Subscribe to“...Many programs throughout the nation use the Dads Matter!™ Project to enhance and celebrate father involvement...”
The National Dads Matter!™ Project, made available by The Down To Earth Dad, LLC, is a tried, tested, and proven father involvement and recruitment resource that is used by numerous statewide, regional, and local programs and schools to beef up father involvement in a tasteful, visible, productive way that involves FAMILIES and community partners.
Head Start Is A Great Example...
Several head Start and Early Head Start programs utilize localized, customized versions of the National Dads Matter!™ Project for father involvement and recruitment.
"I am overjoyed with what I am receiving. My families here, with that first article, they were just blown away. They were just totally floored. I am happy. Ecstatic! It has done wonders. Since the newsletter came out, I did have an increase in my male involvement. I have to attribute this to the Dads Matter Project. I'm getting more and more hits at our Head Start website too. You have made my year because it has been such a struggle to get this (male involvement) program off the ground."
— Ranzer Turner, Director
Lake Community Action Agency Head Start, Florida
This is a turn-key, ready-to-roll interactive, informational resource for your statewide, regional, or local child-and-family serving program, organization, school, tribe, or community. Many Head Start programs renew their annual subscription to the National Dads Matter!™ Project year after year. (Scroll Down To See More...)
|
|
|
|
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
The Down To Earth Dad
newsletter is made available to your families, staff, and community
partners along with a customized, localized monthly publication
customized specifically to YOUR Head Start program, called
.
The
The two publications together --
The Down To Earth Dad and
Dads Need
Access To Other Dads...
Moms matter supremely. Children need their mothers like fish need water. Without moms we'd be sunk! But children need Dads, too, and Dads need access to good information in order to be the best parents they can be. Vital information, programs, services, and resources are often underutilized because fathers often are not informed of the existence of the programs and services, and/or they do not always feel welcome to participate.
In a study of 3500 Early Head Start teaching staff and fathers, 96% of teachers felt they had invited fathers to become involved in a specific event happening at their center, but only 43% of the fathers believed they had been invited. Fathers need extra encouragement and highly specific information in order to engage fully in their child's preschool experience. The Dads Matter!™ Project helps fathers become more directly engaged.
Fathers of Head Start children need access to
resources, including other fathers of Head Start children
from whom they can gather vital information, and with whom they can
share common experiences. A father who is well informed and
has a network of support available to him is able to positively
impact the future of his family. Your fathers will benefit
from having a unique forum of their own; specifically, the forum the
Brings Fathers Together...
Fathers are often needlessly isolated from one another and do not typically share activities, their stories, joys, frustrations, and triumphs in parenting their Head Start child. And yet, they have much in common and much to offer each other. Men who are parents are too often the silent keepers of a wealth of unique knowledge and support that can be shared via this project.
Men who are parents share a common experience; namely, striving to be the best Dads they can be for their children. Fathers of Head Start children share unique experiences that can, and should be shared whenever possible. Public interest in fostering fathers' involvement is increasing because of the recognized benefits of fathers' contributions to their families. However, some fathers feel they are simply unwelcome and inadequate as parents (Batten & Stowell, 1996; Knitzer & Bernard, 1997). Part of the solution lies within our Head Start programs specifically, and with social programs generally, but this is only part of the answer. Parents need to step up to the plate and help create their own innovative support programs to better facilitate their own involvement in their children's Head Start experience. Dads, specifically, need to step forward and participate. The Dads Matter!™ Project is a sturdy platform Dads can step up onto in order to see what's going on and more fully participate.
The Dads Matter!™ Project for Head Start families and community partners helps fathers become more directly involved in building their own network of support and encouragement in a manner that allows for closer communication between fathers and families, and furthermore, among fathers, families, Head Start, and your community partners.
Resource
Awareness Needed...
Parents of Head Start children aren't always aware
of the resources available to them in their community.
That's where the monthly Calendar of Events (specific to
father-friendly events) fits into the
Celebrates Fatherhood...
The Dads Matter!™ Project celebrates
fatherhood and encourages fathers of Head Start children to get
involved and stay involved in their children's lives. This is
accomplished by showcasing individual Dads' stories about parenting
their Head Start child in monthly feature articles based on
exclusive interviews with fathers conducted by
The Down To Earth Dad
editorial team, and the subsequent publishing of feature stories
based on those interviews in your own local version of the
The Project is a tool that helps Dads get actively involved in their children's Head Start experience and in obtaining information about programs, services, and resources in their state and community.
You
Only Need Four Things To Get Started...
1. Families -- Moms and Dads who have Head Start children are the target recipients/audience of the Dads Matter!™ Project newsletter-and-insert combination. A minimum of 100 families and/or community partners are needed to do the Project; however, there is no maximum number of families that can be served. (The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Head Start program, for example, chose to serve 400 families with the Dads Matter!™ Project. Dads were lining up to be interviewed, and all Head Start families in the Tribe directly participated in the Project.)
2. Dads To Interview
Each Month -- You must have fathers of Head Start
children who are willing to be interviewed and featured in the main
article appearing in the customized
3. Community Partners -- Your friends: hospitals, schools, social service agencies, physicians, child-and-family advocacy programs, counselors, funding sources, programs that partner with you on special projects, and others. The idea is to share a few issues of the newsletter-and-insert with those who can share information about programs, services, and resources by way of the Project. For example, if you are promoting a Dads Reading To Children Night on, say, the third Thursday of each month, or a Lunch For Dads At Head Start event every other Tuesday, your community partners can help you promote the event when they read about it in your Dads Matter! insert to The Down To Earth Dad monthly newsletter as part of the Dads Matter!™ Project.
4. Project Coordinator
-- A volunteer dad, mom, or paid staff person is needed
to communicate with The Down To Earth Dad editorial team
monthly to coordinate interviews of the fathers of Head Start
children connected to your program. The coordinator also helps
distribute the newsletter-and-insert combination each month.
(Many programs simply make them available for Moms and Dads to pick
up at the Center; others mail them out to all the families).
The Coordinator does not have to interview anyone or
do any writing whatsoever, but she/he may be asked to contribute a
small amount of Calendar of Events information for the
monthly
Top 10 Reasons to get the Dads Matter!™ Project for Your Program
In addition to the benefits of quick start up, ease of implementation and maintenance, and utility as a sounding board to tell your community what you're doing, here are additional reasons to get the project for your Head Start program:
1. The Project Is Meaningful and Important
By implementing the Dads Matter!™ Project, you are affirming that your Head Start program involves fathers. This will be much appreciated by the fathers connected to the children in your program, and they will show their gratitude by participating. Providing opportunities for your children to have their fathers more involved in their early lives is a great gift indeed; it is a gift from the heart.
The Dads Matter! ProjectT is a tool you can use to reach out to Head Start families with a tangible resource to help them ensure that their child gets significant father involvement/male involvement in their early education and life. By implementing this simple project, you are establishing your program as uniquely dedicated to enhancing children's preschool experience.
Children love their mothers and their fathers, and thoughtful parents realize that in today's world, creating special occasions for Dads to be more involved-at school and at home-is supremely important to their child's cognitive, social, and emotional well being. Fathers long to provide all the good things they can to their children. But sometimes, work and other obligations keep dads from making the kinds of contributions they want to make. You can help men get more involved at school, and at home, via this project-for the sake of the children you care for, and for the sake of your school's growth and prosperity.
2. Harnesses the Energy of Father Involvement
Father Involvement is a hot topic in America right now, as the benefits of that involvement become more widely known in the wake of two decades of intensive research. Your program has, without a doubt, strived to get fathers involved and keep them involved. You can continue to harness the energy of father involvement, and focus it on YOUR program with the expectation of positive results for your program, and for the children you serve.
A famous study by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, 1999), revealed that children do better in school and enjoy school more when their fathers are highly involved in their child's school. Head Start is the first "school-like" experience many children have. The Dads Matter! ProjectT leverages the reality that kids do better when Dads are involved, and gets their Dads involved early.
3. Creates News (And Gets Your School Some Media Coverage)
Father involvement
events are exciting and inviting, especially to the news media.
They're always looking for photo-ops, and they react to the prospect
of a catchy story. Father involvement is still rather novel,
and by leveraging the "Calendar of Events" component of the Dads
Matter! ProjectT, you'll keep your local news media in
the loop about what your program is doing, and you'll invariably get
them to attend one of your events during the year because of the
fact that the Dads Matter! ProjectT gives you a promotional
vehicle to announce your events. This means greater publicity
for your program, which plays into maintaining and enhancing your
positive image. (HINT: Give the monthly
4. The "I Know That Guy!" Factor
The best way to spread good news and get people more involved is to show them someone they know who is involved. The Dads Matter!™ Project does this well. By featuring your Head Start Dads and Grandpas via this project, and by creatively making the elements of the project available to families outside of your current population of enrolled families (a.k.a. a few copies to your community partners), men connected to your program and community will invariably recognize each other-by name, by face, or both-and your program will benefit by this positive association of their relationship with, or recognition of, this other man.
5. Raises the Bar for Parent Participation
A growing body of research shows that when early childhood education programs, including Head Start, state their expectations for father involvement right from the start, during intake/enrollment, dads participate more during the school year. By utilizing the Dads Matter!™ Project -- a plug-and-play father involvement resource that demonstrably involves fathers in their child's school-you are effectively "raising the bar" for father participation and you're implicitly setting a high standard for father involvement at your school. This, in turn, means you'll have fathers who feel involved. You will have no shortage of dads to help anytime you need them to get something done. This project gets dads involved, plain and simple.
6. Promotes Your Events
A short Calendar of
Events component is included each month, and you can use this
space to promote what's going on at your Head Start center.
Invariably, friends of your current parents will find out about your
special events because of the calendar of events section, and some
of these parents will attend your special events. The media
might show up, too. (HINT: Be sure and send a copy of the
7. Promotes Your Program
Successful programs need a constant influx of new families coming through the door and calling on the phone in order to maintain a healthy program. This project effectively "sells" your Head Start program as a valuable place for children to be. Not all families qualify, but doing something exciting like implementing this project, keeps the excitement in the air, locally, for being in your Head Start program.
Dads On The Wall:
You can showcase the articles featuring your dads (the
monthly
8. Generates a Re-Usable Resource
You'll end up with 12
personalized, customized articles all featuring the parents of your
preschool students, and all referring to your school. These
"living articles" can be displayed, almost indefinitely, at your
school for years to come-as flyers or posters on the wall, showing
everyone your Head Start program is truly father-friendly. To
put it another way, the articles generated by the
9. Easy To Implement
This is a turn-key, ready-to-go project, and we take care of the main details on our end. All you do is provide the names of the fathers to interview each month and communicate with us, and the program practically runs itself. Say the word, "Go," and The Down To Earth Dad, LLC team of professional father involvement writers and editors will interview the first dad, and we're up and running!
10. This Is an Exciting Project!
Numerous Head Start programs throughout the country have implemented the Dads Matter! Project, and many of those programs have renewed the Project for a second or third year in a row. By getting this project rolling for your children, families, program, and community, you are making an important investment in your future -- an investment in fathers, and in your own vision that fathers can become, and remain, significantly involved in their children's lives.
Fathers say amazing, positive, unexpected things when you ask them to tell you what it's like being the Dad of a Head Start child. This project asks that question, over and over, 12 times a year to 12 different fathers connected to your program. The insights gained are tremendous, and the rewards of doing this project, for everyone involved, are many. To put it simply, this is an exciting project!
"I would like to thank you for
providing our program with the opportunity to be part of this father
friendly project. Since we began the Dads Matter! Project, not only
has our father participation, but also all male involvement
participation increased 15%. Fifteen percent may not be very
much to some programs, but for Isleta Head Start, which had no male
involvement in the past, we see this as the beginning to a great
success in reaching our goal to get fathers, uncles and grandfathers
involved with their children.... Since implementing the Dads Matter
Project we have begun having fathers volunteer their time to read
stories to their child's classmates, join in hands-on activities in
the classroom, assemble furniture for our center, and our fathers
have been asking about starting another fatherhood program to
discuss parenting from a father's perspective. The roster for
participants is almost to full capacity!
...I believe the distribution of The Down To Earth Dad and Isleta
Dads Matter! has a great deal to do with the increase because the
articles focus on the father outlook.... It gives great pride to our
community to see how involved and beneficial father and child time
is. So once again, thank you Patrick for including Isleta Head Start
& Child Care families in the Dads Matter Project! We hope to
continue the Dads Matter project for years to come."
Jacqueline Yalch, Social Service and Behavioral Health Case Manager, Pueblo of Isleta Head Start.
"In five years of doing the holiday party, this is the
first time I've seen dads get up, go across the room, and introduce
themselves. I have nothing else to attribute that to other
than that they're reading about each other (in the
...This project encourages interpersonal support and gets people together."
Tami Walters, Executive Director, Mighty Oaks Child Therapy Center, Albany, Oregon
"It's (Dads Matter! Project) very cost-effective, it's good service, and you're using a very efficient way of bringing people in and kind of empowering them to be part of the whole process. It recognizes that the fathers themselves have something to say and invites them to help. It's very unique. This project highlights the needs of fathers and helps create a support system for them."
Cynthia Thompson, Executive Director, Children's Trust Fund of Oregon
1. Your Parents and Staff Have Access
Clickable
"thumbnail" images of your
Click
HERE to see a
2. Make As Many Copies as You Need
In addition to providing your parents
with viewable/printable access to The
Down To Earth Dad monthly newsletter and the
For Example: If your
school has an enrollment of 100 students in a given month, you can
print and circulate/distribute as many issues of the
(Every Step of the Way)...
Patrick Mitchell, founding editor and publisher of The Down To Earth Dad monthly newsletter, is an experienced publisher, editor, and male involvement expert who has keynoted numerous national and state conferences including special events for the Child Care Bureau in Washington, D.C., and the Head Start Bureau. Mr. Mitchell has helped numerous Head Start program teachers, staff, and parents get good men involved in children's lives over the course of the past five years.
Let his editorial team of professionals help you
every step of the way in this unique project. Your monthly
There are several ways
to participate in the
Cost varies depending on how the project is implemented, and the number of project features utilized. Cost quotes available upon request.
To get started, pick the cost option (above) that best suits your needs and budget, and contact Patrick Mitchell by phone at 1-877-282-DADS, or by email at patrick@downtoearthdad.org.
1-877-282-3237