to their child. The book and the tape are then mailed to the child free of charge.
Since 1992, more than 480 classes in different correctional facilities and 90 "special visits" have been offered to participants serving over 1,300 fathers, mothers, and their children. A preliminary evaluation of data collected from 2000-2003 indicates graduates of the FACT program exceed averages of the national population of incarcerated fathers regarding the amount of contact with their children via mail, telephone, and visits. Additionally, program graduates have reported:
- Feeling less isolated as fathers;
- Increased knowledge and use of parenting skills;
- Increased recognition of the importance of their role as fathers;
- An increased understanding as to how life experiences affect their parenting skills.
Through a grant funded by the Children's Bureau, the University of Kentucky's Research Foundation is doing an evaluation of the program's resources, services, and outcomes. Baseline data will be collected at the beginning of the program, and post-test data will be collected at completion of parent educational classes and at six-month intervals. Additionally, a record keeping system will be developed to track the status of fathers who have been released from prison.
For more program information, contact:
Prevent Child Abuse Kentucky
Trey Berlin, Family-based Prevention Specialist
489 East Main Street, 3rd Floor
Lexington, KY 40507
Phone: 859.225.8879 or 800.CHILDREN
Fax: 859.225.8969
Email: tberlin@pcaky.org
Web site: http://www.pcaky.org
For evaluation information, contact:
Mary Secret, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
University of Kentucky, College of Social Work
Phone: 859.257.3978
Email: mcsecr@pop.uky.edu
David Christiansen
University of Kentucky, College of Social Work
Phone: 859.257.3983
Email: dcchri2@uky.edu
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