The field of fatherhood is a relatively new camp within the broader field of social services and human services. For many community based nonprofits and government agencies, working with fathers is still an entirely new endeavor, rife with the struggles of learning new ways of recruiting and retaining men. These agencies must meet two, often divergent, goals: adequately addressing the diverse needs of men while, at the same time, maintaining the valuable services traditionally offered for women and children. Adding fathers as clients requires staff to examine their own attitudes, beliefs, and stereotypes about men and fathers. Whether he is married to the mother or lives in a separate home, a father is still a part of the family.
While more and more local agencies add fathers to the mix of clients, there is, simultaneously, a national movement to re-think our messages about families. Indeed, we are on the cusp of a paradigm shift which requires the fields of social services and human services to think in terms of “whole families” rather than individual children, men and women.
For example, the Strengthening Families framework demonstrates that programs that work with mothers and fathers can help families to avoid child abuse and maltreatment. The research behind the Strengthening Families work shows that families, as a unit, can be supported to build assets and thrive. It’s a model which recognizes that prevention requires us to work with the whole family.
Similarly, the National Human Services Assembly recently released a report which defines the current economic crisis as an opportunity for reframing services. The NHSA states, “The client is not the child. The client is not the adult. The client is the family.” The report goes on to say that human service programs must re-think their way of doing business by engaging both kids and parents. Working with one member of the family, in isolation, produces fewer positive results than working with whole families.
For professionals working with fathers, we too must re-frame our clients. We must broaden our work to better address the needs of whole families. For example, fatherhood programs must continue to find ways to offer on-site child care and co-parenting classes as ways to sustain healthy family relationships. A recent study demonstrates that couples groups produced better results for families than father-only groups. Additionally, father-only groups were more successful when mothers were engaged at various points during the program.
The steady march has begun. Fatherhood programs have a real opportunity to be at the forefront of the transformation that breaks down silos of services and begins to see whole families as the client. (See MFFN’s logic model for more about systems change.)
As stated by the NHSA, “now we have the chance to come together across traditional divisions within human services and to rethink artificial and misrepresentative conceptions about those who we serve.”