Engaging young fathers on the Isle of Sheppey A SECC project

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Engaging young fathers on the Isle of Sheppey
A SECC project

• John Fowler, Director of Seashells, Sheerness
  Children and Families Centre
• Dr Jane Reeves, UoG

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What are the ingredients of a good partnership?

• Sharing mutual aims and goals
• Complimenting each others knowledge
• Being able to work effectively and positively
  with each other
• Being able to see the bigger picture
• Some examples of good partnerships??..

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What is special about the Isle of Sheppey?
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How did we meet and why is it important?

• We met through contacts from the Kent Teenage
  Pregnancy Unit who thought John and I had mutual
  goals working with vulnerable young families and
  young fathers in particular
• Teenage pregnancy is a significant problem in
  Swale and on the Isle of Sheppey.

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What do we want to achieve?
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What is Seashells.

• The community facility in Sheerness includes
• Swale Primary Care Trust facility (for midwives,
  health visitors)
• Family Support Centre and Family Welfare
  Association (FWA)
• Sure Start services
• 50 place full day care nursery

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We wanted to prioritise young fathers

• Pregnancy manifests itself with the young woman
  and the focus is usually on her fathers are
  often ignored
• Wanted to build on the existing success and
  networks of daddy cool at Seashells.

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What is daddy cool?

• A group on the Isle of Sheppey set up and run by
  Dads, for Dads and exclusively with Dads in mind.
  There are a range of indoor and outdoor
  activities which change from week to week.  There
  is a breakfast for everyone and it's all free!

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What is in the SECC bid for Seashells?

• Currently less than one in eight parents who use
  the centre are dads, yet every child has a dad!
• We need dads on side to encourage them to get
  involved constructively - from breastfeeding to
  good health and learning
• The knowledge transfer from the University offers
  us the expertise to really get to grips with the
  issues.

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What is in the bid for the University?

• The opportunity to work in partnership with a
  successful community organisation in an area
  targeted by social policy and high in deprivation
  
• To be able to use my discrete area of expertise
  directly to a target population of young fathers
  in the community rather than just the classroom
  book Inter-professional Approaches to Young
  Fathers.
• To be able to use the evaluation to take forward
  knowledge on teenage pregnancy

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How are we moving forward?

• A project worker to engage with, target and work
  with fathers generally and young fathers
  specifically over 3 years now at the stage of
  advertising the post
• Post-holder to undertake the Foundation Degree
  with UoG.
• The worker to recruit and maintain a group of
  volunteers who can extend their role
• The University to provide training mentoring
  for the worker, staff and volunteers at Seashells
  on Teenage pregnancy and fatherhood

• Target areas and contexts where young fathers can
  be identified the new Academy, Healthy Living
  Centre, Sheppey College, facilitate discussions
  and skills with young fathers
• Develop and build on the portfolio of activities
  at Seashells to stimulate dads and young dads to
  get involved
• Evaluate, monitor and develop teaching materials

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We need to engage with dads and this is the
way to do itJohn Fowler, July 2008